Introduction

Overview

• State Machine
• Events
• Terrain
• Game Mechanics

Concepts

• Achievements
• Modifiers
• Objectives
• Randomness

API

• Overview
• Reference
• Events

Scripts

• Achievement
• Animation
• Aura
• Behavior
• Glue
• Spell
• Particle Effect

Examples

• Achievement

Introduction

An encounter is a short game where one or more players compete against each other or a scripted enemy. Encounters are short, even though there is no hard limit, they should be no longer than 15 minutes.

There is no fixed goal in an encounter. It's up to you to specify when and which players have won or lost. You can either leave it completely up to the players to figure that out, or use Objectives to give players hints what they should do. Here are some ideas:

• Kill the boss.
• Collect as many resources as you can (with a fixed time limit).
• Get through a maze as fast as possible.

Players are grouped into teams. The teams can work together or compete against each other. When the game ends, the team with the highest score wins.

Players can also collect Achievements. They are awarded for outstanding performance and should not be too easy to earn. The harder they are to earn, the more they are worth.

Roles

Before entering the game, players must chose a role. The role acts as a template and defines which attributes and spells their WorldObject will have.

This preparation is done in the Wardrobe. Players can inspect the roles, chat, strategize and otherwise prepare for the game. When all players are ready, they enter the game.

WorldObjects

Each Player controls a WorldObject. He can move it around and cast spells that are available to it. Only one player can control an object at any given time, but it's possible to change the object that a player controls (as long as the new object is not already being controlled by somebody).

Terrains

Each WorldObject is located in a Terrain, a continuous geometry in which the object can move. It's made of individual tiles placed on a grid. An encounter can use multiple terrains and teleport objects (players) between them.

Spells

Each WorldObject has access to a number of spells which it can cast. The spell script defines what happens when the object starts to cast, when it finishes, when it's interrupted etc.

Casting a spell may fail if certain preconditions are not satistfied. Spells also may have a cast time, that is the time required to perform the spell. During that time the caster may be interrupted.

Auras

Auras are attached to WorldObjects and modify or influence how the object responds to changes in the game. A typical use-case for an aura would be immunity against a certain kind of damage, or periodicallly healing the object.

Cooldowns

Cooldowns limit the number of spells a player can cast. This is to prevent the server from overloading and to force players to carefully think which before using a spell (instead of blindly bashing the keyboard).

There are three types of cooldowns: Global, Spell, Named. Each WorldObject has one global cooldown timer, one timer for each spell cooldown and one for each named cooldown. Spells can decide which cooldown timers they want to honor. While any of those cooldowns is active, the spell may not be used.