Closed Room Blitz - Arena
8/13/2014
Arena is a short side project that was developed in 10 days. For those unfamiliar, one type of game played on /seacats/ is called a Closed Room Blitz. The game consists of two players, each having their own closed room mystery prepared beforehand. The other player only knows that there is a corpse inside of a room. The rest of the details are unclear, and so each player must take turns to uncover the truth behind their opponent’s mystery.
The first player starts off with a blue text (a theory suggesting how the death took place). The second player then responds with a red text (absolute truth) which should deny the theory, and also sends a blue text to their opponent to try and solve THEIR mystery. The game continues like this until one of the mysteries has been solved, or when the current player fails to respond within the chosen time limit (usually 5 minutes). In other words, this is a like a game of speed chess, or a blitz, in the style of Umineko.
This program was developed in order to make this game easier to play. It was usually a hassle trying to play on an imageboard — waiting for the website to load, putting the HTML tags in properly, and selecting an image to go with it all took up precious time that could be used to make theories. However, using this program, all of that is done for you.
To begin, one player hosts a game. Other players may then find this game and enter the game room. There is a built-in chat where players can talk before the game starts. There are also up to six spaces for your “shotgun”, so that you can make theories during your opponent’s turn. This saves times during your own turn by simply hitting a “load” button to “load” the theories into your “shotgun”.
Once an opponent is selected, both players must type their answers into the box provided. The answers will be revealed upon the game’s end. Should one of them disconnect before the game is actually over, the answers will be kept secret. All red and blue during the game, as well as the answers, are output as text files into the “Battle Records” folder next to the game executable when the game ends.
The game ends either when a player runs out of time, or hits the “surrender” button. Naturally, this system depends on players to be fair and to give up when their answer has been found, and is enforced by revealing the answers afterward. The clock in the back displays the current time, and when the minute hand reaches 12, time is up. After each turn, the hour hand advances by one, so as the game progresses, the clock will reflect the number of turns taken.
Lastly, any spectators may enter or leave the room while the game is going on. The archives of red and blue will update accordingly. There is also a chat for anyone who is watching. The archives will be output to the “Battle Records” folder on spectators’ computers as well, provided they are watching the game when it ends.
If there are any questions or issues running the game, please comment. Have fun!