BGA game Lifecycle

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

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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

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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

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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!)

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

Step	How to reach this step	What happens during this 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 code	You develop the game. During this phase, we can assist you with the framework and give you some advice.
Alpha	Follow Pre-release_checklist, then tell us that your development is finished	"BGA review": we are reviewing your game and checking that it respects BGA guidelines. If not, we will ask you (and help you) to fix it. 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 should be approved by the publisher while receiving enough approvals from reviewers before requesting beta. Having 10+ approvals is recommended, but if the game is well-received (preferably game rating ≥4.5) and there are no pending bugs and issues the game may pass as administrative discretion.	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 The publisher must send a mail to publishers@boardgamearena.com to request the official release	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

• Announcement of the alpha review process