Applications

The user entry for a given player always has a single active application registered at any given time. The application must be the appropriate kind for the current user avatar. E.g. terminal avatars require terminal applications and web avatars require web applications. Applications must be convertible from one kind to another so that a user can switch between interfaces. Because of this, an application should maintain state in its appstate property which can readilly be transferred to a similar application of a different kind. Applications implement the txwerewolves.interfaces.IApplication.produce_compatible_application() to perform such conversions.

The Lobby Application

The Lobby application is the default application. Each player’s state is maintained by a finite state machine. Players may move through various states. A player may start a session and invite others to join. She may accept an invitation or reject it. She can leave a session or cancel a session she initiated. She may also start a session which players have joined. this latter action will replace the Lobby application for players who have joined the session with the Werewolves! game application.

The Werewolves! Application

The Werewolves! game application is different from the Lobby application in that the game state is shared amongst the members of the session. In contrast, the Lobby application of a given player doesn’t share state with the Lobby applications of other players– all interaction is mediated via changes to a shared session instance.

The game application is modeled as a shared finite state machine. Players are only able to activate transitions in the game’s state machine when their role becomes active, but this information is generally kept hidden from the other players.