Simulations and Socket.IO

When a facilitator enters the administration panel or a player joins the game page for a simulation, they will initially be connected to the server's Socket.IO instance. Socket.IO is a library that is used to handle real-time bi-directional communication, which we use to provide the interactive experience for players and administrators.

Room status format

{
  roomStatus {
    running      // boolean value; when false, game is paused
    level        // integer that represents which page simulation is currently on
                 // only used when
    startTime    // unix timestamp, represents when game has started/last unpaused
    timeElapsed  // represents how much time has passed since last paused
    settings {
      advanceMode  // "student", "teacher", or an integer value (timed mode in minutes)
                   // determines who has the privilege to advance the simulation
                   // student by default
      roleMode     // "student", "teacher", "random", or "randomByLevel"
                   // determines how roles are assigned in the simulation
                   // student by default
    }
    variables    // object that stores game variables (key is variable name)
                 // which can be manipulated by gamepieces
    gamepieces   // object that stores status of gamepieces (key is gamepiece id)
                 // values are also objects and vary depending on the gamepiece
  }
  messages [{
    sender {
      name       // string values; name and role player entered when joining game
      role
      id         // player's current socket.io connection id, subject to change
      dbid       // unique id stored in player's localstorage which stays consistent
                 // used to determine who they are if regular id changes
                 // if the player was registered before joining, this is their
                 // primary key from their database record
      invited    // boolean value; whether or not player was registered before joining
    }
    room         // room code id (similar to the one in the game room url)
    message      // message content string value
    timeSent     // unix timestamp
  }]
  interactions {
    gamepieceId  // id of the gamepiece 
  }
}

You can view a real example of a game status object by downloading the JSON of a previous run: