psc

A very basic multiplayer game library.

This library was created for playing multiplayer games either locally on the same machine or remotely via, for example, an ssh(1) connection. The primary use-case is for making terminal games with leisurely turn-based gameplay and text-based graphics in support of low bandwidth/latency internet connections.

UNIX domain sockets are used for communication between the different game instances (running on the same machine), using a client-server model. The library shares game state concurrently between a server instance and the client games, using POSIX threads. It works well in tandem with a TUI library such as curses, and indeed the example games use this for their interface design. Note that, at less than 800 SLOC, the library is very minimal — proper synchronisation of game state needs to be enforced by the user.

Installation

The library and example games are written in C for POSIX.1-2008 compliant operating systems. Apart from a C compiler, the only other dependency (for the example games) is the ncurses library.

Edit config.mk to suit your system setup, then use the provided Makefile to build the library and games:

git clone https://github.com/lewis-weinberger/psc.git
cd psc
make

This will create directories lib/ and bin/ containing the library and games respectively. By default the games link to the library dynamically. To make just the library, use make lib. To make an individual game, use make game (substituting game for your desired game).

To install system-wide, use:

make install

By default this installs the (shared) library, games and manual page to /usr/local (see config.mk).

Any intermediate build artefacts that are not automagically removed by make will be stored in a build/ directory. Use make clean to remove the compiled executables and object files. Similarly, make uninstall will remove installed files. Note that make needs to be run from the root directory of the repository.

Documentation

Details of how to use the library can be found in psc(3):

# assuming `make install` has put psc.3 somewhere on your MANPATH
man psc
# otherwise try
man ./man/man3/psc.3

Usage of the example games can be listed with the -h switch, for example:

blackjack -h

will print:

usage: blackjack [-h] [-n nclient]
-h:
        prints this help
-n:
        specify number of clients (server only)

Example Games

The following games are being written for the collection:

Blackjack: 2+ players

Other ideas for future games:

Labyrinth: 3+ players
Sternhalma: 2, 3, 4 or 6 players
Go: 2 players
Chess: 2 players

License

MIT