pöytä is a networked board game system that pretends to be almost "universal" in the sense that it does not implement individual games, but instead provides users the possibility to use the images they want as assets, and the most common mechanisms found in board games (movable elements, cards, dice, etc.)
Copyright 2009 Noé Falzon <firstname.lastname@aliceadsl.fr>
If you don't plan on reading the manual ("duh, a manual?"), read at least this first section "Version 0.5 (alpha1)". Most of the rest you can probably figure out for yourself.
pöytä is under heavy development. This release is an alpha version, brought to you to present progress on the developement, and because it is already partly usable. For this reason, you must keep in mind the following facts:
This being said, we hope you will enjoy this early release :)
If you got the source distribution, please follow the instructions in the README. If you took one of the binaries distribution, your life will be a lot easier.
To run the server, double click on server.bat, which will set up the server on the port 6666. If you need to use another port, replace 6666 by what you want in the file server.bat
To run the client, double click poyta.exe
To run the server, open a Terminal (normaly available in Applications/Accessories) and change directory to pöytä's folder: "cd /path/to/poyta". Then run: "./server.sh", which will set up the server on the port 6666. If you need to use another port, replace 6666 by what you want in the file server.sh
To run the client, double click the poyta icon. (It might be called "poyta.poyta". If it doesn't work, drag it on the "data" icon.)
Requirements for the server:
On Ubuntu, you can install these with the command "sudo apt-get install lua5.1 liblua5.1-socket2".
Requirements for the client:
On Ubuntu, you can install these with the command "sudo apt-get install libdevil1c2 libfreetype6 libgl1-mesa-glx liblua5.1-0 libphysfs-1.0-0 libsdl1.2debian libsdl-mixer1.2".
To run the server, open a terminal and change directory to pöytä's folder, and run: "./server.sh", which will set up the server on the port 6666. If you need to use another port, replace 6666 by what you want in the file server.sh
To run the client, run ./poyta from pöytä's folder.
Depending on your file manager, you might be able to double click directly on these files.
In all this guide we will refer to right-clicks and mouse wheel. If your mouse has only one button or no wheel, you can use the alternative controls:
In the top left corner is the console that you can use to chat. Just below is the list of players. On the right side is the drawer, in which you will find game elements. All the rest is the table, the game area on which you will manipulate game elements. Its center is indicated by the big "pöytä" word.
The first thing to do is connect to a server. Right-click on the table, click "Connect", and type the IP address (or hostname) of the server, followed by ":", followed by the port number. If the server is on your own machine, you can leave the default ("localhost:6666"). Then hit the return key.
Once connected, you can change your nickname and your color with right-click, and click on "Change nick" and "Change color". The nickname cannot contain a space.
The drawer at the right has a list of packs, either built-in or user-made (see section "Packs"). Clicking on a pack's name displays its contents. Clicking on an element adds it to the table. Clicking again on the pack's name brings back the pack list. To see more elements at once, you can resize the drawer by dragging its left border. You can also fold it completely by clicking its left border.
The table can be dragged (click, move mouse, release button) and zoomed (wheel up and down) to see more or less objects at once. The view can be reset from the contextual menu (right-click, "Reset view").
Game elements are moved by drag and drop: move your mouse over an element (a frame appears around it), click, move mouse, release button. They can also be rotated: move your mouse over a corner of the element (a small circle appears), click, move mouse, release button.
Right-clicking on a game element brings its contextual menu, in which you can find the following options:
From the table's contextual menu, you can add a label with "Make label". A label is meant to represent a small piece of paper, with two sides, on which you can write whatever you need. Type your text, hit the enter key. A label can be moved and rotated like any other game element. Its contextual menu, however, has a few more options:
A neat thing about labels is that you can attach them to other elements, so they follow them around. To do this, drag a label to another element (until it has a frame around it), release the mouse, and click on the option that appears "Attach label". There you go, now when the element is moved, the label follows. When you move the label, it only changes its position with respect to the element it's attached to.
pöytä comes with a few built-in packs, but its real power is that the users can use their own. And it is very simple (no progaming skills needed!)
A pack is merely a fancy name for a bunch of images inside a folder. So, to create a pack, follow these simple steps:
This "game directory" thing is a bit annoying, we know, but in later versions, it will be easier. On GNU/Linux it should be something like /home/user/.love/poyta/, on Windows ??, and on Mac OS X, ???
Now of course, playing alone isn't funny. Send the packs you made to the other players, and you can play using the same game elements. If someone adds an element from a pack you don't have, it will show as a question mark, and the console will tell you what pack you need.
pöytä is the work of Noé Falzon (firstname.lastname@aliceadsl.fr). Its source code is released under the GNU General Public License version 3. All other media (images, documentation) are released under the Creative Commons by-nc-sa 3.0 license, unless stated otherwise for particular elements (see in particular files Pack.info in each built-in pack)
This means that you have the right to freely use, re-distribute and modify (under a few conditions) pöytä. Don't hesitate!
pöytä uses the Lua programming language and the LÖVE game engine, both great free software projects.
Share the sprit of free software!