What's coming for players
A look at what's coming for players in the next two weeks and beyond. Learn about the core features we're building around games, players, events, and matches.
We've got tons of cool things planned and have received plenty of feedback and improvement suggestions by you guys! But alas, we can only ship so much in a limited time.
This blog is intended to give our players a sense of what's coming (and what we can deliver on) within the next two weeks, and what we have planned after that.
The player features will focus on the following core entities:
- games
- players
- events
- matches (of games, between players, and sometimes within events)
Games
We should have a separate "game store page" where it is easier and more natural to browse games. We currently have no games of our own for sale. Do not worry though, each game should have a link to the related BoardGameGeek page which will help you find a retailer.
Games are also managed via your personal library/collection (we have not settled on a name).
You can add games to your collection that you like.
Players
Players: these include you, but also other users. You can add other players as friends in the app. This will help you do the following:
Matches
Matches are recorded results of a game between players. When a match starts, the host presses start. When a match ends, the host ends the match. Results and notes can be recorded in app for the match at any time.
Matches can be linked to an event and events can hold many matches.
Events
Events start at a specific time and they end when the host ends them. Events are used to link many different match results together, giving you an overview of how everyone did within the event.
Events themselves can be linked to a "master event" (better name pending). Master events link multiple events together.
If you have a recurring event that happens once or twice a year or every week for that matter, you can link these events together. This will allow you track event results across time.
Tracking Events and Matches
How to track events and matches? For starters we'll simply have a leaderboard system of wins, maybe more.
Future Speculation and Scope Creep
Warning! Future speculation and scope creep below!
Leaderboards relate to more in depth theme for which we need to set the ground work for first: player analytics, scoring, and an elo system.
That's right. We want to enable an elo system for all board games, which would enable competitive gaming for many different types of games. In addition, as each game is scored differently, we want to create a system of custom score sheets per game.
In all honesty, we most likely will not target the above for a while. Why? We're still working on the core entities that make up the board gaming data model. One of these entities are game stores.
Game stores will be used as physical locations for our matchmaking/lfg/lfm system. Want to try out a new game? Join a group in a safe third party location intended for game nights. Go with your friends or alone, public spaces should be perfect settings for these.
Matchmaking relates to a broader theme of use cases we want to explore: board games are fundamentally about connecting with real physical people face to face. We want to make it easier for people to meet new people in this way. We feel it's especially important given the time we're living, where connection is pushed more and more to online spaces. For us, as "gamers", board games seem to be the main driver in the opposite direction. And we want to boost that. We're looking for game spaces to pilot this feature.
If you happen to have such a space in mind, pitch the concept and ask them to contact us at hello@tableport.gg
I know, we're getting ahead of ourselves, but one can dream right?
Thoughts?
Thoughts? Reach out to hello@tableport.gg or join our discord community for feedback. We're basically always on discord, but we might not respond to every message. Don't worry though...The big brother is watching. That sounds a bit more creepy that I intended it. Ah well.
Have a great weekend everyone!
Vertti
vertti@tableport.gg