Board Game Arena - User contributions [en]

Tools and tips of BGA Studio

2025-11-26T14:09:56Z

Mavit: BGA SFTP server moved to port 2022.

{{Studio_Framework_Navigation}}

== Server Tools and Tips ==
=== Starting a game in one click ===

To start a game:
* Go to Play now and configure game type: Simple game -> Turn-based -> Manual
* Select your game and click on "Create".
* If you want to play a game with 3 players, specify that you want a maximum of 3 players at this table.
* Click on "Express Start".

=== Stopping a game in one click ===

* Click on the "menú" icon on the top right of the screen.
* Click on "Express Stop" ("Quit this game" if playing a solo game).

=== Switching between users ===

When running a game on Studio, you can use the little red arrow near each player's name to open a new tab with this player's perspective.
You can also modify the URL to view the table as any user you want (changing &testuser=myid in the URL), allowing to easily test as a spectator.

=== Access to game database and Logs ===

At the bottom of the game area, there is section without a title containing 3 useful links:

Go to game database • BGA request&SQL logs • BGA unexpected exceptions logs

* "Go to game database" link is an immediate access to the PhpMyAdmin tool to view/edit the tables of the current game
* BGA request&SQL logs - link to your studio PHP log - all tables, all severities. Anything you print using debugging and tracing functions from PHP and some framework logs
* BGA unexpected exceptions logs - same log as above but only severity warning and higher

See [[Practical debugging]] for more info about it.

=== Save & restore state ===

Using links of this section, you can save the complete current (database) state of your game, then restore it later.

This is particularly useful when you want to develop a part of the game that is difficult to reproduce: you just have to save the situation just before, and then restore it until this part works fine.

We provide you 3 "slots": 1, 2 and 3. This way, you can save 3 different game situations.

Limits:
* the "restore" function does not work anymore when the game is over.
* a saved situation from a given table cannot be restored in another table.
* when you "restore" a situation, the current browser page is refreshed to reflect the updated game situation, but you have to refresh you other tabs/pages manually.

=== Input/Output debugging section ===

This section shows you:
* The AJAX calls made by your game interface to the game server. AJAX calls (outputs) begins with ">"
* The notifications received by your game interface. Notifications (inputs) begins with "<".

Note: if you click on some notification title, you can resend it immediately to the user interface.

=== Run PHP functions from the chat ===
Obsolete, please use [[Practical debugging#Writing custom debug functions]] instead.

On BGA Studio, you can directly run a PHP method from the table chat. The production environment does not allow PHP methods to be called from the table chat.

For example, if on your PHP you have this method:

function giveMoneyToPlayer($player_id, $amount) { ... }

You can call this method directly from the chat like this:

giveMoneyToPlayer(2564,2)

Note: this is not a real php statement, you cannot use self::, you cannot use ";" at the end and you cannot use quotes,
if you need to pass a string skip the quotes, like this

giveToActivePlayer(money,2)

What if you want something more complex like passing an array? Or calling other function? Just create another function in php for that and use it. I suggest to use prefix debug for all such functions.
function debug_q($x) {
$player_id = $this->getActivePlayerId();
$this-> giveMoneyToPlayer($player_id, $x);
}

=== Zombify a player ===

Call this from chat (studio only) to zombify current player (who is "thinking")
timeout()

Never call from game code.

=== Stopping Hanging Game ===

If game is hanging and you cannot enter it to stop you can type this URL (replace 12345 with your table number),
which should bring you to a place where you can stop it without entering:

<nowiki>https://studio.boardgamearena.com/#!table?table=12345</nowiki>

== Desktop and Web Tools ==
=== Code Editors and IDEs ===

==== Visual Studio Code ====
Microsoft Visual Studio Code is light weight IDE/Editor. All desktops.
https://code.visualstudio.com

See [[Setting up BGA Development environment using VSCode]]

==== Eclipse For PHP Developers ====

Eclipse PHP package can be starting point for development you need. You may also want to
install Tern JS plugins to understand dojo style JS. All desktops.
https://projects.eclipse.org/projects/tools.pdt

==== Gedit (Ubuntu) ====
'''Edit TPL'''
To edit TPL with HTML code highlightings in Gedit under Ubuntu:

find gtksourceview directory in /usr/share, depending on your version (2.0, 3.0,...).
<br>
Here it's 3.0, then type in a terminal window:
<pre>
sudo gedit /usr/share/gtksourceview-3.0/language-specs/html.lang
</pre>

then find 'globs' section, and change:

<pre>
<property name="globs">*.html;*.htm;*.tpl</property>
</pre>

=== File Sync ===

NOTE: If you use VS Code you don't need to use methods below, use one of the sync methods provided by VS Code extensios. See [[Setting up BGA Development environment using VSCode]]

IMPORTANT NOTE: The ssh port is 2022 - All methods below need to be updated to include port number
IMPORTANT NOTE 2: If you uploaded ssh key - PASSWORD method is automatically disabled, you can no longer use password

==== File Sync on Windows ====

Install [http://winscp.net/ WinSCP]. Map a remote directory to a local one and enable continuous sync (one way). You need SFTP password you get when you registered dev account (or ssh key).

==== File Sync on Linux ====

===== Option 1 - Nautilus (file manager) =====
You can just use Nautilus "connect to a server" function with URL sftp://1.studio.boardgamearena.com:2022
Then you'll get a mounted local folder mapping your studio folder and you can use any editor you like without further need for sync. Downside - if connection goes down you cannot work on source code, no local copy.

===== Option 2 - sshfs and rsync =====
This setup will sync in the background (continuous sync) when file is saved, after you set it up and start just save your files and they be on server before you can hit refresh. You need to install "sshfs" first.
This is linux script:

<pre>
#!/bin/bash
BASEDIR=`dirname $0`
REMOTE=$BASEDIR/remote

#mount remote
fusermount -u $REMOTE #this unmounts dir
#this asssumes your default ssh key is uploaded to studio
sshfs -p 2022 myusernamehere@1.studio.boardgamearena.com: $REMOTE

#this starts auto-sync from local to remote mount
killall lsyncd
LOCAL=$BASEDIR/workspace

#for every game you can do something like this
GAME=mygamenamehere
lsyncd -delay 1 -rsync $LOCAL/$GAME/ $REMOTE/$GAME
</pre>

This can be able run on startup, so you don't have to do anything manually. However sshfs is not very stable you
have to kill and restart it sometimes. And remote goes away sometimes due to connection issues with studio.
In this case its handy to have a local copy, which is what lsyncd for.

You can also sync on demand (from a build script or editor command) using
rsync -vlrt $LOCAL/$GAME/ $REMOTE/$GAME

Note: is insecure way of running sshfs (password will go away, set up using ssh key S.V.P.)
echo LongDevPassword | sshfs -p 2022 -o password_stdin ...

===== Option 3 - lftp =====

[https://lftp.yar.ru/ lftp] is a fast command-line file transfer program. It supports parallel threads, transferring multiple files at a time.

* Linux: Install using your package manager, for example: '''sudo apt-get install lftp'''
* Mac: Install [https://brew.sh/ Homebrew], then install lftp using '''brew install lftp'''

To upload your project to BGA studio, use the "mirror" command like this:

'''lftp sftp://<span style="color:blue">myuser</span>:<span style="color:red">mypassword</span>@1.studio.boardgamearena.com:2022/ -e "mirror --reverse --parallel=10 --delete <span style="color:orange">/local/path/to/myproject</span>/ <span style="color:green">myproject</span>/; exit"

Be sure to include the trailing '''/''' after both directory names.

By default, if a file already exists on BGA Studio with the same time + size it assumed to be the same and won't be transferred. This makes the transfer process much quicker after the first time. If you're working with multiple developers on the same project and you find that it is transfers all files every time, you may want to add the option '''--ignore-time''' (if a file already exist on BGA Studio with the same size it is assumed to be the same and won't be transferred). Read [https://lftp.yar.ru/lftp-man.html the manual] for more details.

This is one time sync (unless I am missing something this does not do continious sync?)

=== Debuggers ===

Browser is the best tool for JS/HTML5 debugging, see [[Practical debugging]] for details.

=== Version Control ===
Studio provides svn for you code on server, there are some limited abilities there to see history and restore. I recommend to also keep your code in another repository, which allows keeping more fine-grained history and can simplify collaboration.

A quick option is to use a local repo, which you can sync to cloud or backup.

Other option is to host source code on github. If you do, the convention is to use github.com/<yourname>/bga-<yourgame>. It is recommended to add the [https://github.com/topics/boardgamearena boardgamearena] tag and add your repo to the list on the [[BGA_Code_Sharing]] page.

If you publish the source somewhere externally, make sure you '''don't post high-res publisher graphics''', only web resources, and post a separate license for graphics files. Also, '''don't include a file with your sftp password''' (github is automatically crawled for passwords by hackers; a hacking attempt occurred on BGA studio for this reason in June 2020).

You can also configure github to automatically deploy to BGA whenever you push to a branch. See [https://forum.boardgamearena.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=13370&start=10#p59537 this forum post] for instructions.

=== PHP CLI ===
Its handy to have php cli (command line) tools install to run php locally, so you can test some stuff without deployment cycle, or create some scripts that generate code or markup.

=== Image Manipulation ===
==== ImageMagick ====
Handy set of image manipulation '''command line''' tools, useful to for example to stitch together bunch of images and re-size, to use as sprite (in Stock component for example). I.e. you got a graphics file from publisher where every tile is 600x600 PNG file in separate file. You want .jpg instead of .png to make it not like 20Mb, and combine all images in one column and re-size to 128x128:

(Linux example)
/usr/bin/montage `ls Tiles*.png` -tile 1 -geometry 128x128+0+0 out/tiles128.jpg

The order of the images will match the 'ls' order. If needed change the filenames if you need a specific order.

https://www.imagemagick.org/script/download.php

==== Gimp ====

GUI tool, very complex but will do ALL what you possibly need to do with game graphics

https://www.gimp.org/

==== Shrinking ====

Shrink images without loss of quality https://tinypng.com/ or http://www.iloveimg.com/

==== PDF Scrapper ====
extract images from PDF file (i.e. game rulebook) :

https://www.ilovepdf.com/

http://www.extractpdf.com/

On linux tool that does it in command line "pdfimages"

==== Rename/Copy project ====

You can now override your project with any other project using Studio Control Panel.

Alternatively there is a script available in sharedcode project to do the renaming which can be called in command line if you have php command line installed.
You need to have php clt (command line interface) installed, then you can download script and run it.

https://github.com/elaskavaia/bga-sharedcode/blob/master/misc/bgaprojectrename.php

Usage:
php bgaprojectrename.php <originalProjectPath> <copyOfProjectRenamedPath>

Example on how to call it in command line if you project name is "heartsmyproject"

php7.0 git/bga-sharedcode/tools/bgaprojectrename.php remote/hearts/ remote/heartsmyproject/

==== BGA Workbench ====

PHP library providing tools to help manage BGA Studio projects including deployment and test utilities. https://github.com/danielholmes/bga-workbench

=== Testing and validation tools ===

* Run static analysis on your project to detect common problem and translation issues - project check - available from control panel - manage games - <your project> - Check project (blue button left middle)
* Check if web feature is supported https://caniuse.com/
* PHP: https://phpcodechecker.com/
* JS: http://esprima.org/demo/validate.html
* CSS: http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/

=== State machine diagram generation tool ===

You can easily generate a state machine diagram from your states.inc.php using the dot language (https://graphviz.org/) via a PHP script.

To do so:
* download the php script from the bga-sharedcode git repo located here https://github.com/elaskavaia/bga-sharedcode/blob/master/misc/generate_state_diagram.php and place it into your project root (on the same level as states.inc.php)
* run the script locally: "php.exe generate_state_diagram.php > graph.dot"
* open the generated dot file for visualization in visual studio code using the "Graphviz Interactive Preview" extension
* alternatively install graphiz (https://graphviz.org/download/) and generate an image file by running the following command "dot -Tpng -o graph.png graph.dot"

Here is an example of running the generation script on the hearts game from the tutorial:

[[File:State_machine_diagram_dot.png]]

'''Legend:'''
* states of type GAME appear in yellow
* states of type ACTIVE_PLAYER appear in blue
* states of type MULTIPLE_ACTIVE_PLAYER appear in green
Once you have this state machine, you can use it to generate boilerplate code using the [https://github.com/xmakina/bga-statemachinegenerator BGA State Machine Generator]

== Other useful tools ==

* Website with bunch of textures and sounds http://www.grsites.com/archive/textures/
* Shrink images without loss of quality https://tinypng.com/ or http://www.iloveimg.com/ (recommended by Gregory Isabelli)
* CSS shapes https://css-tricks.com/examples/ShapesOfCSS/
* PDF Scraper - extract images - http://www.extractpdf.com/
* Hexagonal Grids (from Red Blob Games) - https://www.redblobgames.com/grids/hexagons/
* CSS tools (shades, shapes, textures) - https://dev.to/lissy93/super-useful-css-resources-1ba3
* Color blind pallette https://jfly.uni-koeln.de/color/ https://mikemol.github.io/technique/colorblind/2018/02/11/color-safe-palette.html
* CSS stroked text https://blog.logrocket.com/create-beautiful-stroked-text-css/
* CSS box model and SVG images https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/how-to-use-css-box-model-and-style-svg-images/

== Client Tips ==

=== Speed up game re-loading by disabling Input/Output debug section ===

Development UI have few sections for debugging only, such as 'Input/Output debugging section'. Loading this data will significantly slow down
your reload. I did some profiling and my reloading (i.e. F5) took 14 seconds, 12 of which it was dealing with loading this section.
If you not using it you can disable it. In your JavaScript code, in the begging of 'setup' method add this code

dojo.destroy('debug_output');

That should get rid of this section and overhead associated with loading it (it may have some other side-effects, I have not explored all of them)

=== Speed up CSS development and layout ===

Syncing files to server and refreshing is relative fast but still can take up to 20 seconds which is annoying.
If you working
a lot on css/images/layout you can speed it up by copying html in some state of the game to your local folder.
I.e. in your project folder create directory misc/ and save your html as misc/test.html and changing path to css to load from local disk (and it will load your images to from local disk as well).
I.e. find something like

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="http://1.studio.boardgamearena.com:8081/data/themereleases/151226-1240/games/mygame/999999-9999/mygame.css"/>

and replace with
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../mygame.css"/>

You project structure will look like this

mygame
img/ <-- your images
mygame.css <-- your original css
...
misc/
test.html <-- your test html

It is a bit tricky to save html exact state, if you do save as it also pulls all resources sometimes.

[[Category:Studio]]

Gamehelpcastlesofburgundy

2024-10-24T11:36:59Z

Mavit: Fix broken link to rules.

<div style="background: #ff7a7a33; border: 2px solid #FF0000; margin: 6px; padding: 6px;">
⚠️ There is an error in the English translation (and in some other languages) of the rule book of the physical game. The tiebreaker rule should be:
::''“If there is a tie, the player with the '''most''' unused hex spaces in their duchy wins the game”''

⚠️ There are a few differences in the rules between 1st and 2019 editions (see below in Game options).</span>
</div>

== Rules of the game ==

See [https://www.ravensburger.co.uk/gameinstructions/ecm/Spielanleitungen/26925%20anl%203%202361098.pdf the rules PDF on the Ravensburger site].

== Interface help ==

==== Game actions ====
* If you want to buy a tile, you just have to click on it (see special case below).
* If you want to use a die to perform an action, you must first select the die, then:
**[[File:CoB_takeTile.jpg|right]] to take a tile from the main board to your storage, just click on it<div style="clear: both"></div>
**[[File:CoB_placeTile.jpg|right]] to place a tile, first click on the tile you want to place, then click on one of the possible spaces (they're highlighted, unless you have chosen the ''Display almost nothing'' choice for the ''Possible moves display'' user preference)<div style="clear: both"></div>
**[[File:CoB_sellGoods.jpg|right]] to sell goods, just click on one of them<div style="clear: both"></div>
**[[File:CoB_takeWorkers.jpg|right]] to take workers, click on the worker icon on your player board, below your goods storage.<div style="clear: both"></div>
* Workers are automatically used if needed. They appear afterwards in the log message, but if you want to be sure before your action of how many workers are needed, you can enable the ''Display workers needed'' user preference.
* '''Green borders mean "available / possible", blue borders mean "selected".'''

===== Special case =====
In general, to avoid useless clicks, you only need to click on a tile to buy it, without having to specify you want to buy it. This is possible because in general, no confusion is possible since the tiles you can buy are not the same that the ones you can take with a die. And even with yellow tile #6, you need to select a die first if you want to take a tile (not buy it).

But sometimes (yellow tile #6 in 2019 edition), one click is not enough. In these cases, you should still first click on the tile you want to buy, then you will be asked if you want to buy it with workers or silverlings, and if you're in the middle of an action with a castle advantage, you will be asked if you want to buy this tile or if you want to take it with the castle advantage.

===== Hints =====
* You can undo your whole turn at any time during your turn by clicking on the Undo red button in the action bar. Other players don't see your actions in their interface until you have confirmed your turn, and they see only your confirmed actions, so it won't bother them and mess their game log. But some information is not totally hidden: some users could know about the type of tiles you placed (a castle, a ship or some of the buildings). So if you really want to hide your plans for future turns, just think before you click and don't place tiles unless you're sure you will actually confirm that you place them. Note that players replaying a finished game from your point of view will see all your trials and undone actions.
* It is not and it will not be possible to cancel only your last move, you can only cancel your whole turn (too much programming work, not worth it, and if you're afraid of not remembering the moves you played when you undo your whole turn, they're still visible in the game log).
* A die can be unselected (you can also directly select the other die) if you change your mind and want to use the other die, or buy a tile before. If you have selected a tile in your storage to place it in your estate / duchy, you can also unselect it, or directly select another tile.

==== Display ====
*[[File:CoB_moveUpPlayerBoard.jpg|right]] You can click on the button next to a player's name (under the order track discs on the main game board) to move this player's board to the beginning of player boards (this can avoid having to scroll too much when you want to see your opponents' boards).<div style="clear: both"></div>
* Don't forget that like in any BGA game, you can disable tooltips (in the user preferences menus) if they annoy you. You still have the Tile help section below the player boards if you need help.
* You can display sold goods: there are tooltips on the stack of your sold goods. If you have a mouse, you can hold your pointer above your stack, if you're using a touch device, you can usually display tooltips with a long press (or a "double then long" press).
* If you can't display tooltips with your touch device or if you selected the "no tooltips" user preference, you can still display sold goods by clicking on the sold goods stack.
* With the ''Zoom level'' User preference, you can resize all the game elements to fit your screen width: make them smaller to be able to see more boards at the same time, or make them bigger to enjoy bigger images. User preferences are accessible with the cog icon in your player panel, or, like in any BGA game, with the "hamburger menu" a the top right of the page, or in the ''Options'' tab at the bottom of the page.
*[[File:CoB_castle-mine.jpg|right]] In 3 players games, one of the space for six-sided tiles next to depot 6 (on the main board) is half dark green, half grey, with letters on it. This is to remind players that in 3 players games, this space gets a castle tile in phases A, C and E, and a mine tile in phases B and D.<div style="clear: both"></div>

==== Replay ====
It is not possible to start a replay from one of the moves that happened during one of your turns. You can start a replay from any other point.

== Game options ==
==== Differences between 1st edition and 2019 edition ====
* [[File:CoB_diff_15-26.png|right]]Two yellow six-sided tiles (called knowledge tiles in 1st edition and monasteries in 2019 edition) award a different number of points (see image)<div style="clear: both"></div>
* Another yellow tile (#6) is different: in addition to let you buy tiles in numbered depots, it lets you buy tiles (anywhere) with two silverlings OR TWO WORKERS.
* In 2019 edition, you are allowed to buy a tile ''during'' your action.<br />
Note: the implementation on BGA doesn't allow to buy a tile at any moment, because it would not be useful. You can do it only when you just placed a castle or a city hall.
* New art for six-sided tiles, goods tiles and bonus tiles (the new art for other game elements is not included in this online implementation because it wouldn't fit).
* One more player board, labelled number 2 in 2019 edition, and available in 4 copies so that it can be used for beginner setup. This board is available in both 1st edition and 2019 edition options of this implementation. The board that was labelled number 2 in first edition was given number 10 in 2019 edition, so it has number 10 in this online implementation, regardless of the chosen edition option.
* A few confusing name changes. I tried to avoid possible confusions in this implementation: some of the in-game text is different depending on which edition you play (e.g. estate / duchy), while for other elements, I decided to use the same term in both editions (e.g. yellow tile for knowledge tile / monastery).

==== Different game setup options ====
The default option on BGA is '''Random board without board #8''', and not '''Beginner setup''', because it is probably the most interesting for most players, and it is not ''really problematic'' if beginners join games with this option. But they can be disadvantaged if they choose a poor space for their starting castle, so beginner setups are still better choices for beginners (they don't have to choose a starting castle space), even if other options are not strongly discouraged.
* '''Classical setup''': this is the setup described at the very end of the rulebook: each player is given a two-sided estate / duchy cardboard, and must choose one side. To simulate play with the physical game, two players can't have the same cardboard.
* '''One random board per player''': each player is given a single random duchy / estate among available ones. Two players can have the same duchy / estate.
* '''Random board without board 8''': same as above, but board #8 is removed from available boards (many consider this board unbalanced).
* '''Identical (random) board for all players''': all players play with the same board, randomly chosen among available boards.
* '''Beginner setup''': all players play with the same beginner board, with their first castle already placed in the middle. This option exists in three variants: with board #1, with board #2, or with a random board among #1 and #2 (the same board for all players).

== User preferences ==

==== Workers needed ====
The number of workers needed for each action you can do with a die can be displayed next to the tiles you can click.

==== Possible moves display ====
Possible actions can be highlighted with a green border. This is an option because some players will find these big green borders not good-looking, especially when there are a lot of them at the same time. There are three options for this preference:
===== Always display all possible moves =====
Every place you can click to trigger an action, that is not a blue or red button, is highlighted with a green border.
===== Display non obvious possible moves =====
''Non obvious'' is subjective, the choice made was to display only tiles that can be placed and possible estate / duchy destinations for the ''Place tile'' action, and tiles that can be taken for free from the main board, with a church, market or carpenter.
===== Display almost nothing =====
The only things that will be highlighted are the ''Take workers'' icon, and the depots when you have to choose goods after having placed a ship, because since these are not tiles, it's not obvious where to click to trigger these actions.

==== Estate / duchy background ====
You can choose to display a lighter background for estate spaces, which will make the tiles stand out more.

Create a game in BGA Studio: Complete Walkthrough

2021-01-13T15:30:53Z

Mavit: /* Wrap Up */

{{Studio_Framework_Navigation}}

== Introduction ==

This document is not a tutorial, but step by step instructions on how to build your own first game adaptation using BGA Studio framework.

Before you read this material, you must:
* Read the overall presentations of the BGA [[Studio]].
* Some-what know the languages used by BGA Studio: PHP, SQL, HTML, CSS, Javascript
* Setup your development environment [http://en.doc.boardgamearena.com/First_steps_with_BGA_Studio First Steps with BGA Studio]
* Create a game using one of the available tutorials. Don't bother with a new game if you have not completed at least one of the tutorials.

If you are stuck or have questions about this page post on [https://forum.boardgamearena.com/viewforum.php?f=12 BGA Developers forum].
If you're uncomfortable posting on the public forum you can send messages directly to developers who post answers on that forum but NOT the BGA admins.
If you find typos in this wiki - fix it.

== Select a First Game ==

For your first '''real''' game you must either
* Select a game from [https://en.studio.boardgamearena.com/licensing Available Licenses]
* Or from the Public Domain

But what if the game you want is not there? If you are able to successfully publish your first game, you would gain the trust of the BGA admins and they will be happy to assist you in obtaining a license for a game you really want to do or you can request a license yourself. You can read more about game licenses on [[BGA Game licenses]] page.

Once you selected the game but before creating a new project, please take a few seconds to check that someone is not already developing this game. If it is the case, maybe you can propose to join the project?

[http://en.studio.boardgamearena.com/#!projects Check the list of current projects]

Even if you see a few projects with name of the game they may not be active. There are a lot of abandoned game projects. If it's not clear by the status, post to Developers forum asking if anybody actively working on the project or send a message to developers listed for the abandoned projects, and at the same time ask admins on the same forum post to send you graphics for that game if they have them (there a button on [https://en.studio.boardgamearena.com/licensing Available Licenses] page to request graphics, but it will just send email).

If your goal was to fix bugs in an existing project, first try to locate on studio, projects developed by bga admins are not in the studio. Then get read only access to the project and you can create your own as a copy of the existing one. Contact existing project admin about getting write access to the original project or if they willing to take your patches - apply them.

If you want to take over an existing project first ask on forum to see if project is abandoned, then get read only access (via project list) and see if this worth using it, if it has no code or graphics just start from the scratch, don't worry about project name it can be renamed later.

== Create a project ==

If you have not already, you have to create a project in BGA Studio for this game. If the original game name is taken use gamenameYOURINITIALS
template, i.e."heartsla". Don't worry too much about the name, if game would be good enough to be publish it will be renamed to original name.

Find and start the game in turn based mode, make sure it works.

Second, modify the text in .tpl file, reload the page in the browser and make sure your ftp sync works as expected.
Note: if you have not setup [http://en.doc.boardgamearena.com/Tools_and_tips_of_BGA_Studio#File_Sync FTP auto-sync] yet, do it now, manually copying files is a no-starter.

Update your project status in [http://en.studio.boardgamearena.com/#!studio Control Panel > Manage games] page, you can say "development started" or "waiting for license" or "waiting for graphics" or combination of those.

== Development Tools ==

At some point you need to setup your development environment which consist of multiple tools, such as
* Editor or IDE
* Browser with dev tools
* File sync tools
* BGA Web tools
* Image manipulation tools
* Version control tools

Please scan though articles from [[Studio#BGA_Studio_user_guide]] especially related to debugging and tools, there is a lot of useful info there.

== Hook version control system ==

If its a real game I would commit the code to version control right at start. You going to find yourself in the situation
when game does not even start anymore and no way of debugging it unless you have a way to revert. That is where version control becomes very handy.
If you don't know what I am talking about then at least back-up your files after each of major steps. Starting now.
You can also create a project on github, but make sure '''you don't commit original publisher graphics files''' and '''you don't include a file with your sftp password''' (github is automatically crawled for passwords by hackers; a hacking attempt occurred on BGA studio for this reason in June 2020).
You can (and should) also commit your modification periodically via studio's control panel.

== Obtain game graphics ==

If you developing a game from Available Licenses games, ask the admins to send you graphics by contacting studio@boardgamearena.com. While that request is being processed (it can take time, as it often requires some back and forth between the admins and the publishers) you can proceed to next step - project creation.

If you don't get original graphics you go to '''Scavenger Hunt'''

* If you developing a public domain card game you can borrow standard cards graphics from hearts project (see [[Tutorial hearts]]).
* Standard game pieces - meeples, cubes, dice can be found here https://github.com/elaskavaia/bga-sharedcode/tree/master/img
* Go to boardgamegeek.com find your game and obtain 3D game box image, 2D box image, and if you lucky they also sometime have boards and token scans in "Game Pieces" section of Images
* If that fail google "boardgame <name>" and check Images section
* Get the rules PDF as well, there tools that allows you to extract graphics from PDF, which usually good for meeples, cubes and such

Once you get the graphics one way or another you have to massage it to fit in the BGA criteria, which usually involves
* If publisher sends graphics in one token/card per file mode, you have to stitch them in sprite and scale down
* For non square tiles and game pieces you need transparency
* Usually you chop off scoring "ring" around the board of the game since scoring track not needed for online adaptation

More details about graphics requirements can be found here [[Game art: img directory]].

[[File:Rrr_search.png]]

== Obtain game documentation ==

Also at this time obtain a electronic copy of rules, such as PDF (English version).

Also grab any other documents you may find on boardgamegeek such as FAQ, additional Reference books, and user created assistant documents, such
as cheat-sheets (may be easier to get a data from these then trying to scrub pdf). You create and place them in the doc/ folder of the project then
exclude them from version control. There is also a misc/ folder now but it will hold up to 1 Mb of data files which would be checked in, so rules pdf's may not fit there.

== Update game infos and box graphics ==

Even it does not nothing yet start with making sure game looks descent in the game selector, meaning it has nice box graphics and information is correct.

For that we need to edit [[Game_meta-information: gameinfos.inc.php|gameinfos.inc.php]].
What you would do for real game you would go to http://boardgamegeek.com find the game and use the information from web-site to fill the gameinfos.

The next step is to replace game_box.png with proper images, usually you can find all images including publisher logo on boardgamegeek website.

Details about images can be found here: [[Game art: img directory]].

Now important step. You have to LOAD these files in studio website through control panel. So go to Control Panel -> Manager Games -> YOURPROJECT
and press Reload for 'Reload game informations' and 'Reload game box image'

[[File:Gamepanel_sharedcode.png]]

Now try to start the game again. If you some-how introduced a syntax error in gameinfos file it may not actually work (game won't start).
Always use "Express Start" button to start the game. You should see a standard state prompt from template. You should see X players on the right, testdude0 .. testdudeX-1.
To switch between them press the red arrow button near their names, it will open another tab. This way you don't need to login and logout from multiple accounts!

== Fix source copyright ==

Now since you have your own project, you want put your name in the copyright header, so replace

© <Your name here> <Your email address here>
with
© John Snow <jsnow@gameofthrones.com>

Well not exactly this but whatever your real name is. For all files in project directory, its about 10 files. Make sure project still starts after that :)

== Reduce the Rules ==

Programming a game will take a lot more time than you may think. Most of the projects in the studio are abandoned because of lack of patience or skill.
To keep sane, start the game with *reduced* rules and try to complete that first.

* If it has any expansions - do not even attempt to deal with them, not even - "I will just add graphics for them now and not use" - waste of time if you don't complete basic
* If it has advanced rules - start with basic rules only, i.e. "beginner game"
* If it has special rules for 2 player vs 4, start with most basic form (i.e. 4), restrict to 4 players
* If it has 50 unique cards of 2 each - start with 2 unique cards with 25 each (just to keep it moving)
* Any sort of rules that you think can be removed and not included in base - set aside for now
* Ignore any sort of cool animations - dice rolling, card flipping, choo-choo sounds of the trains - all this fluff can be added later

== Create Initial Layout and Game Graphics ==

Mentally it is easier to start with game layout and graphics pieces. Even when nothing is working its give you moral satisfaction!

There are a few ways how the html could have been generated. You could have started with nothing and generate
it all by java script, or you could have started with complete game markup in html and make java script just hide and move pieces around. BGA framework also provides a third way, which is mix of both, plus a template engine to generate HTML using php. The only thing that is really annoying about the template engine is
that you cannot put any translatable strings in the template (which means any visible text at all). If you are using the template approach all stings have to extracted as variables and injected through php (.view.php). This page explains the template engine in great detail:[[Game_layout:_view_and_template:_yourgamename.view.php_and_yourgamename_yourgamename.tpl|Template Engine]].

The other disadvantage of the template engine is you cannot run and debug it locally, in the beginning of development it's a lot faster run off local pages,
you can do it with some trickery described here [[Tools_and_tips_of_BGA_Studio#Speed_up_CSS_development_and_layout|Tools and Tips for BGA Studio]]

During this step you have to decide what technical solutions you will be using, such as
* Use inline positioning of all moving pieces, controlled by JS. There are a few classes that already exist in Studio to help with that (see [[Studio#Game_interface_.28Client_side.29|Game Interface - Client Side]]). OR use html/css layout engine to position pieces (my personal choice).
* Use BGA template engine OR create all ui elements by JS OR manually write or generate complete html markup. The game usually contain 200-300 pieces, it seems wrong but actually its faster to type all of this up in html/css when trying write than debug code for page generator.
Static HTML markup also means you have to use players color or abstracted player number (such as red is 1, blue is 2) not player id's anywhere in JS, since player id is dynamic by nature.

Start by creating and mapping all games assets, best way is probably to open rule book on "boardgame contents" page and go through every piece. Every pieces of boardgame would have its "print" in multiple files in your game:
* Some sort if "div" in html, where id of element match id of element in database (easiest way)
* Css for the element (either unique or for class), usually with background propery refering to part of sprite image
* Entry in material.inc.php referring to static properties of the element, i.e. name, tooltip, rules, etc
* Entry in .tpl file to represent static or initial location on the table OR creation template

Here are some specific examples:

'''Game Board'''

Create entry in .tpl file for the board, it will be static entry as we never need to create this dynamically
<pre>
<div id="board" class="board shadow board4p"> ... </div>
</pre>
Create entry in .css file for this board and other board variants (in example below we have 4 ppl board whcih is diffrent than 2 ppl board)
<pre>
.board {
position: relative;
width: 980px;
height: 433px;
margin-bottom: 5px;
}

.board4p {
background-image: url(img/board4p.jpg);
}
</pre>
That wold be pretty much it for the board itself, as it does not really tooltip on the whole things so we don't need entry in material.inc.php

'''Game Board Slots'''

These are interactive areas on the board, usually illustrated as such. In most cases you can get away with rectangular shapes, but sometimes you have to create circle or oval shapes (and in really advanced case would be some svg paths). For slots you can do the following:

Entry in material.inc.php
<pre>
$this->token_types = array(
...
'slot_action_2' => array(
'type' => 'slot_action',
'name' => clienttranslate("2 Gray Track Advancements"),
'tooltip' => clienttranslate("This action gives you two advancements of gray track. You cannot use this action if you cannot complete all advancements."),
'o'=>"1,0,0,gg", // automatic rules
),
...
</pre>

Entry in template inside the "board" div
<pre>
<div id="slot_action_2" class="slot_action_2 slot_action slot_w_1 slot"></div>
</pre>

Entry in .css with absolute position within the board (its actually better to use percentage - would be easier to scale later)
<pre>
.slot_action_2 {
top: 83px;
left: 37px;
}
.slot_action {
position: absolute;
width: 46px;
height: 26px;
padding: 9px 7px 6px 4px;
}
</pre>

'''Meeples''' - also cards, tokens, other mobile stuff

In css these guys will use "sprite" images with transparency, so it will look like this this
<pre>
.meeple {
background-image: url(img/tokens.png);
width: 25px;
height: 25px;
}
.meeple_ff0000 { /* red */
background-position: 14% 0%;
}
</pre>
As for creation you can either generate them using template (where whole thing wrapped in template block and {COLOR} replace with all possible colors in .view.php
<pre>
<div id="meeple_{COLOR}_1" class="meeple meeple_{COLOR} meepleable"></div>
<div id="meeple_{COLOR}_2" class="meeple meeple_{COLOR} meepleable"></div>
...
</pre>

Or you can declare a template js var in .tpl file
<pre>
var jstpl_mepple = '<div id="meeple_${color}_${num}" class="meeple meeple_${color} meepleable"></div>'; // this is in .tpl file at the bottom
</pre>
and create in js, like this
<pre>
var tokenDiv = this.format_block('jstpl_mepple', {
"color" : color,
"num" : i
}); // this in js code somewhere before placing it
</pre>
If you dealing with cards and decks, there are pre-build components that can generate stuff for you.

One of the greatest part about the web is all client side code can be viewed in your browser, so if you wondering how something is done in another BGA game just load the page and spy on it! In Chrome that would be right click and "Inspect Element". That would immediately show html of the given element alongside with css used for it (on the right). Another great way to learn was introduced recently is you can add yourself to any BGA project as read only from the project page!

So at the end of this stage you should complete the following:
* Create a layout of the game, with positioning of main board, player areas, zones, other supporting areas, etc
* Create css and html snippets for all game pieces: boards, tokens, meeples, etc. Place them all in initial template (even if they're not supposed to be visible at start). I.e. create fake player's hand with cards, put meeples on the board
* Hook layout to number of players and colors picked by the game and test with multiple players
* Figure out what you want to display in mini-player boards and hook it up
* Create material.inc.php and populate with initial values (names, tooltips, rules) for all relevant game elements or classes of elements

If at this time you don't have graphics yet create pieces with just css, you can use shape, background color and object text using css ::after construct to fake the pieces.

[[File:Injected_text.png]]

== Hook Input and Animation ==

This step can be done before or after some of the server steps, or you go in iterations switching back and forward until you get it done, up to you.

At this time you want to hook clicking on pieces and buttons and provide some reaction, such of moving a piece. The handler code will be replaced later by the server hook, but at the begging you want you game to be alive as early as possible.

Usually all pieces will be hooked to onclick during JS "setup" method, in addition if you create elements during server notification they have to be hooked up at that time.

You can play with animation effects you want put in place, in general all the pieces that move in real game should be moving, such as meeples, resources tokens/cubes, cards, vp tokens.
Regular piece animation is provided by BGA framework, but if you use html layout positioning not inline positioning you have to remove absolute positions (inline position styling) after each move. The set of functions for relative position token animation can found in https://github.com/elaskavaia/bga-sharedcode/blob/master/sharedcode.js

Also its a good idea to give player a visual cues on what game elements are clickable now, usually it will be a style, such as "active_slot", with visual effect of white dashed outline (outline is better then border, because border changes will make piece slightly move since it changes the size) or box-shadow (i.e. neon glow)

If you read [http://www.slideshare.net/boardgamearena/bga-studio-guidelines BGA developers guidelines] you know that you should not get carried away with animation, you creating a board game not a video game... That also applies to sound effects (in general, you should not use any sounds effects beside already provided by framework).

See [[Game_interface_logic:_yourgamename.js#Players_input|Player's Input]] and [[Game_interface_logic:_yourgamename.js#Access_and_manipulate_the_DOM|Animation and DOM Manipulation]] for JS reference.

== Create Database Schema ==

At some point you have to design your game database. Do it sooner then later since it would be harder to change it later, since some
code decisions would be based on that.

If you have grid-based abstract game use template from reversi, if you have a card game use template from hearts (the cards one also commented out in generated template for your project). The cards database goes with php class called [[Deck]].

In general make it as simple as possible.
Think about it, your game has 300 pieces (likely less). Using database to store this amount of data is like shooting a mosquito with a tank.
Anything more complex then one table with 5 columns or two tables will only going to make it harder to develop and not improve performance.
You can forget about normalising and any fancy stuff you learn about databases in school. String field for a primary key would be as fast as integer when we talking about this size of data. So don't over-optimize with trying to have integers field that have state based on bitmask!

Also remember that static (non dynamic) information about the game does not need to be stored in the database, that all include everything that does not change, i.e
all token/card properties such as name, tooltips, "strength", color, etc. This is stored in material.inc.php and server has access to it from anywhere, as well as client
if you send it with getAllDatas(). The only reason store some of it in database if it can affect your queries (i.e. type of token).

Usually design process will contain the following steps:
* Design game model - model that represent your game in progress, such as at any given step you can restore the game from that model
* Mapping - now map real game to that model
* Encoding - now represent this model in database and material file with reasonable amount of fields

Example: '''The card game'''

* In real word to "save" the game we take a picture a play area, save cards from it, then put away draw deck, discard and hand of each player separately and mark it, also we will record current scoring (if any) and who's turn was it
* Framework handles state machine transition, so you don't have to worry about database design for that (i.e. who's turn it is, what phase of the game we are at, you still have to design it but as part of state machine step)
* Also framework supports basic player information, color, order around the table, basic scoring, etc, so you don't have to worry about it either
* The only thing you need in your database is state of the "board", which is "where each pieces is, and in what state", or (position,rotation) pair.
* The card state is very simple, its usually "face up/face down", "tapped/untapped", "right side up/up side down"
* As position go we never need real x,y,z. We need to know what "zone" card was, and depending on the zone it may sometimes need an extra "z" or "x" as card order. The zone position itself usually static or irrelevant.
* So our model is: we have cards, which have some attributes, at any given point in time they belong to a "zone", and can also have order and state
* Now for mapping we should consider what info changes and what info is static, static info is always candidate for material file or html
* For dynamic stuff we should try to reduce amount of fields we need, i.e. we need a field for card, so its one, we need to know what zone cards belong to, its 2, and we have possible few other fields, but if you look closely at you game you may find out that most of the zone only need one attribute at a time, i.e. draw pile always have cards face down, hand always face up, also for hand and discard order does not matter at all (but for draw it does matter). So in majority of cases we can get away with one single extra integer field representing state or order
* In real database both card and zone will be integers as primary keys referring to additional tables, but in our case its total overkill, so they can be strings as easily

You can also use cards database schema and [[Deck]] implementation for most purposes (even you not dealing with cards).
<pre>
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `card` (
`card_id` int(10) unsigned NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
`card_type` varchar(16) NOT NULL,
`card_type_arg` int(11) NOT NULL,
`card_location` varchar(16) NOT NULL,
`card_location_arg` int(11) NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (`card_id`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8 AUTO_INCREMENT=1 ;
</pre>

Another Example: '''The euro game'''

See details on database design for euro game at [[BGA_Studio_Cookbook#Database_for_The_euro_game]]

So the piece mapping for non-grid based
games can be in most case represented by (string: token_key, string: location, int: state), example of such database schema can be found here:
[https://github.com/elaskavaia/bga-sharedcode/blob/master/dbmodel.sql dbmodel.sql] and class implementing access to it here [https://github.com/elaskavaia/bga-sharedcode/blob/master/modules/tokens.php tokens.php].

<pre>
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `token` (
`token_key` varchar(32) NOT NULL,
`token_location` varchar(32) NOT NULL,
`token_state` int(10),
PRIMARY KEY (`token_key`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;
</pre>

See [[Game database model: dbmodel.sql]] for details about editing the file.

== Implement Game Setup ==

Once you have your database schema you can do a proper game setup. Usually you open rulebook on the "Game Setup" page
and implement these step by step populating the database (using db access API).
Game initialization is performed in php method setupNewGame, this method is called once when game table is created.
Game notifications cannot be sent during this time.

== Implement One time game model synchronisation ==

Now at any point in the game we need to make sure that database information can be reflected back in UI, so we fix getAllDatas function
to return all possible data we need to reconstruct the game. The template for getAllDatas already taking care of player info, but you
have to alter it to return all other data from database visible to the "current" player.

After that on the client side we should display this data, so in your .js file in setup function (which is the receiver of getAllDatas) you add calls that handle data send by server, usually by calling animation function such as "placeToken" or "placeCard".

== Create State Machine ==

Now you need to create a game state machine.

The state handling spread across 4 files, so you have to make sure all pieces are connected together.
The state machine states.php defines all the states, and function handlers on php side in a form of string,
and if any of these functions are not implemented it would be very hard to debug because it will break in random places.

Please fist watch this again [http://www.slideshare.net/boardgamearena/bga-studio-focus-on-bga-game-state-machine BGA game state machine]
and then please read [[Your game state machine: states.inc.php]]

Now the state machine should be relatively simple, if you find yourself with machine with more than 10 states its probably not the way to go.
Not all the player interactions need separate states, a lot of things can be implemented directly on client, i.e. if your player need to select
a reward token, which offers choice of resource, instead of two states on server just have one state on server and possible few states on client (client side states)
to collect this info.

== Implement Notification handling ==

Now to implement things for real we have hook UI actions to ajax calls, and process notifications send by server.
So previously we hooked onclick js handler right to client animation, in real game its a two
step operation. When user clicks on something, client sends an ajax call to server, server processes it and updates database, server sends
notification in response, client hooks animations to server notification. See [[Game_interface_logic:_yourgamename.js#Notifications|JS Notifications]].

Exception to this is client states, if you need to process two step user interaction such as select meeple, place meeple, you may want
to avoid sending data to server until step is complete (which may involve direct client side animation).

Part of the sending notifications would be to update player's scoring, BGA uses standard control for score (on JS side), see [[Game_interface_logic:_yourgamename.js#Update_players_score|Update Player's Score]].

== Wrap Up ==

* Implement game progression (getGameProgression() in php)
* Implement Zombie turn (zombieTurn() in php)
* Define and implemented some meaningful statistics for your game (i.e. total points, point from source A, B, C...)
* The games logs should explain what happened if player was not looking
* You need to implemented tiebreaking (using aux score field) and updated tiebreaker description in meta-data
* Make sure all UI strings are marked for translation
* UI elements which are images (i.e. tokens, cards) should have tooltips

When you think you game is completely working there is still bunch of stuff you have to do/check before telling admin that game is ready, please go though this [[Pre-release checklist]].

Finally, visit the game page for your alpha game (https://boardgamearena.com/gamepanel?game=…) to add the following information if you can:
* Links to the rules (in multiple languages if available).
* Links to teaching videos.
* In the "On the web" section, links to:
** The official website for the game (if there is one).
** The BoardGameGeek page for the game.
* Consider writing a summary of the rules.

BGA game Lifecycle

2020-12-24T01:09:54Z

Mavit: https://boardgamearena.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=18809#p75094

{{Studio_Framework_Navigation}}

Here's a summary of the different steps you would follow when developing a game with BGA Studio.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Step !! How to reach this step !! What happened during the step?
|-
| Initial || [[How to join BGA developer team?]] || You can choose to join an existing team / create a new project
|-
| Assigned || You choose a game || You can start the development of the game
|-
| Pre-alpha || You've started to write some piece of code || You develop the game. During this phase, we can assist you with the framework and give you some pieces of advice.
|-
| Alpha || Follow [[Pre-release_checklist]], then tell us that your development is finished || "BGA review": we are reviewing your game and check if it respects [http://fr.slideshare.net/boardgamearena/bga-studio-guidelines BGA guidelines]. If not, we will ask you (and help you) to fix them. "Publisher review": the publisher, the designer, we and you can test the game together and separately. We help you to take into account remarks from the publisher and the designer.
|-
| Public beta || The adaptation is approved by the publisher, receives at least 10 approvals from reviewers, and you request beta || All players can play! During the first days, it is common that some bugs are reported by players, and you can fix them following the instructions in [[Post-release phase]].
|-
| Gold || The game is stable on BGA || We find together a good launch date for the game, we announce the game on BGA news. Congrats! You can still modify and optimize things following the instructions in [[Post-release phase]].
|}

=== See also ===

* [https://boardgamearena.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=15288 Announcement of the alpha review process]

Gamehelpmijnlieff

2020-12-22T12:22:46Z

Mavit:

The first player starts the game by placing a piece from their hand onto a square on the outer edge of the board. Players then take it in turns to place pieces in unoccupied spaces.

Each piece dictates when your opponent must play next:
* Straights: same row or column
* Diagonals: in a diagonal line
* Pusher: not adjacent
* Puller: adjacent

If there are no spaces where you can legally play, you must pass. Your opponent is now free to play in any empty space.

Score a point for each line of three pieces of your colour. A line of four counts as two overlapping lines of three, so scores two points.

The game ends when a player cannot play because they have no more pieces.

Gamehelphanabi

2020-11-05T17:53:29Z

Mavit: Direction of drawn cards now varies

== Introduction ==
Hanabi is a cooperative game. Your goal, as a team, is to build a fabulous fireworks show. You do this by playing the cards in the correct order. However, you cannot see your own cards; you can only see the cards of your team mates.

'''Final Score Ratings'''

{| class="wikitable"
|-
!Points
!Overall impression
|-
|5 or less
|horrible, booed by the crowd...
|-
|6-10
|mediocre, just a spattering of applause.
|-
|11-15
|honourable, but will not be remembered for very long...
|-
|16-20
|excellent, crowd pleasing.
|-
|21-24
|amazing, will be remembered for a very long time!
|-
|25
|legendary, everyone left speechless, stars in their eyes
|}

== Card distribution ==
In a game of Hanabi on NORMAL DIFFICULTY, the deck contains 50 cards. Each has exactly one colour: either Red, Yellow, Green, Blue, or White.

There are 10 cards in each colour:
* three 1s
* two 2s
* two 3s
* two 4s
* one 5

===Multicolour cards===
There are three variants that add a 6th colour: the multicolour.

# TRICKY DIFFICULTY adds 10 multicolour cards to the normal game. These cards get marked by a separate multicolour clue.
# HARD DIFFICULTY adds '''5''' multicolour cards to the normal game: one of each number. These cards get marked by a separate multicolour clue.
# VERY DIFFICULT DIFFICULTY adds 10 multicolour cards to the normal game. These cards get marked by ANY colour clue.

== Gameplay ==
You each take turns. During a turn, a player may take one (1) of three actions. After your action, the turn ends and it is the next player's turn.

The game can end in several ways:

#All cards have been drawn from the deck. After this happens, everybody gets 1 more turn. The game ends with the score at the last turn.
#Your team played all possible cards. In this case, the game ends immediately and you receive the maximum possible score.
#Your team made three mistakes that caused misfires. In this case, you lose the game and get negative ten (-10) points.
#Your team 'abandons' the game. Although discouraged, you receive zero (0) points.

== Turn ==
During your turn, you have one (1) action. You can choose to do one of the following:

#'''Give a colour or number clue to a teammate:''' This costs one clue-token (-1). You cannot give a clue if there are zero (0) clue-tokens left. When you give a clue, you must indicate ALL cards of a certain colour, or ALL cards of a certain number.
#'''Play a card:''' When a card is played, it is evaluated. If the card fits in one of sequences, it is placed in the appropriate colour stack on the table. If it does not, it is placed in the discard pile and the team gets a misfire-token.
#'''Discard a card:''' When you discard, the card is placed in the discard pile and you get a clue-token (+1). Note: cards on the discard pile are out of the game and can never return.

When you remove a card from your hand, by either playing or discarding, at the end of your turn, you draw a new card.

== Options ==

=== Black Powder ===

* You may not give clues regarding the colour black.
* Black cards must be played in reverse order, from 5 to 1.
* In the deck there are 3 black fives, 2 black fours, 2 black threes, 2 black twos, and 1 black one.

=== Five Flamboyants ===

After playing the last card of a colour, randomly select one of the following bonuses for immediate use:

* Gain a clue token.
* Gain a clue token and recover a life.
* Give a clue regarding a colour.
* Give a clue regarding a number.
* Shuffle a discarded card into the deck.
* Play a discarded card, if possible.

== Lingo ==
When you play with others, certain words are used to describe certain objects or situations. Here is a short list.

*'''MARKED''': A card that is highlighted by a clue.
*'''UNMARKED''': A card that is not clued.
*'''CHOP''': The oldest, unmarked card. The card that you have no information on and will chop from your hand.
*'''DRAW''': The newest, unmarked card. The card that you have no information on and was freshly drawn.
*'''TO BOMB''': A play that causes the third misfire-token. Sometimes called '''EXPLOSION'''
*'''UNIQUE''': A card that has no copy (left) in the deck.
*'''DOUBLE DISCARD''': Discarding the (usually CHOP) card when it can be Unique (or the last copy of the card in the discard pile).
*'''DOUBLE SAVE''': To mark a card that is useless, because the copy of the card is already played, or marked.
*'''STRATEGY''': A set of rules / guidelines / conventions on how to interpret actions by players (including spending of clue-tokens).

== ELO rating ==
If you are playing with ELO rating on, your ELO may be changed at the end of the game.

Here is how it works:

#Every player on the team is temporarily considered as having the average ELO rating of the team.
#The system will generate a bot associated with the score your team has achieved (let’s call it '''Hanabot'''). Hanabot’s ELO rating depends on the variant you are playing (50 cards, 60 cards, 60 cards multicolor), the number of players on the team and, most importantly, your team's score. All Hanabot’s ELO ratings have been set by an experienced player, they are not random or simply proportional to the score/number of players.
#Your team (actually your team's average ELO) will now compete against Hanabot. The system will calculate your team’s ELO gain/loss as though your team had tied with Hanabot.

If your score is below 18 (50-card game) or below 21 (60-card game), Hanabot's ELO is always 1000.

<code>
You can find all bots' ELO ratings here: http://forum.boardgamearena.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=4814

The 55-card variant (50 cards + 1 of each value in the sixth color) cannot be played with ELO rating on. This is because this variant is highly dependent on draw and a team’s score may not always reflect the players’ skills.

If you achieve the perfect score and this should cost you ELO points, you will be considered as having beaten the bot associated with the score, so that you lose no ELO points.
</code><br>
To be confirmed: I think the ELO-system has had an overhaul.

== About "cheating" ==
In the "real life Hanabi", you can talk. That's why we chose to let the chat open for the online version.

As a consequence, it is very easy to cheat at Hanabi. However, as you can imagine, cheating is very stupid and has no interest... except for ELO boosting. This is why there is no international ranking for this game (ie: best player, second best player) and no trophies associated to it.

==CONVENTIONS==
If people just play in a very basic way, meaning that they wait until they have received the colour and number to play each card, it is generally difficult to achieve a high score.
Common sense, observation and combination of given information allow to visualize which card(s) should be played according to a single clue (thus saving precious clue-tokens and speeding up the game in order to reach a better score).
However, many players have elaborated conventions in order to codify the sequence of actions and thus simplify the thinking process.

In the following section, colours are indicated by their first letter: R - Red, Y - Yellow, G - Green, B - Blue, W - White. For example, 2Y means the card with number 2 and colour yellow.

===Most standard convention===
In 4 words : ''Play left, discard right''.

- When a clue designates several cards, it is generally the card furthest to the left that must be played.

Indeed, the new cards arriving from the left, a playable card already in hand would have been indicated earlier whereas it is more likely that one wants to play the freshly drawn.
For example, if a player's hand is (1R, 4Y, 5B, 2Y, 2G), it is necessary and enough to give the clue 2 to make him play his 2Y.

In complicated situations where the card to be indicated is neither the leftmost of its color nor the leftmost of its number, two players must complement each other by giving one of the elements each, although this rarely happens.
For example, if a player's hand is (1R, 4Y, 5B, 2G, 2Y), it is necessary to give him both the clue ''Yellow'' and the clue ''2'' to make him play his 2Y.

- When a player, having no clue to give nor a card to play, is about to discard, he must discard his card furthest to the right among those without a clue. (the ''chop'').

Indeed, the new cards arrive from the left, the cards on the right are older, and therefore less likely to be used since the other players have had more time to say that they should be played if necessary.

This allows other players to anticipate which cards are about to be discarded and therefore protect them if necessary. So for example, when a 5 (card present in a single copy and therefore particularly valuable) arrives in a player's discard position, the others know that it risks being discarded and therefore give the clue ''5'' to be preserved ('' saving clue ''). It should be understood from the position of the card that it is thus to be preserved and not to be played, paying attention to the cards already discarded (last copy).

In complicated situations where all of our cards have a clue and therefore theoretically no card should be discarded (since cards with clue should not be discarded) and where it is impossible to play, it is preferable to give a clue, even if it is not very relevant.

Obviously, if a player has a card that he is sure he will never be able to play (for example a card on which he has a blue hint when the blue pile has already been completed), such card must be discarded in priority.

===Advanced conventions===
The 3 most classical advanced conventions are: ''finesse'', ''bluff'' et ''reverse''.

====''Finesse''====
- An example is more telling than a long speech: suppose it is player 1's turn and no card has yet been played, nor any clue given:

1) ? ? ? ?

2) 1B 5Y 3B 1W

3) 5R 2R 2B 2G

4) 4G 1Y 1R 3Y

If player 1 gives the blue clue to player 3, it clearly indicates his 2B, while the expected card is a 1B. This means that the card which fills the hole is somewhere upstream, in this case in the hand of player 2. The latter, seeing that indeed the 1B is missing, understands that it is a question of a "finesse" and plays his 1B according to the convention "play left, discard right".

If the 1B had been in any other position in Player 2's hand, he would have needed a prior clue to know which one. Thus he would have played the card furthest to the left among his corresponding marked cards (in this case a 1 card or a blue card if the 1B and the 5Y had been reversed).

Player 3 then only has to play his 2B: two cards have been played thanks to a single clue.

- In situations like the following :

1) ? ? ? ?

2) 1B 5Y 3B 3W

3) 4G 1Y 1R 3Y

4) 5R 2R 2B 2G

where player 1 gives a clue ''blue'' to player 4, this can point to either player 2 and 3. To find out which one is designated, each looks at the other's cards. In this case, player 2 sees that finesse cannot be addressed to player 3 since he has a 4G card on the far left and not a 1B. Player 2 therefore plays his own card.

==== '' Bluff '' ====
'' Bluff '' looks like a '' finesse '', except that the player who plays his card is in a way "trapped": he does not play the card he expects from ' 'finesse'.

An example speaks louder than a long speech: suppose it's player 1's turn and no card has yet been played, nor any clue given:

1) ? ? ? ?

2) 1W 5Y 3B 3W

3) 5R 2R 2B 2G

4) 4G 1Y 1R 3Y

If player 1 gives the blue clue to player 3, it clearly indicates his 2B, while the expected card is a 1B. As before, player 2 then assumes that his leftmost card is a 1B. So he plays it. Surprise, it's a 1W! Player 3 then understands that it is a bluff and DOES NOT PLAY his blue card. However, he knows that it is a 2, and keeps it for later, when he can play it.

Unlike "finesse", to avoid any ambiguity, it is better to "bluff" only on the person who follows us immediately in the turn order.

==== '' Reverse '' ====
'' Reverse '' looks like '' finesse '', except that the player given the clue is located before the one with the card that fills the gap.

This convention is riskier because it is sometimes possible that the player to whom the hint is given does not realize that it is a '' reverse '' and plays his card.

An example speaks louder than a long speech: suppose it's player 1's turn and no card has yet been played, nor any clue given:

1) ? ? ? ?

2) 5R 2R 2B 2G

3) 1B 5Y 3B 3W

4) 4G 1Y 1R 3Y

If player 1 gives the blue clue to player 2, it clearly tells him his 2B, while the expected card is a 1B. He might think that it is indeed a 1B, but he sees a 1B in question in Player 3's hand and therefore plays something else (for example, he gives the clue to Player 4). Player 3, as before, seeing that the reverse cannot be addressed to player 4, plays his 1B. In the next turn, player 2 can play his 2B.

==== '' Off discard '' ====
It happens that in his turn a player no longer has a clue token and that a card must absolutely be played, it is then possible for him to discard another card than his card furthest to the right. This move tells the next player to play the card in the same position as the one that was discarded.

Example: it's player 1's turn, there are no more clue tokens, a 1B has already been played and a 2B card has already been discarded (in bold the clues known by the players):

1) a? b? c? d? e?

2) 4Y 5R 2R 2B 2'''G'''

3) 2G 1'''B''' 5Y 3'''B''' 3W

Player 1 discards card d? instead of the e? card. This indicates to the player that he must play his card in the same position (therefore 2B), which avoids losing it and thus condemning the blue pile.

This movement is risky because the discarded card can be important or even blocking for the rest of the game. This movement should therefore only be used if there is no other solution.
It is up to the other players to make sure, before leaving a player without a clue token, that the card he could discard to give this clue is not essential for the rest of the game.

Gamehelphanabi

2020-11-05T17:51:14Z

Mavit: Direction of drawn cards now varies

== Introduction ==
Hanabi is a cooperative game. Your goal, as a team, is to build a fabulous fireworks show. You do this by playing the cards in the correct order. However, you cannot see your own cards; you can only see the cards of your team mates.

'''Final Score Ratings'''

{| class="wikitable"
|-
!Points
!Overall impression
|-
|5 or less
|horrible, booed by the crowd...
|-
|6-10
|mediocre, just a spattering of applause.
|-
|11-15
|honourable, but will not be remembered for very long...
|-
|16-20
|excellent, crowd pleasing.
|-
|21-24
|amazing, will be remembered for a very long time!
|-
|25
|legendary, everyone left speechless, stars in their eyes
|}

== Card distribution ==
In a game of Hanabi on NORMAL DIFFICULTY, the deck contains 50 cards. Each has exactly one colour: either Red, Yellow, Green, Blue, or White.

There are 10 cards in each colour:
* three 1s
* two 2s
* two 3s
* two 4s
* one 5

===Multicolour cards===
There are three variants that add a 6th colour: the multicolour.

# TRICKY DIFFICULTY adds 10 multicolour cards to the normal game. These cards get marked by a separate multicolour clue.
# HARD DIFFICULTY adds '''5''' multicolour cards to the normal game: one of each number. These cards get marked by a separate multicolour clue.
# VERY DIFFICULT DIFFICULTY adds 10 multicolour cards to the normal game. These cards get marked by ANY colour clue.

== Gameplay ==
You each take turns. During a turn, a player may take one (1) of three actions. After your action, the turn ends and it is the next player's turn.

The game can end in several ways:

#All cards have been drawn from the deck. After this happens, everybody gets 1 more turn. The game ends with the score at the last turn.
#Your team played all possible cards. In this case, the game ends immediately and you receive the maximum possible score.
#Your team made three mistakes that caused misfires. In this case, you lose the game and get negative ten (-10) points.
#Your team 'abandons' the game. Although discouraged, you receive zero (0) points.

== Turn ==
During your turn, you have one (1) action. You can choose to do one of the following:

#'''Give a colour or number clue to a teammate:''' This costs one clue-token (-1). You cannot give a clue if there are zero (0) clue-tokens left. When you give a clue, you must indicate ALL cards of a certain colour, or ALL cards of a certain number.
#'''Play a card:''' When a card is played, it is evaluated. If the card fits in one of sequences, it is placed in the appropriate colour stack on the table. If it does not, it is placed in the discard pile and the team gets a misfire-token.
#'''Discard a card:''' When you discard, the card is placed in the discard pile and you get a clue-token (+1). Note: cards on the discard pile are out of the game and can never return.

When you remove a card from your hand, by either playing or discarding, at the end of your turn, you draw a new card.

== Options ==

=== Black Powder ===

* You may not give clues regarding the colour black.
* Black cards must be played in reverse order, from 5 to 1.
* In the deck there are 3 black fives, 2 black fours, 2 black threes, 2 black twos, and 1 black one.

=== Five Flamboyants ===

After playing the last card of a colour, randomly select one of the following bonuses for immediate use:

* Gain a clue token.
* Gain a clue token and recover a life.
* Give a clue regarding a colour.
* Give a clue regarding a number.
* Shuffle a discarded card into the deck.
* Play a discarded card, if possible.

== Lingo ==
When you play with others, certain words are used to describe certain objects or situations. Here is a short list.

*'''MARKED''': A card that is highlighted by a clue.
*'''UNMARKED''': A card that is not clued.
*'''CHOP''': The oldest, unmarked card. The right-most card that you have no information on and will chop from your hand.
*'''DRAW''': The newest, unmarked card. The left-most card that you have no information on and was freshly drawn to the left side.
*'''TO BOMB''': A play that causes the third misfire-token. Sometimes called '''EXPLOSION'''
*'''UNIQUE''': A card that has no copy (left) in the deck.
*'''DOUBLE DISCARD''': Discarding the (usually CHOP) card when it can be Unique (or the last copy of the card in the discard pile).
*'''DOUBLE SAVE''': To mark a card that is useless, because the copy of the card is already played, or marked.
*'''STRATEGY''': A set of rules / guidelines / conventions on how to interpret actions by players (including spending of clue-tokens).

== ELO rating ==
If you are playing with ELO rating on, your ELO may be changed at the end of the game.

Here is how it works:

#Every player on the team is temporarily considered as having the average ELO rating of the team.
#The system will generate a bot associated with the score your team has achieved (let’s call it '''Hanabot'''). Hanabot’s ELO rating depends on the variant you are playing (50 cards, 60 cards, 60 cards multicolor), the number of players on the team and, most importantly, your team's score. All Hanabot’s ELO ratings have been set by an experienced player, they are not random or simply proportional to the score/number of players.
#Your team (actually your team's average ELO) will now compete against Hanabot. The system will calculate your team’s ELO gain/loss as though your team had tied with Hanabot.

If your score is below 18 (50-card game) or below 21 (60-card game), Hanabot's ELO is always 1000.

<code>
You can find all bots' ELO ratings here: http://forum.boardgamearena.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=4814

The 55-card variant (50 cards + 1 of each value in the sixth color) cannot be played with ELO rating on. This is because this variant is highly dependent on draw and a team’s score may not always reflect the players’ skills.

If you achieve the perfect score and this should cost you ELO points, you will be considered as having beaten the bot associated with the score, so that you lose no ELO points.
</code><br>
To be confirmed: I think the ELO-system has had an overhaul.

== About "cheating" ==
In the "real life Hanabi", you can talk. That's why we chose to let the chat open for the online version.

As a consequence, it is very easy to cheat at Hanabi. However, as you can imagine, cheating is very stupid and has no interest... except for ELO boosting. This is why there is no international ranking for this game (ie: best player, second best player) and no trophies associated to it.

==CONVENTIONS==
If people just play in a very basic way, meaning that they wait until they have received the colour and number to play each card, it is generally difficult to achieve a high score.
Common sense, observation and combination of given information allow to visualize which card(s) should be played according to a single clue (thus saving precious clue-tokens and speeding up the game in order to reach a better score).
However, many players have elaborated conventions in order to codify the sequence of actions and thus simplify the thinking process.

In the following section, colours are indicated by their first letter: R - Red, Y - Yellow, G - Green, B - Blue, W - White. For example, 2Y means the card with number 2 and colour yellow.

===Most standard convention===
In 4 words : ''Play left, discard right''.

- When a clue designates several cards, it is generally the card furthest to the left that must be played.

Indeed, the new cards arriving from the left, a playable card already in hand would have been indicated earlier whereas it is more likely that one wants to play the freshly drawn.
For example, if a player's hand is (1R, 4Y, 5B, 2Y, 2G), it is necessary and enough to give the clue 2 to make him play his 2Y.

In complicated situations where the card to be indicated is neither the leftmost of its color nor the leftmost of its number, two players must complement each other by giving one of the elements each, although this rarely happens.
For example, if a player's hand is (1R, 4Y, 5B, 2G, 2Y), it is necessary to give him both the clue ''Yellow'' and the clue ''2'' to make him play his 2Y.

- When a player, having no clue to give nor a card to play, is about to discard, he must discard his card furthest to the right among those without a clue. (the ''chop'').

Indeed, the new cards arrive from the left, the cards on the right are older, and therefore less likely to be used since the other players have had more time to say that they should be played if necessary.

This allows other players to anticipate which cards are about to be discarded and therefore protect them if necessary. So for example, when a 5 (card present in a single copy and therefore particularly valuable) arrives in a player's discard position, the others know that it risks being discarded and therefore give the clue ''5'' to be preserved ('' saving clue ''). It should be understood from the position of the card that it is thus to be preserved and not to be played, paying attention to the cards already discarded (last copy).

In complicated situations where all of our cards have a clue and therefore theoretically no card should be discarded (since cards with clue should not be discarded) and where it is impossible to play, it is preferable to give a clue, even if it is not very relevant.

Obviously, if a player has a card that he is sure he will never be able to play (for example a card on which he has a blue hint when the blue pile has already been completed), such card must be discarded in priority.

===Advanced conventions===
The 3 most classical advanced conventions are: ''finesse'', ''bluff'' et ''reverse''.

====''Finesse''====
- An example is more telling than a long speech: suppose it is player 1's turn and no card has yet been played, nor any clue given:

1) ? ? ? ?

2) 1B 5Y 3B 1W

3) 5R 2R 2B 2G

4) 4G 1Y 1R 3Y

If player 1 gives the blue clue to player 3, it clearly indicates his 2B, while the expected card is a 1B. This means that the card which fills the hole is somewhere upstream, in this case in the hand of player 2. The latter, seeing that indeed the 1B is missing, understands that it is a question of a "finesse" and plays his 1B according to the convention "play left, discard right".

If the 1B had been in any other position in Player 2's hand, he would have needed a prior clue to know which one. Thus he would have played the card furthest to the left among his corresponding marked cards (in this case a 1 card or a blue card if the 1B and the 5Y had been reversed).

Player 3 then only has to play his 2B: two cards have been played thanks to a single clue.

- In situations like the following :

1) ? ? ? ?

2) 1B 5Y 3B 3W

3) 4G 1Y 1R 3Y

4) 5R 2R 2B 2G

where player 1 gives a clue ''blue'' to player 4, this can point to either player 2 and 3. To find out which one is designated, each looks at the other's cards. In this case, player 2 sees that finesse cannot be addressed to player 3 since he has a 4G card on the far left and not a 1B. Player 2 therefore plays his own card.

==== '' Bluff '' ====
'' Bluff '' looks like a '' finesse '', except that the player who plays his card is in a way "trapped": he does not play the card he expects from ' 'finesse'.

An example speaks louder than a long speech: suppose it's player 1's turn and no card has yet been played, nor any clue given:

1) ? ? ? ?

2) 1W 5Y 3B 3W

3) 5R 2R 2B 2G

4) 4G 1Y 1R 3Y

If player 1 gives the blue clue to player 3, it clearly indicates his 2B, while the expected card is a 1B. As before, player 2 then assumes that his leftmost card is a 1B. So he plays it. Surprise, it's a 1W! Player 3 then understands that it is a bluff and DOES NOT PLAY his blue card. However, he knows that it is a 2, and keeps it for later, when he can play it.

Unlike "finesse", to avoid any ambiguity, it is better to "bluff" only on the person who follows us immediately in the turn order.

==== '' Reverse '' ====
'' Reverse '' looks like '' finesse '', except that the player given the clue is located before the one with the card that fills the gap.

This convention is riskier because it is sometimes possible that the player to whom the hint is given does not realize that it is a '' reverse '' and plays his card.

An example speaks louder than a long speech: suppose it's player 1's turn and no card has yet been played, nor any clue given:

1) ? ? ? ?

2) 5R 2R 2B 2G

3) 1B 5Y 3B 3W

4) 4G 1Y 1R 3Y

If player 1 gives the blue clue to player 2, it clearly tells him his 2B, while the expected card is a 1B. He might think that it is indeed a 1B, but he sees a 1B in question in Player 3's hand and therefore plays something else (for example, he gives the clue to Player 4). Player 3, as before, seeing that the reverse cannot be addressed to player 4, plays his 1B. In the next turn, player 2 can play his 2B.

==== '' Off discard '' ====
It happens that in his turn a player no longer has a clue token and that a card must absolutely be played, it is then possible for him to discard another card than his card furthest to the right. This move tells the next player to play the card in the same position as the one that was discarded.

Example: it's player 1's turn, there are no more clue tokens, a 1B has already been played and a 2B card has already been discarded (in bold the clues known by the players):

1) a? b? c? d? e?

2) 4Y 5R 2R 2B 2'''G'''

3) 2G 1'''B''' 5Y 3'''B''' 3W

Player 1 discards card d? instead of the e? card. This indicates to the player that he must play his card in the same position (therefore 2B), which avoids losing it and thus condemning the blue pile.

This movement is risky because the discarded card can be important or even blocking for the rest of the game. This movement should therefore only be used if there is no other solution.
It is up to the other players to make sure, before leaving a player without a clue token, that the card he could discard to give this clue is not essential for the rest of the game.

Gamehelphanabi

2020-11-05T12:11:40Z

Mavit: Summarise new expansion options

== Introduction ==
Hanabi is a cooperative game. Your goal, as a team, is to build a fabulous fireworks show. You do this by playing the cards in the correct order. However, you cannot see your own cards; you can only see the cards of your team mates.

'''Final Score Ratings'''

{| class="wikitable"
|-
!Points
!Overall impression
|-
|5 or less
|horrible, booed by the crowd...
|-
|6-10
|mediocre, just a spattering of applause.
|-
|11-15
|honourable, but will not be remembered for very long...
|-
|16-20
|excellent, crowd pleasing.
|-
|21-24
|amazing, will be remembered for a very long time!
|-
|25
|legendary, everyone left speechless, stars in their eyes
|}

== Card distribution ==
In a game of Hanabi on NORMAL DIFFICULTY, the deck contains 50 cards. Each has exactly one colour: either Red, Yellow, Green, Blue, or White.

There are 10 cards in each colour:
* three 1s
* two 2s
* two 3s
* two 4s
* one 5

===Multicolour cards===
There are three variants that add a 6th colour: the multicolour.

# TRICKY DIFFICULTY adds 10 multicolour cards to the normal game. These cards get marked by a separate multicolour clue.
# HARD DIFFICULTY adds '''5''' multicolour cards to the normal game: one of each number. These cards get marked by a separate multicolour clue.
# VERY DIFFICULT DIFFICULTY adds 10 multicolour cards to the normal game. These cards get marked by ANY colour clue.

== Gameplay ==
You each take turns. During a turn, a player may take one (1) of three actions. After your action, the turn ends and it is the next player's turn.

The game can end in several ways:

#All cards have been drawn from the deck. After this happens, everybody gets 1 more turn. The game ends with the score at the last turn.
#Your team played all possible cards. In this case, the game ends immediately and you receive the maximum possible score.
#Your team made three mistakes that caused misfires. In this case, you lose the game and get negative ten (-10) points.
#Your team 'abandons' the game. Although discouraged, you receive zero (0) points.

== Turn ==
During your turn, you have one (1) action. You can choose to do one of the following:

#'''Give a colour or number clue to a teammate:''' This costs one clue-token (-1). You cannot give a clue if there are zero (0) clue-tokens left. When you give a clue, you must indicate ALL cards of a certain colour, or ALL cards of a certain number.
#'''Play a card:''' When a card is played, it is evaluated. If the card fits in one of sequences, it is placed in the appropriate colour stack on the table. If it does not, it is placed in the discard pile and the team gets a misfire-token.
#'''Discard a card:''' When you discard, the card is placed in the discard pile and you get a clue-token (+1). Note: cards on the discard pile are out of the game and can never return.

When you remove a card from your hand, by either playing or discarding, at the end of your turn, you draw a new card. '''Your newest card is always placed on the left'''.

== Options ==

=== Black Powder ===

* You may not give clues regarding the colour black.
* Black cards must be played in reverse order, from 5 to 1.
* In the deck there are 3 black fives, 2 black fours, 2 black threes, 2 black twos, and 1 black one.

=== Five Flamboyants ===

After playing the last card of a colour, randomly select one of the following bonuses for immediate use:

* Gain a clue token.
* Gain a clue token and recover a life.
* Give a clue regarding a colour.
* Give a clue regarding a number.
* Shuffle a discarded card into the deck.
* Play a discarded card, if possible.

== Lingo ==
When you play with others, certain words are used to describe certain objects or situations. Here is a short list.

*'''MARKED''': A card that is highlighted by a clue.
*'''UNMARKED''': A card that is not clued.
*'''CHOP''': The oldest, unmarked card. The right-most card that you have no information on and will chop from your hand.
*'''DRAW''': The newest, unmarked card. The left-most card that you have no information on and was freshly drawn to the left side.
*'''TO BOMB''': A play that causes the third misfire-token. Sometimes called '''EXPLOSION'''
*'''UNIQUE''': A card that has no copy (left) in the deck.
*'''DOUBLE DISCARD''': Discarding the (usually CHOP) card when it can be Unique (or the last copy of the card in the discard pile).
*'''DOUBLE SAVE''': To mark a card that is useless, because the copy of the card is already played, or marked.
*'''STRATEGY''': A set of rules / guidelines / conventions on how to interpret actions by players (including spending of clue-tokens).

== ELO rating ==
If you are playing with ELO rating on, your ELO may be changed at the end of the game.

Here is how it works:

#Every player on the team is temporarily considered as having the average ELO rating of the team.
#The system will generate a bot associated with the score your team has achieved (let’s call it '''Hanabot'''). Hanabot’s ELO rating depends on the variant you are playing (50 cards, 60 cards, 60 cards multicolor), the number of players on the team and, most importantly, your team's score. All Hanabot’s ELO ratings have been set by an experienced player, they are not random or simply proportional to the score/number of players.
#Your team (actually your team's average ELO) will now compete against Hanabot. The system will calculate your team’s ELO gain/loss as though your team had tied with Hanabot.

If your score is below 18 (50-card game) or below 21 (60-card game), Hanabot's ELO is always 1000.

<code>
You can find all bots' ELO ratings here: http://forum.boardgamearena.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=4814

The 55-card variant (50 cards + 1 of each value in the sixth color) cannot be played with ELO rating on. This is because this variant is highly dependent on draw and a team’s score may not always reflect the players’ skills.

If you achieve the perfect score and this should cost you ELO points, you will be considered as having beaten the bot associated with the score, so that you lose no ELO points.
</code><br>
To be confirmed: I think the ELO-system has had an overhaul.

== About "cheating" ==
In the "real life Hanabi", you can talk. That's why we chose to let the chat open for the online version.

As a consequence, it is very easy to cheat at Hanabi. However, as you can imagine, cheating is very stupid and has no interest... except for ELO boosting. This is why there is no international ranking for this game (ie: best player, second best player) and no trophies associated to it.

==CONVENTIONS==
If people just play in a very basic way, meaning that they wait until they have received the colour and number to play each card, it is generally difficult to achieve a high score.
Common sense, observation and combination of given information allow to visualize which card(s) should be played according to a single clue (thus saving precious clue-tokens and speeding up the game in order to reach a better score).
However, many players have elaborated conventions in order to codify the sequence of actions and thus simplify the thinking process.

In the following section, colours are indicated by their first letter: R - Red, Y - Yellow, G - Green, B - Blue, W - White. For example, 2Y means the card with number 2 and colour yellow.

===Most standard convention===
In 4 words : ''Play left, discard right''.

- When a clue designates several cards, it is generally the card furthest to the left that must be played.

Indeed, the new cards arriving from the left, a playable card already in hand would have been indicated earlier whereas it is more likely that one wants to play the freshly drawn.
For example, if a player's hand is (1R, 4Y, 5B, 2Y, 2G), it is necessary and enough to give the clue 2 to make him play his 2Y.

In complicated situations where the card to be indicated is neither the leftmost of its color nor the leftmost of its number, two players must complement each other by giving one of the elements each, although this rarely happens.
For example, if a player's hand is (1R, 4Y, 5B, 2G, 2Y), it is necessary to give him both the clue ''Yellow'' and the clue ''2'' to make him play his 2Y.

- When a player, having no clue to give nor a card to play, is about to discard, he must discard his card furthest to the right among those without a clue. (the ''chop'').

Indeed, the new cards arrive from the left, the cards on the right are older, and therefore less likely to be used since the other players have had more time to say that they should be played if necessary.

This allows other players to anticipate which cards are about to be discarded and therefore protect them if necessary. So for example, when a 5 (card present in a single copy and therefore particularly valuable) arrives in a player's discard position, the others know that it risks being discarded and therefore give the clue ''5'' to be preserved ('' saving clue ''). It should be understood from the position of the card that it is thus to be preserved and not to be played, paying attention to the cards already discarded (last copy).

In complicated situations where all of our cards have a clue and therefore theoretically no card should be discarded (since cards with clue should not be discarded) and where it is impossible to play, it is preferable to give a clue, even if it is not very relevant.

Obviously, if a player has a card that he is sure he will never be able to play (for example a card on which he has a blue hint when the blue pile has already been completed), such card must be discarded in priority.

===Advanced conventions===
The 3 most classical advanced conventions are: ''finesse'', ''bluff'' et ''reverse''.

====''Finesse''====
- An example is more telling than a long speech: suppose it is player 1's turn and no card has yet been played, nor any clue given:

1) ? ? ? ?

2) 1B 5Y 3B 1W

3) 5R 2R 2B 2G

4) 4G 1Y 1R 3Y

If player 1 gives the blue clue to player 3, it clearly indicates his 2B, while the expected card is a 1B. This means that the card which fills the hole is somewhere upstream, in this case in the hand of player 2. The latter, seeing that indeed the 1B is missing, understands that it is a question of a "finesse" and plays his 1B according to the convention "play left, discard right".

If the 1B had been in any other position in Player 2's hand, he would have needed a prior clue to know which one. Thus he would have played the card furthest to the left among his corresponding marked cards (in this case a 1 card or a blue card if the 1B and the 5Y had been reversed).

Player 3 then only has to play his 2B: two cards have been played thanks to a single clue.

- In situations like the following :

1) ? ? ? ?

2) 1B 5Y 3B 3W

3) 4G 1Y 1R 3Y

4) 5R 2R 2B 2G

where player 1 gives a clue ''blue'' to player 4, this can point to either player 2 and 3. To find out which one is designated, each looks at the other's cards. In this case, player 2 sees that finesse cannot be addressed to player 3 since he has a 4G card on the far left and not a 1B. Player 2 therefore plays his own card.

==== '' Bluff '' ====
'' Bluff '' looks like a '' finesse '', except that the player who plays his card is in a way "trapped": he does not play the card he expects from ' 'finesse'.

An example speaks louder than a long speech: suppose it's player 1's turn and no card has yet been played, nor any clue given:

1) ? ? ? ?

2) 1W 5Y 3B 3W

3) 5R 2R 2B 2G

4) 4G 1Y 1R 3Y

If player 1 gives the blue clue to player 3, it clearly indicates his 2B, while the expected card is a 1B. As before, player 2 then assumes that his leftmost card is a 1B. So he plays it. Surprise, it's a 1W! Player 3 then understands that it is a bluff and DOES NOT PLAY his blue card. However, he knows that it is a 2, and keeps it for later, when he can play it.

Unlike "finesse", to avoid any ambiguity, it is better to "bluff" only on the person who follows us immediately in the turn order.

==== '' Reverse '' ====
'' Reverse '' looks like '' finesse '', except that the player given the clue is located before the one with the card that fills the gap.

This convention is riskier because it is sometimes possible that the player to whom the hint is given does not realize that it is a '' reverse '' and plays his card.

An example speaks louder than a long speech: suppose it's player 1's turn and no card has yet been played, nor any clue given:

1) ? ? ? ?

2) 5R 2R 2B 2G

3) 1B 5Y 3B 3W

4) 4G 1Y 1R 3Y

If player 1 gives the blue clue to player 2, it clearly tells him his 2B, while the expected card is a 1B. He might think that it is indeed a 1B, but he sees a 1B in question in Player 3's hand and therefore plays something else (for example, he gives the clue to Player 4). Player 3, as before, seeing that the reverse cannot be addressed to player 4, plays his 1B. In the next turn, player 2 can play his 2B.

==== '' Off discard '' ====
It happens that in his turn a player no longer has a clue token and that a card must absolutely be played, it is then possible for him to discard another card than his card furthest to the right. This move tells the next player to play the card in the same position as the one that was discarded.

Example: it's player 1's turn, there are no more clue tokens, a 1B has already been played and a 2B card has already been discarded (in bold the clues known by the players):

1) a? b? c? d? e?

2) 4Y 5R 2R 2B 2'''G'''

3) 2G 1'''B''' 5Y 3'''B''' 3W

Player 1 discards card d? instead of the e? card. This indicates to the player that he must play his card in the same position (therefore 2B), which avoids losing it and thus condemning the blue pile.

This movement is risky because the discarded card can be important or even blocking for the rest of the game. This movement should therefore only be used if there is no other solution.
It is up to the other players to make sure, before leaving a player without a clue token, that the card he could discard to give this clue is not essential for the rest of the game.

Gamehelphanabigf

2020-10-25T11:30:39Z

Mavit: /* Black powder */

== Black Powder ==

* Black cards do not contribute to your score.
* You may not give clues regarding the colour black.
* Black cards must be played in reverse order, from 5 to 1.
* In the deck there are 3 black fives, 2 black fours, 2 black threes, 2 black twos, and 1 black one.

== Five Flamboyants ==

After playing the last card of a colour, randomly select one of the following bonuses for immediate use:

* Gain a clue token.
* Gain a clue token and recover a life.
* Give a clue regarding a colour.
* Give a clue regarding a number.
* Shuffle a discarded card into the deck.
* Play a discarded card, if possible.

Gamehelphanabigf

2020-10-25T11:20:22Z

Mavit:

== Black powder ==

* Black cards do not contribute to your score.
* You may not give clues regarding the colour black.
* Black cards must be played in reverse order, from 5 to 1.
* In the deck there are 3 black fives, 2 black fours, 2 black threes, 2 black twos, and 1 black one.

== Five Flamboyants ==

After playing the last card of a colour, randomly select one of the following bonuses for immediate use:

* Gain a clue token.
* Gain a clue token and recover a life.
* Give a clue regarding a colour.
* Give a clue regarding a number.
* Shuffle a discarded card into the deck.
* Play a discarded card, if possible.

Gamehelphanabigf

2020-10-25T11:19:20Z

Mavit: Created page with "== Black powder == * Black cards do not contribute to your score. * You may not give clues regarding the colour black. * Black cards must be played in reverse order, from 5 t..."

Gamehelpmijnlieff

2020-10-20T18:29:00Z

Mavit:

The first player starts the game by placing a piece from their hand onto a square on the outer edge of the board. Players then take it in turns to place pieces in unoccupied spaces.

Each piece dictates when your opponent must play next:
* Straights: same row or column
* Diagonals: in a diagonal line
* Pusher: not adjacent
* Puller: adjacent

If there are no spaces where you can legally play, you must pass. Your opponent is now free to play in any empty space.

Score a point for each line of three pieces. A line of four counts as two overlapping lines of three, so scores two points.

The game ends when a player cannot play because they have no more pieces.

Gamehelpmijnlieff

2020-10-20T18:24:01Z

Mavit:

The first player starts the game by placing a piece on a square on the outer edge of the board.

Each piece dictates when your opponent must play next:
* Straights: same row or column
* Diagonals: in a diagonal line
* Pusher: not adjacent
* Puller: adjacent

If there are no spaces where you can legally play, you must pass. Your opponent is now free to play in any empty space.

Score a point for each line of three pieces. A line of four counts as two overlapping lines of three, so scores two points.

The game ends when a player cannot play because they have no more pieces.

Gamehelpmijnlieff

2020-10-19T14:44:53Z

Mavit:

The first player starts the game by placing a piece on a square on the outer edge of the board.

Each piece dictates when your opponent must play next:
* Straights: same row or column
* Diagonals: in a diagonal line
* Pusher: not adjacent
* Pusher: adjacent

If there are no spaces where you can legally play, you must pass. Your opponent is now free to play in any empty space.

Score a point for each line of three pieces. A line of four counts as two overlapping lines of three, so scores two points.

The game ends when a player cannot play because they have no more pieces.

Gamehelpmijnlieff

2020-10-16T10:57:59Z

Mavit: Created page with "The first player starts the game by placing a piece on a square on the outer edge of the board. Each piece dictates when your opponent must play next: * Straights: same row o..."

The first player starts the game by placing a piece on a square on the outer edge of the board.

Each piece dictates when your opponent must play next:
* Straights: same row or column
* Diagonals: in a diagonal line
* Pusher: not adjacent
* Pusher: adjacent

If there are no spaces where you can legally play, you must pass. Your opponent is now free to play in any empty space.

Score a point for each line of three pieces. A line of four counts is made up of two overlapping lines of three, so scores two points.

The game ends when a player cannot play because they have no more pieces.