Games

A game is a directory, and everything about how it behaves lives inside it. The client syncs the folder to your server, and the server brings it to life. The game config sits at the top level; the instance schema and its two update files gather into a gamehoster-instance/ folder, the two player schemas and their scripts into gamehoster-player/, alongside the commands and entities folders.

<gamehoster-config-contentRoot>/
  game.gamehoster.org/              a domain
    gamehoster-games/               your games live here
      pong/                         one game, one directory
        gamehoster-game.json        global game config
        gamehoster-instance/   instance schema and its updates
        gamehoster-player/     player schemas and their scripts
        gamehoster-commands/   command handlers
        gamehoster-entities/   entity types
      asteroids/                    another game

A game directory inside a domain's gamehoster-games/ folder: a config file and four folders.

Each game folder holds a config file and four folders.

Name	Type	Description
`gamehoster-game.json`	file	The game's global config: title, tick and send rates, capacity.
`gamehoster-instance/`	directory	The instance's own state schema and its per-tick update scripts.
`gamehoster-player/`	directory	The player join and per-instance state schemas, and their scripts.
`gamehoster-commands/`	directory	The command handlers, one per command a player may send.
`gamehoster-entities/`	directory	The entity types the instance spawns.

gamehoster-game.json

The game's basic global details.

{
  "gamehoster-game-title": "Pong",
  "gamehoster-game-browse": "none",
  "gamehoster-game-create": "none",
  "gamehoster-game-tickRate": 60,
  "gamehoster-game-sendRate": 20,
  "gamehoster-game-capacity": 2,
  "gamehoster-game-timelineTicks": 128,
  "gamehoster-game-displayDelay": 2,
  "gamehoster-game-origins": "https://pong.example.com"
}

pong · gamehoster-game.json: everything else is instance state or in logic

Name	Type	Description
`gamehoster-game-title`	string	The game's display name. Pong's is `Pong`.
`gamehoster-game-browse`	string	What new players may browse on the frontend, via Gamehoster.Browse: `none`: they are placed straight in. `instances`: pick a live instance from a list, or create one.
`gamehoster-game-create`	string	Whether players may create their own instances, via Gamehoster.Create: `none`: they can't. `public`: they can, and the new instance is listed for others to join. `password`: they can, and it's listed, but joining needs a password they set. `private`: they can, but the instance is unlisted, reached only by invite.
`gamehoster-game-tickRate`	number	The simulation rate, on the server and every client. Pong steps at `60`. One of the two clocks on Updates.
`gamehoster-game-sendRate`	number	Packets per second to each player, the network rate. Pong sends at `20`.
`gamehoster-game-capacity`	number	The most players one instance holds. Pong seats `2`.
`gamehoster-game-timelineTicks`	number	How many past ticks of history the instance keeps in its timeline, so a late command can rewind to the tick it was made.
`gamehoster-game-displayDelay`	number	How far behind the present, in ticks, the front end draws the world, so it eases toward known state instead of guessing. Your own player is always drawn at the present.
`gamehoster-game-origins`	string / array	Optional. The web origin(s) allowed to open this game's socket; `"*"`, or omitting the key, allows any.

Games

Contents

gamehoster-game.json