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A game server for m,n,k games like Tic-Tac-Toe

M,n,k games beyond the simplest 3,3,3 version most people played as children are largely of mathematical interest. However, as they become more larger and especially if you start playing in dimensions > 2, tactics and strategy can become very important.

You can read more about tic-tac-toe like games at: Wikipedia

This game server is designed to be autonomous. It runs in one of three modes by executing one of the scripts supplied with the client after you've configured the client to talk to a server. It can operate in player-vs-player mode by having one client execute the ./create script, and another execute the ./join [uuid-key] command that the first will supply in its output. In the final mode, you can enter the tournament lobby on the server by executing ./lobby. Your client will then wait for the tournament to start and play games under direction of the server.

Because the server uses webhook calls back to the client, it's important that the client and server be able to reach each other for http requests (both directions). If they're on opposite sides of NAT's, firewalls, etc then it's likely the server will be unable to make requests back to the client.

Getting the Software and its Dependencies

  • Install homebrew (or equivalent package manager on windows or linux)
    • Mac OSX
      • https://brew.sh/
      • /usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"
    • brew install python@2
  • The following is only necessary if you want to maintain separate python environments for dependencies
    • brew install pyenv
    • brew install pyenv-virtualenv
  • git clone [email protected]:anthonyclifton/n-dimensional-tic-tac-toe.git t3server
  • The following is only necessary if you want to maintain separate python environments for dependencies
    • cd t3server
    • pyenv install 2.7.13
    • pyenv virtualenv 2.7.13 t3server
    • pyenv local t3server
    • pyenv local (to verify you're using the environment you specified)
  • pip install -Ur requirements.txt (should download lots of fun dependencies)

Game Flow

  • Player versus Player Mode
    • Execute ./create on a client to create a new game
    • The create client sends an http post the game server, notifying it that a new game should be started.
    • The server responds with the empty game object (no moves yet).
    • The create client starts a web server so it can listen for game updates.
    • Execute ./join [game-uuid-key] on another client to the join that game. When you create a game it will provide output with the join command followed by the relevant game key
    • The join client sends an http post to the game server, notifying it that it wants to join the game created by the create client.
    • The server responds with the empty game object (no moves yet).
    • The join client starts a web server so it can listen for game updates.
    • The server sends an http post to the create client with the game object.
    • The create client responds with its move after analyzing the board.
    • The server sends an http post to the join client with the game object and the create client's move.
    • (Note that the create client always plays X and the join client always plays O).
    • The server continues back and forth, sending updates to the clients and receiving the client's move as the response.
    • This continues until the board is full or the game is won, in which case final game updates are sent to both clients with the value of the state key set to 4 (or GAME_COMPLETED). While in the play the state is set to 1 (or GAME_INPROGRESS).
  • Tournament Mode
    • Execute ./lobby on each client you'd like to have participate in a tournament.
    • Each client sends an http post to the game server, notifying it that it would like to enter the tournament lobby.
    • The server responds to each client with the player object.
    • When the tournament master sends an post to the http://server-host:server-port/tournament endpoint, a new tournament is created with the players in the lobby at that time. Players who subsequently enter the lobby cannot participate in that tournament.
    • When the tournament master sends a post to http://server-host:server-port/round the server starts a round.
    • The server generates every combination of 2 players from all the players in the lobby.
    • From each of these combinations, it starts a new game.
    • This game operates the same as in player-vs-player mode, with the server alternating between the two clients participating in the game, posting to their /update endpoints and receiving back their moves.
    • When all the games in a round are completed, the server displays the results of each individual game and of the round as a whole.
    • Subsequent rounds can also be executed. It is possible to adjust the round's board size and winning line length in the post body so that rounds can increase in difficulty.
    • When the tournament master sends a delete to http://server-host:server-port/tournament all tournaments are closed and the results of each tournament are displayed on the server's output.

Running the Server

  • You can run the server locally by executing the run.sh script in its project directory.
  • The server will run on port 3334.
  • If you just do ./create and ./join it will run automatically.
  • If you wish to run it in tournament mode, then you will need to install Postman so you can do some GETs and POSTs to control it.
  • GET http://localhost:3334/lobby will give you a list of everyone in the lobby.
  • POST http://localhost:3334/tournament will allow you to create a tournament. You must supply an application/json raw post body like the following:

{ "tournament_name": "Test Tournament 5" }

  • POST http://localhost:3334/round will start a game round. The server will run one game at a time for each pair of player participants. You can run as many rounds as you want by executing the request multiple times. You can configure each round by supplying a post body with the tournament key like the following:

{ "tournament_key": "8fd11a8d-687d-4487-b773-4c86d8d5c624", "x_size": 3, "y_size": 3, "winning_length": 3 }

  • DELETE http://localhost:3334/tournament will complete the tournament and display tournament results on stdout.

Notes

  • Sending a move that is outside the boundary of the game board will result in a draw.
  • The points assigned to the round are the larger of the X and Y dimensions of the board divided by 3 and multiplied by 2.
  • On a draw, the points are split 50/50 between the game participants.