Setting up Tournaments and Gameplay Parameters

Tournaments and gameplay parameters allow you to further customize your game on MiniTon. Tournaments allow you to specify the types of matches your game offers, while gameplay parameters can be used to alter the runtime behavior of your game.

Tournaments

MiniTon offers you the ability to set up several different types of tournaments through which players can compete for virtual points or cash. You can set up Tournaments in the MiniTon Developer Console.

How Tournaments Work

In MiniTon, tournaments are either asynchronous (what we call Play and Compare) or Real-Time Synchronous.

Play and Compare tournaments are asynchronous. This means players do not have to wait to be matched with another person and compete in real-time. Instead, any time a player enters a tournament they will immediately be put into a game. Their score will be recorded and matched against another player with a similar rating. If a match isn’t immediately found, MiniTon will hold on to that player’s score and wait for another player with matching skills to enter the same tournament.

In Real-Time Synchronous tournaments, players are matched with another person and compete in real time. Any time a player enters a tournament they must wait for another player to enter before being put into a game. Each player will see the opponent's progress in real time, and aborting will immediately end the tournament.

Types of Tournaments

Head-to-Head Tournaments

These are the “standard” type of tournament, pitting two players directly against each other in a winner-take-all competition. Most MiniTon games implement this kind of tournament, and they’re the best kind when still in the process of building up your player population.

Multiple Player Tournaments

In Multiple Player tournaments, you can have four players compete for the best score in the game. As in Head to Head, a lone winner takes all of the proceeds. These tournaments are best suited for games with large player populations, as more players are needed to fill in these games. If your game supports standard tournaments, then it already supports Multiple Player tournaments as well! The differences between the two are all managed by MiniTon.

Bracket Tournaments

In Bracket Tournaments, a group of players will compete in a series of rounds. The loser of each round is eliminated and the winner proceeds to compete against other winners. This continues until only one remains. These tournaments are best suited for games with large player populations, as more players are needed to fill in these games. If your game supports standard tournaments, then it already supports Bracket tournaments as well! The differences between the two are all managed by MiniTon.

Cash or Virtual Currency Tournaments

Players in MiniTon tournaments can choose between competing for MiniTon Virtual Currency (known as 'Point') or for real money or for Toncoin. While 'Point' may be used for certain in-MiniTon purchases, only Toncoin and cash can be withdrawn from the system.

Creating Tournaments

MiniTon starts you off with a default set of 6 Head-to-Head tournaments, 3 Cash tournaments, and 3 Virtual Currency tournaments. Having a large number of tournaments creates a negative experience for players when they are unable to match with another player. This leads to tournaments being canceled and players being refunded.

Once your game starts to scale and more players join the game, higher prize templates and bracket tournaments are enabled automatically by MiniTon.

Editing Tournaments

Different tournaments can be configured from your game’s page on the MiniTon Developer Console. There, you can experiment with different tournaments and identify the ones that are most popular with your player base.

CAUTION

Once a production build is uploaded to the developer console, all tournament settings will be locked and unable to be changed without the assistance of MiniTon. This is done to prevent fairness issues. Please make sure you are done configuring your templates before uploading a production build. You can request a parameter change by contacting MiniTon.

You can also customize different types of games by setting up Gameplay Parameters on the MiniTon Developer Console.

Gameplay Parameters

The MiniTon Developer Console allows you to set up different types of tournaments for your game. Additionally, you can configure each tournament to have specific gameplay parameters. These are essentially key-value pairs that you set up on the MiniTon Developer Console. When a match begins, you can retrieve these parameters.

Purpose

So, what's the purpose of setting up gameplay parameters? In essence, gameplay parameters allow you to modify your game's gameplay behavior at runtime. Some examples of gameplay parameters include:

• Size or length of the game

• Level of difficulty and how difficulty increases over time

• Different characters or weapon loadouts

• Points for specific actions

• Bonuses for achievements

• Different game objectives

As you can see, the possibilities are endless. When set up thoughtfully, gameplay parameters can increase user engagement for your game and therefore increase monetization opportunities. If anything, they're an easy way to add excitement and replayability to your game.

Setting Up Gameplay Parameters

Gameplay parameters are set up in the MiniTon Developer Console for your game. Please head over there and set some up before attempting to retrieve them from your game.

Retrieving Gameplay Parameters

Now that you have gameplay parameters set up, retrieving them is fairly straightforward. When a match begins, MiniTon will send your gameplay parameters as key-value pairs. Each value is sent as a string, so you'll have to convert each value to the desired data type. The examples below retrieve a TimeLimit gameplay parameter that is parsed as an integer.

INFO

When you parse the parameter strings to floats, make sure to be cognizant of the player’s culture settings so the parser properly handles periods and commas in floats.

For example, in Unity, you can overload the Parse method with CultureInfo.InvariantCulture to make the call culture-independent. float.Parse(".8", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture)

Unity/C#

MiniTonGameController.cs

using MiniTonSDK;
using UnityEngine.SceneManagement;

public sealed class MiniTonGameController : MiniTonMatchDelegate
{
    public void OnMatchWillBegin(Match matchInfo)
    {
        if (matchInfo.GameParams.ContainsKey("TimeLimit"))
        {
            string timeLimitStr = matchInfo.GameParams["TimeLimit"];
            int timeLimit = int.Parse(timeLimitStr);

            // Modify your game's time limit
        }
    }
}

In this example, MiniTonGameController implements the MiniTonMatchDelegate interface so that it can be notified when a match is beginning. When that happens, OnMatchWillBegin() is called and provides a Match object matchInfo. The gameplay parameters are in the matchInfo.GameParams property.

You can also retrieve the gameplay parameters at any time during the match by calling MiniTonCrossPlatform.GetMatchRules(). More detailed documentation can be found in the API Reference

JavaScript

MiniTonGameController class that handles gameplay parameters using MiniTonSDK:

const MiniTonSDK = {
    // Simulate Match object (replace with actual implementation)
    Match: {
        GameParams: {
            TimeLimit: "60", // Simulated gameplay parameter
            // Add more gameplay parameters as needed
        },
    },
    GetMatchRules: function () {
        return this.Match.GameParams;
    },
};

class MiniTonGameController {
    OnMatchWillBegin(matchInfo) {
        if (matchInfo.GameParams.hasOwnProperty("TimeLimit")) {
            const timeLimitStr = matchInfo.GameParams["TimeLimit"];
            const timeLimit = parseInt(timeLimitStr);

            // Modify your game's time limit based on the retrieved parameter
            console.log("Time Limit:", timeLimit);
        }
    }
}

// Usage example
const miniTonGameController = new MiniTonGameController();
const matchInfo = MiniTonSDK.Match;
miniTonGameController.OnMatchWillBegin(matchInfo);

The MiniTonGameController class implements the logic for handling gameplay parameters when a match begins. The OnMatchWillBegin method checks if the "TimeLimit" parameter exists in the matchInfo.GameParams property and modifies the game's time limit based on the retrieved parameter.

You can use the MiniTonSDK.GetMatchRules() function to retrieve gameplay parameters at any time during the match.