HappyFunTimes

DEPECATED

I'm deprecating happyfuntimes. I'll keep the rendevous server running for a while
longer but I think it's unfortunately time to mostly depreciate this project

i'll consider accepting PRs still if you want to fix something but otherwise just
fork it if you want to keep using it

Issues

There are a few major issues on why

1. device orientation is no longer usable

   Both Safari and Chrome have made getting device orientation require HTTPS
   which is something HFT can't provide at the moment. It would require
   $$$$$$$. If a end-user friendly solution comes up maybe I'll revisit

2. Browsers break stuff

   Every year or so a browser changes something or breaks something. Over the course
   of HTF browser broke fullscreen support, audio support, touch support, orientation support,
   and other things. It's no fun to keep up on that

3. OSes break stuff

   For whatever reason networking that work before stops working. HFT has to do
   some things to find out all the ways your phone might connect to the game
   and that stuff seems to break every 2 years or so

4. Offline Support breaks

   Using HFT without internet breaks every few year and will likely eventually
   be unfixable. Both iOS and Android ping Apple and Google respectively when you
   connect to WiFi to check if you're acutally on the internet. HFT tries to send
   them fake data so they believe they are, otherwise they'll stop using the WiFi
   and switch to mobile.

   How they do this changes every few years so HFT has to figure out how to change its
   faking. It is within Apple and Google's power to make this faking impossible and
   I supsect they might at sometime which is scary because if they do then there is
   no solution (well, short of acutally providing internet access)

5. More browser features require HTTPS

   This is really #1 and #2 repeated but more and more browser features require HTTPS
   and as it says above there is no way for hft to provide HTTPS at the moment.

Good news

If you don't need device orientation and you have no need for offline mode/installation mode
then HFT still works. Write your own controllers to keep up to date with the latest changes
in the browsers.

Bad news

I don't really have time to keep it running.

Want to play?

• Try a few examples

Make games with Unity?

• Getting Started with Unity

Make games with HTML5?

• Making games

Docs

• Docs

Other

• Home Page
• Changelist
• License

Support

• Blog
• Facebook Group

HappyFunTimes is a system for playing party games that are meant to be
played with a bunch of people in the same room and 1 ideally large display.

People participate in the game using their smartphone by going to a webpage
provided by the game. The webpage lets them use their phone as a controller.
This lets you make games that support more than the typical 4 players.

I suppose theoretically there's no limit to the number of players.

It also lets you make games with unique controllers.

There's a Unity3D library if you'd like to make the game in Unity3D.

• The smartphones end up just being smart controllers.

  As there is just one machine running the real game this means
  they are relatively easy to create. No crazy networking, state syncing,
  or dead reckoning required.

• JavaScript libraries for the browser and Unity3D libraries are provided

  This makes it easy to bang out a game. Use any JavaScript framework or Unity3D.

• For controllers the sky is the limit.

  • Have a one button game. The user touches their screen.

  • Make virtual DPads

  • Make virutal paddle controllers (think Pong)

  • Have users choose answers to question like Jeopardy

  • Access the camera, send selfies to the game.

  • Emit sound effects from the phone

  • Use the device orientation API and rotate something in game to match

  • Make a rhythm band where each device becomes an instrument.

  • Make a rhythm game like Parappa but each person is a different color
    so that they each have to play their part at the right time

  • Let the user draw something on their phone. Insert that drawing into the game.

  • Show diagrams. Let the user plan out football plays.

  • Controllers can change dynamically.

    Have 2 dpads for the dual stick part of your game. Have a single
    button for the speed contest. Change to a 3 letter box to let a player
    enter their high score initials.

• The API is simple to use (for some defintion of simple :D).

  Games create a GameServer object

  var server = new GameServer();

  From that point on anytime a player connects the GameServer will emit an event
  playerconnect

  server.addEventListener('playerconnect', createNewPlayer);

  It's up to you what to do when a new player connects. For example if you had a Player
  object you might do something like this

  var players = [];

  Player = function(netPlayer) {
  this.netPlayer = netPlayer; // remember this Player's NetPlayer
  };

  // make a new Player anytime the 'playerconnect' event is emitted
  function createNewPlayer(netPlayer) {
  players.push(new Player(netPlayer));
  }

  If the player disconnects or quits the NetPlayer will emit a disconnect event.
  If we want to handle that we might do something like

  Player = function(netPlayer) {
    this.netPlayer = netPlayer;  // remember this Player's NetPlayer
  
    netPlayer.addEventListener('disconnect', Player.prototype.remove.bind(this));
  };
  
  Player.prototype.remove = function() {
    players.splice(players.indexOf(this), 1);  // remove ourselves from our array of players.
  };
  

  We can send events to the player's phone by calling netPlayer.sendCmd For example

  Player.prototype.score = function(points) {
    this.netPlayer.sendCmd('score', {points: points});
  };
  

  That will cause an event score to be emitted on the player's phone. The player's phone
  has a correspondiing sendCmd function. When called an event will be emitted on that
  player's NetPlayer object. Add listeners for any events you make up

  Player = function(netPlayer) {
    this.netPlayer = netPlayer;  // remember this Player's NetPlayer
  
    netPlayer.addEventListener('disconnect', Player.prototype.remove.bind(this));
    netPlayer.addEventListener('moveleft', Player.prototype.moveleft.bind(this));
    netPlayer.addEventListener('moveright', Player.prototype.moveright.bind(this));
    netPlayer.addEventListener('jump', Player.prototype.jump.bind(this));
  };
  

  Whatever data you pass to sendCmd will arrive with the event.

  ...
  this.netPlayer.sendCmd('die', {
    reason: "So and so killed you",
    pointsToLose: 100,
  });
  

  On the phone we create a GameClient

  var client = new GameClient();
  

  Just like NetPlayer above we can listen for events.

  client.addEventListener('die', handleDie);
  
  function handleDie(data) {
    console.log("you lost", data.pointsToLose, "points. Reason:", data.reason);
  }
  

  Similarly you can send events to the game

  window.addEventListener('pointerdown', function(e) {
     client.sendCmd('jump', { power: e.mouseY });
  });
  

  It's up to you to decide which events to send and receive for your particular
  game's needs.

• There is also a synchronized clock across machines.

  Use it as follows.

  var online = true;
  var clock = SyncedClock.createClock(online);
  
  ...
  
  var timeInSeconds = clock.getTime();
  

  If online is false when the clock is created it will create a clock
  that returns the local time.

Limitations

The number of players that can connect to a game is limited by your networking
equipment. With enough access points there's no limit to the number of player
that could connect that I know of but of course 1000s of players would require
lots of access points and lots of bandwidth and a game design that lets 1000s of people
actually participate.

Another limit in the default mode is players must be on the same network behind
a NAT. This is standard for most if not all home routers. It's probably less standard in
office setups. In this mode you start HappyFunTimes, tell your users to connect to
your WiFi and then have them go to happyfuntimes.net.

HappyFunTimes has the option to run it's own DNS which is another option but
requires configuring your router. This option is probably more suited to
events, installations, and things like that. In this mode, players connect
to the WiFi specificaly setup to run HappyFunTimes. iOS devices will automatically
find HappyFunTimes once connected to the WiFi, no other interaction required by the user.
Android devices require the user to first connect to the WiFi and then go to any random
url like hft.com or h.com.

Notes

• How secure is this?

  Not at all. This is not a library for the internet. It's a library for
  running a game at a party, meeting, bar, etc...

  That said if there's anything easy and performant you'd like to suggest
  submit a pull request.

• What about cheating?

  Again, this is meant for games where everyone is in the same room watching
  the same display. If someone is off in the corner trying to hack the game
  through the net maybe you shouldn't have invited them to your party.

  That said if there's anything easy and performant you'd like to suggest
  submit a pull request.

• Does it work on Windows, OSX, and Linux?

  The controllers of course run in any modern browser. Games run in
  whatever environment you've created them for. Most of the samples here
  are HTML and so should run in any modern browser on any platform.

  As for happyFunTimes I've run it on OSX, Linux and Windows with
  no problems.

• Why not WebRTC?

  WebRTC would possibly allow the phones to talk directly the game rather than through
  the happyfuntimes. happyfuntimes would need to setup a rendevous between the 2 machines
  but after that the conncetion should be peer to peer.... Or so I'm lead to believe.
  WebRTC still doesn't currently exist in iOS Safari as of iOS8. It does exist in Chrome.

  Feel free to submit a pull request ;-)

To Do

There's lots of ideas.