Options for games

The game editing interface can be accessed via Games &rarr; My Games. It has a variety of options for games. You can also delete games when editing them.

Game Name
Select a name for your game.

Genre
Select a genre for your game. This determines what category your game will be listed under in the Games tab. The options are:
 * Hidden - Your game is not publicly accessible.
 * [[Image:Icon-game-actionarcade.png]] Action / Arcade
 * [[Image:Icon-game-adventurerpg.png]] Adventure / RPG
 * [[Image:Icon-game-cardboard.png]] Card / Board
 * MMO / Whirled
 * [[Image:Icon-game-other.png]] Other
 * [[Image:Icon-game-puzzle.png]] Puzzle
 * [[Image:Icon-game-sportsracing.png]] Sports / Racing
 * [[Image:Icon-game-strategy.png]] Strategy
 * [[Image:Icon-game-word.png]] Word

Description
This text description is used if the game is listed in the shop.

Associated Group
Most game creators will want to have a Group for their game as a meeting place and a forum for discussions. Use this option to attach a Group that you've created to your game. When someone goes to the game's information page, there will be a link to go to the game's group discussions. For AVR Games, the Group's room is the main entry portal for the game. Users enter the Group's room and then click on a piece of furniture that launches the game.

Shop Tag
If you want to sell level packs and item packs for your game, tag all of the uploaded packs that you want to appear in the shop and enter the tag here. Then when a user clicks on a "Game Shop" link for the game, Whirled will display all the appropriately tagged packs. Note that only packs that you create will show up, so the tag does not need to be a secret. Just using the name of the game is fine for most purposes.

Using the Whirled API, games can also link to the shop from inside the game and receive notification when a user purchases something.

Icon
This image will be displayed on the main games page.

Thumbnail
This image will be displayed on the game's information page and will be used if your game is featured on the games page. The graphic file must be 175 pixels wide by 125 pixels high.

Code Tab
The code tab will look a little different depending on what Game Type you selected when you initially uploaded your game (Parlor Game or In-Whirled Game).
 * Parlor Games - These games do not take place in a Whirled room, they take place in a separate game screen.
 * In-Whirled Games or Alternate Virtual Reality Games (AVRG) - The lobbying mechanics for an AVRG are similar to a party game (see Game Type below) but there is no separate game screen, the game takes place inside Whirled rooms. When a player clicks the game launcher in a room, the game just starts without opening a lobby or leaving the current room. There are generally more considerations for developers when creating an AVR game, so they have their own dedicated article here.

Game Type
In-Whirled games do not have this section. For parlor games you can pick:


 * Pre-matched Table games include any type of game where the person setting up the match wants to indicate that this game will take place between a certain number of people, and those people will play the game through from start to finish. For example, most board games fall into this category.
 * Party games include any game where people are free to come and go, playing for as long as they wish. One example of a party game is a game that has short matches, where people can wander in and out and play as many matches as they wish.  The minimum and maximum players options are not used for games of this type.

Number of Players
In-Whirled games do not have this section.


 * Minimum Players: The smallest number of players needed to start a game
 * Maximum Players: The largest number of players allowed in a game.

NOTE: these options only apply to Pre-matched Table games

Watchable
In-Whirled games do not have this section.

Games that are watchable allow people who aren't playing the game to see the game board and watch the actions that other players take. This usually requires a little extra work in the game code to work properly.

NOTE: this option only applies to Pre-matched Table games.

Splash Screen
This is an image that is displayed while the game it loading.

Client Code
This is where you upload the game .swf file. In com.whirled.game.GameControl there is a method called isConnected. All games should check this method when first loading - if it returns false (as it will when previewing in on this page), it should do something sensible (like show a splash screen), instead of trying to start up an actual game.

Server Agent Code
This is where you upload the game .abc file. When you create a new game project, you should be asked if you want to use a server agent. If you say "yes", then you can run some actionscript code on the Whirled server and perform some or all of you game logic there.

Server Agent Class
You may find the default package name of your server class too limiting. If you need to relocate your server class to a new package and/or rename it, this is where you can put the fully qualified custom class name. For example, com.foo.awesomegame.server.ServerAgent.

Custom Params
This is where you put XML as detailed at custom parameters.

Launchers Tab


You can create launchers which allow players to play the game from their own room by clicking on a piece of furniture. Learn more about launchers here.