Game material description: material.inc.php

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.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

---

Useful Components

Official

• Deck: a PHP component to manage cards (deck, hands, picking cards, moving cards, shuffle deck, ...).
• 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).

Undocumented component (if somebody knows please help with docs)

• Wrapper: a JS component to wrap a <div> element around its child, even if these elements are absolute positioned.

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

---

Game Development Process

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

---

Guides for Common Topics

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

---

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!)

This PHP file describes all the material of your game.

This file is include by the constructor of your main game logic (yourgame.game.php), and then the variables defined here are accessible everywhere in your game logic file.

Using material.inc.php makes your PHP logic file smaller and clean. Normally you put ALL static information about your cards, tokens, tiles, etc in that file which do not change. Do not store static info in database.

Example from "Eminent Domain":

$this->token_types = [
 'card_role_survey' => [
   'type' => 'card_role',
   'name' => clienttranslate("Survey"),
   'tooltip' => clienttranslate("ACTION: Draw 2 Cards<br/><br/>ROLE: Look at <div class='icon survey'></div> - 1 planet cards, keep 1<br/> <span class='yellow'>Leader:</span> Look at 1 additional card"),
   'b'=>0,
   'p'=>'',
   'i'=>'S',
   'v'=>0,
   'a'=>'dd',
   'r'=>'S', 
   'l'=>'v',
  ],

 'card_tech_1_51' => [
   'type' => 'tech',
   'name' => clienttranslate("Improved Trade"),
   'b' => 3,
   'p' => 'E',
   'i' => 'TP',
   'v' => 0,
   'a' => 'i',
   'side' => 0,
   'tooltip' => clienttranslate("Collect 1 Influence from the supply."),
 ],

...
];

So this defined all info about cards, including types, names, tooltips (to be show on client), rules, payment cost, etc.

To access this in PHP side:

 $type = $this->token_types['card_tech_1_51']['type'];

To access on JS side you have to send all variables from material file via getAllDatas first:

   protected function getAllDatas() {
       $result = array ();
       $result ['token_types'] = $this->token_types;
       ...
       return $result;
   }
 

Then you can access it in similar way:

 var type = this.gamedatas.token_types['card_tech_1_51'].type; // not translatable
 var name = _(this.gamedatas.token_types['card_tech_1_51'].name); // to be shown to user (NOI18N)

To send this in notification from PHP side:

 $this->notifyAllUsers('gainCard',clienttranslate('player gains ${card_name}'), [
      'i18n'=>['card_name'],
      'card_id' => $card_id,
      'card_name' => $this->token_types[$card_id]['name']
 ]);