Inside The Box

A multi-player puzzle solving and creation game for minetest.

The game is meant to be run as a multiplayer puzzle-creating server. Players can connect and either play boxes, or create new ones.

The basic concept of the game is boxes. This is an area in which the player needs to find one or more objectives (keys). The player then needs to bring these objectives to a slot (keyhole). Once all the secrets have been found and returned, an exit opens that allows the player out, completing the puzzle box.

This minetest game is strongly inspired by the "parcels" MC player map. I did not want to replicate the map itself, even though the conversion tools exist to mostly do this, but more because giving it a multiplayer spin sounds much more appealing, and a far better tribute to the map itself. The possibility of having hundreds of puzzle boxes created also sounds much more appealing.

Playing

A player can choose to play available boxes. Selecting an available level to play will create a private copy of the level box and teleport the player to the starting point of the level. The starting point is in a hallway or entry room. There can be some clues left, and there should be some information of the builder, and perhaps difficulty, time spent by players in the level, popularity, rating information.

From the hallway the player should have some visual on the inside of the box. This will help players recognize boxes easier so they can skip ones they have played before, or gauge difficulty, etc..

The player moves through a door to the level. This may trigger a teleport to a starting location, or not. On the side of the wall somewhere is displayed a large number corresponding with the box ID.

In the box there is a collection area. In the collection area there are 1 or more collection slots. The slots all require to be filled with a "key" item. These items are found anywhere in the level. The player picks up the item and brings them to the collection slots.

The box largely contains unbreakable nodes. The box may contain certain digging tools to break nodes in the box (e.g. an axe to break certain wood blocks, a pickaxe to break stone blocks, or a shovel to dig sand blocks). The player may be forced to use these tools to reach new areas in the box, or to create bridges or ladders to climb up.

The player can not physically exit the box. The box is surrounded by unbreakable blocks uncluding invisible ceilings where needed. The player has an "escape" button that, when used, removes the player from the game and returns the player to the general lobby.

The player may take damage in the box through falling or lava or cacti, or other methods. The player recovers lost health somewhat quickly, but some errors may be deadly.

Once the player collects all the needed items, an exit doorway opens or becomes reachable. The player moves through the exit doorway and ends in an exit lobby/hallway.

In the exit lobby/hallway, the player can leave feedback or ranking votes for the level. Last, there is a method for the player to return to the general lobby. The player also receives a ranking/score about their performance in the box itself, but only on the first attempt. The performance includes time spent in the box, times died, and damage taken.

Constructing

Players can construct new boxes. They do this by entering a pristine box that is created on the fly for them. In this box, the player receives full editing privileges. The player can construct and modify the collection point, place the secrets, place any node or liquid, fire, TNT or other element provided to them.

The entry hallway has a spot for a sign hint that the constructor can modify. It also has an interface for modifying the box parameters, such as name and size, and variations such as entry/exit gate locations and collection point stations.

Points

Points act as a measure of commitment. The more actions a player does that are in the interest of the community, the more points a player gains. These points can be exchanged for privileges.

For each level played and rated the player earns points.

A player may lose points for dying a lot in boxes, or dying a lot in boxes in general. A player may also lose points for other actions, such as going idle in a box, never rating boxes or always rating boxes the same level of hearts. This lowers the input their actions they have into the system. E.g. if a player continuously dies many times in a few boxes, their scoring values are reduced in the averages by a factor, reducing their impact on ratings.

Privileges that can be reached through gaining points are:

• ability to create new boxes
• ability to submit more boxes for trials
• ability to choose larger level boxes
• moderation of boxes that are eligible for moderation
• moderation of other players with a lower point level

Ranking/Rating

Boxes are rated/ranked per players. Good boxes are promoted to box series that can be accessed from the main lobby easily ("play this months' top boxes") and ultimately make it in to a list of ultimate box boxes. This level series of boxes will only ever grow, and the player can track his progress through these series and continue at any point left.

A Random box can be chosen from the lobby.

A player can test trial boxes. Trial boxes are not yet finished but submitted by the creator for review. The player can rate and provide comments ("can't continue", "fell and stuck in a hole", "too easy") to the creator so they may modify the box.

Points are scored for time spent. More time equals more points, except when players are leaving before finishing, which subtracts points.

Points are scored for player rating. 0-5 hearts can be given.

Points are scored for damage taken by players, but subtracted for multiple deaths of the same player. In general, a player dying once in a level is OK, as long as it is instructional to the player and they understand afterwards how to overcome an obstacle. Subsequent deaths of a player may subtract points (note: need to account for trolling here).

Series

Series are curated boxes that can be played in succession. A series of boxes grows one box at a time (interval to be determined) and the newest box is always the top ranked box that is not yet in that series. It may be that a fixed amount of scoring points needs to be gained before a box can be promoted to a series.

• Master Series: A series of best rated boxes over time. These are boxes that have exceeded a certain amount of points. They are permanently added to the master series forever.

• The trial Series: Unranked and unfinished boxes. These are marked "can be played" but "review requested". Players can recieve extra points when they play and rank these.

• The Newest Series: Best ranked boxes in a certain time frame. These are up and coming boxes that are relatively new, but have been past review already (no longer "review requested"). Players are encouraged to play these boxes every week and rate.

Other box choices

These are suggested game play modes to vary game play a bit.

• Random rated or Random unrated box: Play a random box.
• Box Race: Several players each attempt the same box separately.
• Coop: Try boxes together with another player.

Roles

• Admin: reserved role for a player that can always moderate players and/or boxes, ban/kick players, edit all boxes, remove boxes.
• Moderator: may suspend players, may suspend boxes.
• Player: no privileges.

Technology

Inside The Box uses lsqlite3 to store player, box, series and score data. This assures that large amounts of data can be stored easily with reasonably good performance and reliability.

For creation and playing of maps, a virtual plot is reserved per player in a random location on the map away from the static lobby. This reservation is destroyed when the box is no longer needed.

The box contents are stored in the sqlite database and restored for each player that attempts to play the box. This assures that multiple players can separately try the same box without conflicts.

The sqlite backend also allows efficient storing and retrieval of scores for players or boxes and creating ranks, modifying or inspecting state of boxes or players.

Placement of boxes will use VoxelManips as well as additional metadata where needed to connect dynamic elements inside the box. These are subsequently connected to assure proper functioning of the box.

Running this game

1. Install insidethebox in the games folder like a normal game.

2. Install luarocks for Lua 5.1. Your distribution most likely will not have it - you'll have to compile it from source code. You can find instructions on how to do this for instance here:

   • https://stackoverflow.com/questions/20321560/how-do-install-libraries-for-both-lua5-2-and-5-1-using-luarocks
    

3. Use luarocks to install lsqlite3. Make sure to use the luarocks version you compiled for Lua 5.1. This should create a file called lsqlite3.so that Minetest will try to find. If Minetest can not find this file, it will print out the folders that it was looking for. If that happens, try copying the lsqlite3.so file to one of the folders that Minetest prints out.

4. Add secure.trusted_mods to the minetest.conf file and add db. If you plan on using the irc mod or other mods, you will need to add them here. Add them without spaces but with commas: secure.trusted_mods = db,irc

5. You will need a localmusic mod. Copy the mod from inside the .../games/insidethebox/mods/music/localmusic to your .../worlds/<worldname>/worldmods/ folder.

6. Configure your admin account by setting name = adminname in the minetest.conf setting for this world. The admin gets a creative inventory access while players do not. There is no need to run the world in creative mode.

After that, you should be able to log in and start building a lobby, and use the commands to create and play boxes.

Additional world settings you may need to change later are:

Optional world settings are:

lobby_respawn_center = (<x>,<y>,<z>) -- where to respawn players who come back
                                     -- to the lobby
lobby_respawn_radius = <min>,<max>   -- use this radius around the center

tutorial_required = <true,false>     -- are players required to complete this
tutorial_series = <id>               -- number of the tutorial series
tutorial_entry_lobby = <id>          -- tutorial entry lobby box_id
tutorial_exit_lobby = <id>           -- tutorial exit lobby box_id
tutorial_exit = (<x>,<y>,<z>)        -- where to teleport player at end of tutorial

announce_irc_admins = "john,frank"   -- no spaces, lists irc names that will receive admin announcements