Screentop is a tabletop sandbox that supports cards, dice, boards, counters, and hidden player state. In the future I'd like to add scripting support so that more complex game mechanics and rules can be implemented.
Client stack: Typescript, React, Apollo, and a custom react-reconciler renderer that targets canvas
Server stack: Elixir, Phoenix, Absinthe
Happy to answer any questions and would love your feedback! Also I have two asks for HN:
1) Content - if you know any designers or publishers that would be interested in creating digital versions of their games please direct them my way!
2) Individual(s) to team up with - this is a solo side project right now but I'm interested in working with others, technical or non-technical, to see where this goes.
I'm a boardgame designer and a member of the NYC Playtest group. I don't personally do virtual prototypes, but of those who do, Tabletop Simulator is the one they all use. I'm curious what you see as the key differentiators between your app and Tabletop Simulator?
The main difference is that Screentop runs in a web browser. To start a group play session, you can just send someone a URL and there's no need for everyone to purchase / install / setup TTS.
This also makes it multiplatform. While (paid) TTS supports Windows, Linux and Mac, running on a web browser lets you play this (presumably) on an Android tablet, Chromebook, or iPad.
Loads fine on my iPad and can’t play due to lack of touch, but came here to say my suggestion is allow users to tap the legend items (“Press space to flip”, for example)
This looks really awesome. I just commented today actually in the VR article how the tabletop simulator is about the only VR game that looks appealing just to get a group of people together to play a game like this, but I'd prefer something more quick and easy to pickup and play. This looks exactly like something I was thinking of.
A question though, how do you plan on dealing with the inevitable cease and desists as people create unofficial versions of their favourite proprietary games or even games using copyrighted properties?
As far as I know, some game companies...cough cough...wizards of the coast...cough cough...among others get kinda protective of these things.
I would take them down - though my understanding is that a lot of publishers actually want a digital version of their games available as a way to promote physical sales. So I would love to work with publishers to put official games on Screentop.
That would be pretty cool. I'd just mostly hate to see this project get into trouble over something like that. Honestly, I hope however it would work out it ends up being positive. Having some more popular games on there would help with exposure.
I’m in an FFG SWRPG game right now that uses roll20 (to show the map, handle rolls and character sheets, etc...) and discord (mostly for voice and text chat, because roll20 isn’t as good at those things).
We are moving over to a different discord server that doesn’t use roll20 for any of their current games, but would give us a much larger group of people to potentially play with. Of course, there are things that discord doesn’t do that roll20 does.
But if I could point them at a free solution that could take the place of roll20, that might be a boon to the entire larger community.
Do you have any videos showing current gameplay? Or any intro videos showing how to use the system?
It isn't entirely clear to me what this is. Maybe I've got too much DynamicLand on the brain, but I was picturing using a projector (aimed down) to play games on a tabletop, and wondering how you were doing input, etc.
"Screentop is a digital platform for tabletop gaming. Choose a game, invite friends, and start playing directly in your browser." Is there actually any 'tabletop' in the gaming? Is it for playing virtual (tabletop) boardgames? Do you play with your friends over the internet, or is it a local multiplayer situation?
I'm sure the answers to these questions are painfully obvious to you, but as a visitor to the site, an about page to help orient me would be much appreciated. :-)
I'll be in touch, I'm currently building a new piece of infrastructure to support board-games. I almost have hearts working with full rules, and I want to explore some of the AI side of things.
I really need a word for when I'm pissed someone beat me to an idea but delighted that it exists because of them.
I'd really like to know more on how to specify a game for your platform.
A scripting language is a good idea, but I'd like to see it limited in scope. You don't want your board games to just become video games. I never could figure out where exactly those limits should be.
The game state is a json schema object and user actions (roll dice, shuffle container, move component, etc) are json patches that update this state.
I want scripting to allow specific mechanics that would be more tedious to perform manually. For example: Draw N cards based on the value of a dice roll. Or to potentially move a turn token around from one player to the next after an action is performed. Haven't though too deeply about implementation yet though.
I have several documents, but nothing coherent yet. On the bright side, I'm about to finish implementing hearts in my own language, so that's exciting.
I spoke to the guy behind boardgame.io a few months ago. Awesome engine but it's more geared towards building out the rules / mechanics of a specific game vs a sandbox approach.
1) How do you handle "push"? Technical curiousity, I wanted to do something similar for just cards but couldn't figure out how to do push (long polling?).
2) Does the site "evaluate" the game state? (Know who's turn it is for example.) Sorry, I have no one to play with or I would try your site.
I would also like to see a screenshot/video gallery to get a feel for this platform, but I think you've probably gotten the message by now. Instead I'll throw a couple more questions your way:
Are you prepared for the incoming wave of DMCA takedown requests if this proves to be popular?
If someone spends the time to create content for this platform, how can they be sure that it won't shut down next week?
Can players create private content, such as for a D&D campaign?
If a player starts using content created by someone else, and it gets taken down for either copyright or because the author removed it, can that player continue to use that content?
In fact, can an author remove content at all?
Is there a system in place where the legitimate owner of an IP can create content for this platform and monetize it in some way? Tabletop Simulator may be a den of piracy[0] but there are some games for sale there as well: https://www.tabletopsimulator.com/games
[0]: Ignoring that some number of users own the physical game and are merely playing with friends who are not in the area. Legally it might be piracy (IANAL), but ethically there's some discussion to be had there.
Are you prepared for the incoming wave of DMCA takedown requests if this proves to be popular?
I don't expect this to actually happen but if it does, I would comply.
If someone spends the time to create content for this platform, how can they be sure that it won't shut down next week?
This currently runs on just one server and even with the incoming HN traffic, the server utilization is pretty low. This won't cost much to keep running.
Can players create private content, such as for a D&D
campaign?
Authors can create private games. This means only they are allowed to create a room. Rooms themselves are only semi private (the 4 digit code is guessable) and will expire after a period of inactivity. Not sure if the current setup would work for private D&D sessions but would love to support that use case.
If a player starts using content created by someone else, and it gets taken down for either copyright or because the author removed it, can that player continue to use that content?
If the game itself is deleted, all rooms of it are also deleted.
In fact, can an author remove content at all?
Yes, authors can delete their own games.
Is there a system in place where the legitimate owner of an IP can create content for this platform and monetize it in some way? Tabletop Simulator may be a den of piracy[0] but there are some games for sale there as well: https://www.tabletopsimulator.com/games*
At this stage I expect most games to be from hobbyists who want others to playtest their games or kickstarter creators who want to offer a digital game copy to backers. Would be open to creating opportunities for monetization if this gets more traction.
You didn't ask but, consider making a "highlight reel" or screenshots and showcasing them on your page, otherwise I don't really understand what this is or what it looks like. Is it like Tabletop Simulator?
I tried to build a game once with their stack, but it's just too old school and custom for my taste. I really appreciate your platform and hope it will attract some people.
The licensing thing is a big thing though. But I think the publishers don't mind as long as the games are well presented and don't have a digital version yet.
I'll have to dig deeper into the creation mechanic but this would fill a need that I've got to recreate table-top games but for distributed groups of friends that haven't been able to devote the same amount of time as before to gaming.
We've been trying to work through Risk: Legacy, Pandemic, or other, longer-run games (I would think Axis & Allies and other longer-run strategy games as good candidates for this thing) in-person for years and it's hard to find the time.
It'd be awesome to be able to continue things on a platform like this, but would obviously necessitate creating a version of the game on the platform first. I like the concept!
Yeah I built this because it's painful to coordinate playing tabletop games online - with Tabletop Simulator or individual apps it's time consuming to get everyone to purchase/install/setup a copy just to get started.
Hopefully one day publishers will put some of those games up on Screentop!
I wish there were an open source, well defined DSL for how to describe board games. I suppose there is for things like chess, and custom games... Anyone know of such a language which aims to describe any such game?
I found this platform really easy to play around with when building a game. I put together a version of Hanabi, and the system was flexible enough to let me make player hands that are visible to everyone _except_ the player. Reconstructing this relatively simple game from scratch only took ~3h, and that is everything from finding royalty-free assets to writing the manual.
Screentop is a tabletop sandbox that supports cards, dice, boards, counters, and hidden player state. In the future I'd like to add scripting support so that more complex game mechanics and rules can be implemented.
Client stack: Typescript, React, Apollo, and a custom react-reconciler renderer that targets canvas
Server stack: Elixir, Phoenix, Absinthe
Happy to answer any questions and would love your feedback! Also I have two asks for HN:
1) Content - if you know any designers or publishers that would be interested in creating digital versions of their games please direct them my way!
2) Individual(s) to team up with - this is a solo side project right now but I'm interested in working with others, technical or non-technical, to see where this goes.
Discord: https://discordapp.com/invite/wva8ebh Email: david@screentop.gg