Terminology

• A Game is a contest between n specific Players.

• A Game has a current State.

• The GameServer knows about many different GameTypes.

• A GameType has a nice name. A GameType has a unique identifier (string, for identifying). A GameType specifies how many players are allowed in a Game. A GameType knows how to serialize the State of a Game. The State of a Game includes not only things like board state, but also score and stats. A GameType knows how to serialize the Public State of a Game. This is the subset of State information sent to Players. A GameType knows how to determine which Player gets the next Move in a Game. Some games/rules might have a player skip a turn. A GameType knows how to deserialize a Move. A GameType knows how to validate a Move for legality. A GameType knows how to mutate the State of a Game based on a Move. A GameType knows how to determine if a Game is finished. A GameType knows how to provide a final Score for each Player in a Game.

The GameServer keeps track of multiple concurrent Games. The GameServer is responsible for storing and retrieving Game States. A Player should be able to break the connection to the server and then rejoin an existing game. The GameServer accepts a Turn from a Player. The GameServer is responsible for communicating between Players and a GameType about a Game. Or more likely, a GameType is a class and a Game is an instance of that class, and so communication is made directly with a game instance. A Turn combines a Game Move with Game and Player identifiers. The GameServer is responsible for verifying that a Turn made by a Player was actually sent by that Player, and the Player is part of the described Game. The GameServer is responsible for feeding Moves by Players to the GameType in the order it requests them.

The GameServer is eventually responsible for clearing out old games. The GameServer keeps track of player and game statistics.

The ClientAPI knows how to talk to the GameServer for a Player. (e.g. communicating with whatever unique identifiers and security are required for verification) The ClientAPI facilitates in parsing GameServer responses (e.g. raising errors based on JSON). The ClientAPI helps set up a Game (e.g. callbacks for when the game is on, when its your turn, asking for the game state)

Because putting Things in CapitalLetters and CamelCase makes them Official.