My Proposed Project: WoWGames

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Exawatt
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My Proposed Project: WoWGames

Post by Exawatt »

So most of you (which is currently about 5 people) know I'm into programming and such. Well, I've always wanted to create a WoW AddOn all by myself. I just never had a good reason to. Everything I would have done had already been done. While fishing for hours on end just now I think I've figured one out:

Small UI-based games!

Combining programming and games--inside a game! This way when you're bored in the game, you don't have to alt+tab out to do something else. Waiting for Auctioneer to scan? Battleground queue? Fishing? /Following another player for a ten minute run? Then WoWGames is for you!

So this thread is where I'm going to host the discussion. You can submit ideas on new modules/games, help me out with testing, call me funny names, etc.

Here's what I am currently hoping for (This is more of a thinkspace):
  • [In Progress]One main addon ("WoWGames") that is the umbrella launcher, options, and score manager for game modules. Modulated so I don't have to update the whole thing to fix a bug in one game, or to add a game.
  • The manager should have it's own options, as well as each game. They should be kept separate.
  • Each game opens it's own little window. This window could be shrinkable like ReCount is... A sort-of "minimize." And hidden when in combat, so there's no excuses for wiping the raid.
  • Should there be save features? Maybe just for each game... Maybe not at all. The games should be small and quick, and you shouldn't need to save 'em...
  • [Done] Minesweeper ("WoWSweeper"). Uses game interface squares instead of bland boxes. I could find numbers or something that looked similar to the WoW buttons, and a mine/flag spell picture. I don't expect the code for this to be hard, but you never know until you do it.
  • Solitaire ("WoWitaire"--sounds dumb). This I could see being really cool if I import pictures of a set of WoW cards. The code would be of low to average difficulty.
  • Gridlock-like game. Hopefully with some sort of WoW theme to it.
  • Jigsaw Puzzles. Maybe a couple different pictures of WoW locations or something, as well as a couple different difficulties (pieces get smaller and more numerous).
  • Tetris. There was a tetris addon a while back (here), but it's way outdated and no longer works. I like the idea, but want to skip the crazy piece shapes and game sizes. The blocks being made of icons is a good way to go, though.
  • The Tetris addon opens the way to a bunch of games using that same type of gameplay. Dr. Mario anyone?
  • There was a game that was kinda' like the previous two but backwards: You'd start with a full grid of different colored squares, and when you clicked, you would remove that square and all squares of the same color touching it (and touching those...). You'd get more points for removing larger numbers of blocks at once (multipliers for combos?). I just can't remember what it was called... And I'm sure there's a bunch of different ones.
  • Word Search with WoW-related search terms. I'm not sure how someone would actually find the items... Maybe just check them off as they find them, without actually interacting with the board. "Score" could be a timer that would wait until you checked all the words off and then record your best times. Each board would be randomly generated. I'm not sure how to fit in words, but I'm sure I can figure it out eventually.
  • Crossword with WoW-related clues and such. Maybe even a "travel" puzzle, where the player actually has to go to a given location to figure out the hint (e.g. Color of the rug in Thrall's chambers; Number of trees on the island at (X,Y) in Dustwallow Marsh).
  • Tic-Tac-Toe. Three difficulties: easy (fully random AI placement), medium (half random AI placement), and hard (you can't win). Scores would list wins/ties/losses for easy/medium, and ties/losses for hard.
  • Chess. Using Pictures of famous WoW Characters as pieces! Played over the in-game addon channels so you can play your friends anywhere over the server (same faction).
  • [In Progress]Dots. Play vs a computer (strong AI might take a while to code, but it's possible) or vs another player over addon channels.
  • Anything else?...
Previewing my post, I see I've put up a ton of stuff to do. Maybe it'd be best to share the workload, and not do this by myself... :-/ If you're interested, just let me know.

Anyway those are my late-night rambling ideas. I'm really tired now so I'm not going to be quite starting on it now. I'd also like some feedback first.
Last edited by Exawatt on Wed Mar 25, 2009 2:04 pm, edited 4 times in total.
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casieloray
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Re: My Proposed Project: WoWGames

Post by casieloray »

Don't be such a goober. ;P

Is that a funny enough name?
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GamingSanctum
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Re: My Proposed Project: WoWGames

Post by GamingSanctum »

Actually this is an excellent idea.

I know there used to be a tetris addon by itself. And people LOVED IT.

Throwing together a bunch of low-resource minigames into one addon would probably be incredibly popular.
(lol at raid leaders yelling because the healer was playing solitaire and forgot to heal)

I've basically done zero work with LUA and my plate is kinda full at the moment. But if I find some spare time I'll see what I can do to help.
Webspace/etc wont be an issue. PM me and i can set you up some free webspace.
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Exawatt
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Re: My Proposed Project: WoWGames

Post by Exawatt »

VaudeVillian wrote:(lol at raid leaders yelling because the healer was playing solitaire and forgot to heal)
I was considering this as well... I'm thinking of maybe hiding it during combat. That way, if you're playing solitaire waiting for a mob respawn, and he does respawn, you'll know right away and won't get blindsided.

As for the web space... I won't need it just yet. Maybe once I get going? But even then, the UI websites all give you some free workspace. I might just use that. We'll see what happens.

I'm going to start working on the Minesweeper game, just to get into AddOn development.
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Exawatt
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Re: My Proposed Project: WoWGames

Post by Exawatt »

Bumping this with an update:

Initial coding is completed for WoWSweeper. The game is functional. And by functional, I mean it runs the game. There's no timer yet, and I haven't made the window look nice, but the game essentially works.

Controls: Use "/ws" or "/wowsweeper" to open the window. It's the same as Minesweeper, except the Right+Left Click "reveal all adjacent" function is now on the Middle Click (there's no easy R+L click in WoW).

What I want from you:
  • Turn off all addons except WoWSweeper and Swatter.
  • Mess around with it. Try to get it to crash. Post the Swatter outputs here (preferably in CODE tags) along with what you did that caused a crash
  • Try all the options.
Attachments
WoWSweeper.zip
WoWSweeper v0.1 and Swatter
(30.17 KiB) Downloaded 150 times
Last edited by Exawatt on Thu Mar 05, 2009 8:42 am, edited 3 times in total.
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GamingSanctum
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Re: My Proposed Project: WoWGames

Post by GamingSanctum »

:shock:
This will be fun to toy with! I'm going out drinking and then I'll come home and fuck with it!

ALWAYS easy to fuck things up when you're drunk!
HOORAY
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GamingSanctum
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Re: My Proposed Project: WoWGames

Post by GamingSanctum »

Spent about 30 minutes playing with it.

The only thing I noticed was that the sounds aren't playing, and I'm just assuming they aren't in yet?
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Exawatt
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Re: My Proposed Project: WoWGames

Post by Exawatt »

VaudeVillian wrote:The only thing I noticed was that the sounds aren't playing, and I'm just assuming they aren't in yet?
Correct. I haven't decided if I'm going to search WoW's sounds for ones I like or find/make my own noises. If it becomes too much, I might just skip sounds completely.

The timer (and scores) is the next priority.

Then I'm going to work on a nice display. I'm planning on using WoW icons instead of tiny plain buttons, but I may have to make my own numbers...
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GamingSanctum
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Re: My Proposed Project: WoWGames

Post by GamingSanctum »

So will it sync scores via a channel in-game?
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Exawatt
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Re: My Proposed Project: WoWGames

Post by Exawatt »

VaudeVillian wrote:So will it sync scores via a channel in-game?
Nope. Too extremely easy to cheat. No way around that.

Some other games, hopefully.

I was thinking a chess game could be played over those channels, but that's a long way off.
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