Ideas for games that federate on the Fediverse

In the analog 80s, there were a lot of so-called "play-by-mail" games.
\ the game mechanics could be perfectly transformed to activityPub/Fediverse.
\ that would be a huge source for some inspiration!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_play-by-mail_games

🎇 Federated Alternative Reality Game (and Gamification)

Alternate Reality Game: An interactive networked narrative that uses the real world as a platform and employs transmedia storytelling to deliver a story that may be altered by players' ideas or actions. (Wikipedia)

🧙 Challenge: Warming people for the Fediverse

On Fediverse we often talk how we'd like to entice other people, our friends and family, to join and sign up to fedi instances. We sigh and despair about so many too-technical descriptions of what Fedi is and does. And we see with frustration how we are mostly unsuccessful in bringing new folks in. Then, with other fedizens, we discuss on all kinds of campaigns we may start to make more people aware of what they miss out on. Only to see those peter out, as - with grassroots community and "herding cats" - no one picks up the glove and no real initiative comes from the ground.

✨ Solution: ARG + Gamficiation from fedi to the real world

So how can we change that? Simple: By turning dilligent and grinding, disciplined (and boring) campaign tasks into a form of collective game building, an entirely fun and creative experience. It may become an art project even, if we'd like it to. There can be an entire series of Gamejams dedicated to this fediworld-building theme.

What it consists of is setting out 'teases' into the real world and other online channels, that are actually entry points to ARG gameplay, where still unwitting potential players may be attracted to. We offer genuine and honest stuff that makes them learn about the fediverse, and something more besides to attract them to do a deeper-dive. Become part of the game. Dive in as deep as they like. The "Da Vinci Code" of the Fediverse will drive them on.

🚀 Method: Fediverse as Game Development Environment

So besides the fact that actual federated gameplay is designed and launched, the process of gameplay design can be streamlined using the Fediverse as well. How do we crowdsource ideation, storytelling, graphics design, human- or bot-driven NPG's that interact with outsiders? Etceteray. Thinking of fedi as Gameplay development platform can brin the Gamejam concept to a whole different level.

And of course, one of the wildest ideas that was born in FediJam discussions is that 2 or more federating games do not need to be THE SAME game, or even the same genre.
And this kind of stuff is what can make game-fediverses really unique.

Posting this here too.

It seems like even purely realtime genres like MOBA can be federated!

Base layer: Players have usual fedi-like accounts and social interactons.
On top of that, federated matchmaking (according to skill levels).

BUT each individual battle is held on some single server (no matter how chosen).
Each individual battle can be implemented in at least 2 ways:

Classic

There is a server, and it hands out temporary tokens for the match to each participating player via federation.
Players use them to connect and to be recognized by the server.
Server records the results for the federation.

P2P mesh

Godot has webrtc-based abilities for p2p mesh multiplayer. In this case, federation coordinates the mesh bootstrapping process and records the match results. Most probably by being a 'server peer', see godot docs on th topic. Or by just trusting the participants on th results (some primitive consensus?)

However, if the results are not needed, then federation involvement ends when the mesh is established. Kudos to https://mastodon.technology/@lucasfs7 for coming up with the idea of federated mobas and for long discussions at https://matrix.to/#/#fedijam:m.wfr.moe

One of the other ideas i had is that even many realtime games have some game mech that is not completely realtime. Think events like raids and traders in Rimworld and Dwarf Fortress, think belts in Factorio, and especially cargo rockets (in both Factorio and Rimworld).

Think jumpgates in X universe and other similar games (when used by npc's).

Even if one cannot for some reason connect realtime to another server, one can still send a sort of package or even an autonomous agent to it, like people send probes to the outer space where the signal latency is high.
The logic of such agents might be predefined/configurable like with Rimworld raiders, or even scriptable (constrained by the game logic).

No gamedev (and little time) but the description on the Jam page "Data-vampires and wall-mounted eyes? [..]" gave me an idea for someone to pick up:

Reach the Activity Pub

Your significant other doesn't want you to go to the Pub, the only lively place in the center of town. Though a place full of activity, the booze flows richly here and attractive town folk engage in rowdy dances. As it happens your partner is extremely jealous of you visiting the place, especially if they have to work. And they happen to work in a surveillance center that operates all the town's CCTV and doorbell camera's.

Can you navigate the windy roads and alleys and avoid the prying wall-mounted eyes swiveling back and forth, and reach the Pub? More importantly: Can you get back home unnoticed after your visit, when the alcohol coursing through your veins have twisted reality and strange things always happen?

Implementation

Not knowing if this is possible the game transforms real OpenStreetMap tilesets into the gameplay area, and the existing overlay of CCTV locations and Camera types. This aspect making it realistic and educational as well, while still fun. There are difficulty levels: Nightmare mode --> Can you navigate the heart of London?

If you like the idea we can brainstorm some more below, and list OSS projects and codes that may be used for implementation.

Update: I tooted about this here https://mastodon.social/@humanetech/107104136403882365

Note: First sent to !libre_culture in this post.

I used to play a lot of #wolfgame on IRC and when the Fediverse came around my first idea was to re-create the wolfgame on fediverse. I started writing it in Python but gave up halfway through. The game engine is there, it communicates with Mastodon, but it needs content.

Wolfgame is a lot like Mafia that others may have played. Player starts a game, game is announced to people who subscribe to the bot, other players are given a chance to join the game. Once started the game simulates day/night cycle and allows players to vote for who might be a werewolf during the day.

During the night wolves can vote on who to murder.

There could be the same roles as the wolfgame on irc, assigned at startup and given special abilities. All that is really required to make this game work is public messaging and private messaging. Then everything else is just like the IRC version.

The IRC version can now be found in #werewolf@liberachat.

Just leaving it here.
Server vs server tournaments.

🌏 Sci-fi Labs Federated Worldbuilding

The other day via iAlja I was pointed to the Science Fiction Economics Lab. It is an initiative of storytelling viable alternatives to Hypercapitalism, which is currently the only game we play. This open community encourages people to join and build alternative worlds and explore radically different concepts together. It hopes to inspire and foster a creative ecosystem of cool spin-off projects to explore new things.

The set up is a bit weird and you have to figure it out. Much of the worldbuilding discussion takes place on a discourse forum. But it gave me 2 ideas:

1. We might build a world that envisions a mature Fediverse that goes way beyond what we currently have (and will smash the vision of the Metaverse, though that's not its prime goal).
2. The Fedijams might take place inside this world, and with the purpose to further enrich it all the time.

The Fedijams wouldn't change much compared to how they are currently organized, except that with this world in the background they've found common ground. There's more of a uniting factor, and more focus on collaborating on the Fediverse and with other fedizens. The world we started at Sci-Fi Labs is the substrate to which Fedijams are tied.

What's interesting is that - as the world gets richer - there's more and more game-building material available. Different storylines to explore, characters to develop, etc. Candidate submission can give different twists to submissions from prior fedijams, maybe completely different perspective, atmosphere and game type. All the narratives and the world itself serve to attract a broader audience to explore further than pure gamejams ever could (they'll mostly appeal to gamedevs that are able to crank out some game in a week).

On all levels building blocks become available that make Fedijams easier to participate in. On the technical end, if we imagine a future fediverse, there's a lot of potential if we manage to move from silo-first to task-oriented app design. Where this will lead us might be close to the radical vision of MercuryOS (read also: Introduction to Mercury OS). For fedijams available building blocks might include e.g. some core federation library, so that is doesn't have to be reinvented for every game submission.

As for setting all this up, instead of the forum associated with sci-fi labs, we might tie this to Fediverse Town for non-technical parts and SocialHub for tech aspects and @Houkime's Federated Game Store once that shapes up, hence binding communities together.

See also: Sci-Fi Labs Federated Worldbuilding