PHP 8 upgrade

Game File Reference

Overview

• dbmodel.sql - database model
• gameinfos.inc.php - meta-information
• gameoptions.json - game options & user preferences
• img/ - game art
• Game Metadata Manager - tags and metadata media
• material.inc.php - static data
• misc/ - studio-only storage
• modules/ - additional game code
• States/ - State classes
• states.inc.php - state machine
• stats.json - statistics
• X.action.php - player actions
• X.css - interface stylesheet
• Game.php - main logic
• X.js - interface logic
• X.view.php - dynamic game layout
• X_X.tpl - static game layout

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Useful Components

Official

• Deck: a PHP component to manage cards (deck, hands, picking cards, moving cards, shuffle deck, ...).
• PlayerCounter and TableCounter: PHP components to manage counters.
• Draggable: a JS component to manage drag'n'drop actions.
• Counter: a JS component to manage a counter that can increase/decrease (ex: player's score).
• ExpandableSection: a JS component to manage a rectangular block of HTML than can be displayed/hidden.
• Scrollmap: a JS component to manage a scrollable game area (useful when the game area can be infinite. Examples: Saboteur or Takenoko games).
• Stock: a JS component to manage and display a set of game elements displayed at a position.
• Zone: a JS component to manage a zone of the board where several game elements can come and leave, but should be well displayed together (See for example: token's places at Can't Stop).
• bga-animations : a JS component for animations.
• bga-cards : a JS component for cards.
• bga-dice : a JS component for dice.
• bga-autofit : a JS component to make text fit on a fixed size div.
• bga-score-sheet : a JS component to help you display an animated score sheet at the end of the game.

Unofficial

• BGA Code Sharing - Shared resources, projects on git hub, common code, other links
• BGA Studio Cookbook - Tips and instructions on using API's, libraries and frameworks
• Common board game elements image resources

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Game Development Process

• First steps with BGA Studio
• Create a game in BGA Studio: Complete Walkthrough
• Tutorial reversi
• Tutorial hearts
• BGA Studio Guidelines
• BGA game Lifecycle
• Pre-release checklist
• Post-release phase
• Player Resources - add player help/rules to your game page

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Guides for Common Topics

• Translations - make your game translatable
• Game Replay
• Mobile Users
• 3D
• Compatibility

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Miscellaneous Resources

• Studio FAQ
• Tools and tips of BGA Studio - Tips and instructions on setting up development environment
• Studio logs - Instructions for log access
• Practical debugging - Tips focused on debugging
• Troubleshooting - Most common "I am really stuck" situations
• Studio Bugs - Reports against Studio itself (not BGA!)

Starting in 2023-12, BGA began upgrading game servers from PHP 7.4 to PHP 8.2. See https://boardgamearena.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=33940 for more information.

As of 2024-08-09, the BGA upgrade to PHP 8.2 is complete. Your game can now use PHP 8-specific features. 🎉

As of 2025-10-06, the BGA upgrade to PHP 8.8 is complete. Your game can now use PHP 8.4-specific features. 🎉

Fix your game's code

Here are a few common scenarios that may make your game incompatible with PHP 8 and how to fix them:

implode argument order

📖 See https://www.php.net/manual/en/function.implode.php

The signature of this function is implode(string $separator, array $array): string. PHP 7 accepted the arguments in either order, but PHP 8 requires the string argument first and the array argument second.

Static calls to non-static methods

📖 See https://php.watch/versions/8.0/non-static-static-call-fatal-error and https://www.php.net/manual/en/language.oop5.basic.php

PHP 8 no longer allows non-static class methods to be called statically. This may affect your game if you've created a class which extends APP_DbObject and you call various BGA framework functions statically using self::.

If possible, the simplest change is to replace self:: with $this-> (which refers to the current instance of your game class). This works if your function is non-static.

Non-compliant example:

   class NMap extends APP_DbObject {
       public function getPossibleMoves($playerId) {
           $planeHasNervous = intval(self::getUniqueValueFromDB("SELECT COUNT(1) FROM `pax` WHERE `player_id` = $playerId AND `status` = 'SEAT' AND `vip` = 'NERVOUS'")) > 0;

Fix:

   class NMap extends APP_DbObject {
       public function getPossibleMoves($playerId) {
           $planeHasNervous = intval($this->getUniqueValueFromDB("SELECT COUNT(1) FROM `pax` WHERE `player_id` = $playerId AND `status` = 'SEAT' AND `vip` = 'NERVOUS'")) > 0;

Otherwise, if your own function is static and $this-> doesn't exist, you can create a static variable like $instance in your game class, populate the variable in your game's constructor, and call the BGA framework functions through this variable.

Non-compliant example:

   class PlayerMgr extends APP_DbObject {
       public static function getMaxScore() {
           return self::getUniqueValueFromDB("SELECT MAX(player_score) FROM player WHERE player_eliminated = 0 AND player_zombie = 0");
       }

Fix:

   class hardback extends Table {
       public static $instance = null;
       function __construct() {
           parent::__construct();
           self::$instance = $this;

   class PlayerMgr extends APP_DbObject {
       public static function getMaxScore() {
           return hardback::$instance->getUniqueValueFromDB("SELECT MAX(player_score) FROM player WHERE player_eliminated = 0 AND player_zombie = 0");
       }