HappyFunTimes

DEPRECATED

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

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

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

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

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)

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

Support

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 i

HappyFunTimes

Install / Use

README

HappyFunTimes

DEPRECATED

Issues

Good news

Bad news

Want to play?

Make games with Unity?

Make games with HTML5?

Docs

Other

Support

Limitations