Really quick rundown of Elixir #
- A collection of modules, typically one per file.
- Each module has functions.
- Show syntax, including exprs and implicit returns.
- Show pattern matching
- Language is impurely functional: No mutation, but side effects are allowed.
- No mutation forces explicit state management. That’s a good thing for reliability when stuff might break.
- Compiled like Java.
- .exs scripts
Quick Run through Phoenix Structure #
- App starts at application.ex, that launches endpoint, which does HTTP
- Remember: HTTP Request -> Processing -> HTTP Response
- %Conn{} structure
- Router
- Controller
- Template
(Pull up Inkfish)
- Contexts
Game Design #
Let’s pull up genesismud.org.
- This is a traditional mud.
- The game style predates the web.
- This one has been around for 30 years.
- When it first launched, you connected with telnet; you probably still can.
Basics:
- Rooms
- Textual descriptions
- Exits
- Automatic mapping
- Interacting with items
- Mobs: Attacks, stats
- Textual commands
Compare to an MMO, like WoW:
- View world directly.
- Continuous position rather than rooms, but still have zones and instances.
- Interface provides direct keybinds / on screen buttons for movement and actions.
- Text interface is retained for chat and some special commands.
Improvements for a web-native MUD:
- We can have a screen per room. Start with text desciptions, maybe add AI generated illustrations.
- We can expose actions directly with buttons and keybinds.
- Full text commands can be optionally retained, especially for “secrets”.
- UI and gameplay in general should end up as a mix between a classic MUD and a more modern multiplyer RPG.
Basic data design:
- Do you log in as a character, or as a user with potentially multiple characters.
- Rooms are the basic world element. Grouped into zones?
- Characters / Mobs
- Items
State:
- What data needs to survive a server reboot? That goes in the DB.
- What data can be transient? We have other ways of handling that.
- What data gets sent to the client? What data is stored on the client?
That’s complicated. What’s the simplest reasonable version of this we can build to start with?
