Research Software Engineer Jeooooopararardy!

This is an interactive trivia game for research software engineers!

Usage

You can write a custom board under _data/boards and make sure to add it to the _data/games.yaml file, and add a markdown file to boards that will ensure it renders at the URL. As an example:

• The example board data is at _data/boards/example.yaml
• It has name "Example Board" and data file "example" (matching the above under boards, no extension)
• The file pages/boards.md has a permalink of /boards/example/ that matches the data file above.

We will eventually have testing to ensure that the data is formatted correctly, etc.

How does it work?

Hosting

The host should run the game locally, and this is important so the questions aren't public and nobody can cheat! This means you will:

$ bundle exec jekyll serve

And open your browser to http://localhost:4000/jeaporady/ to get started! To host, you can bring your own style, but generally:

1. Use https://ccg.buzz/host/ to host a game, and send the buzzer code to your participants.
2. I find it helpful to have an external monitor (shared on Zoom) to show the game, and then have this buzz page on my other computer to keep track of who buzzed in first. You'll also want the question yaml open to see if they get the right answer (or not).
3. You can introduce the categories at the start of the game.
4. For each round, have contestants select a topic for a particular amount. Clicking the question will open it up, and then click the square in the top right to show the answer and minimize the question.
5. There are two rounds and a final question - to proceed between rounds click the leftmost square in the bottom right.
6. The final question is the square at the bottom right (to the right).
7. It probably is easiest to keep score in a spreadsheet or similar.

See the rules below for details about gameplay. You should read these rules to your contestants before playing! I haven't figured out how daily doubles work yet! After I familiarize again with the game, I'm planning on making some questions / topics around Research Software Engineering. If I can do that, then we can host a fun game!!

Rules

We can use a derivation of these rules and you can decide whether to use teams or individuals. I'll summarize a simple version here.

1. Choose a team or person to start first.
2. They can choose a category and dollar amount, and are asked the question.
3. At the end of the host reading the question the host can allow up to some amount of time for someone to respond. This can be explicitly timed (5 seconds), or what I do with family is wait until it feels like nobody is responding.
4. The first to buzz in gets to answer - in the form of a question "Who is..." or "What is.." etc.

• If correct, the team gets the dollar amount, and to choose the next question.
• If incorrect, you should deduct the amount and others are given a chance to answer.
• If nobody gets it, the host reads the answer and then the last person correct gets to choose the question.

5. Daily double can appear a minimum of once, and a maximum of three times. There can only be one daily double in the first round (single) and then up to two in the double round. You'll need to manually set isDailyDouble on the questions you want.
6. The final question has a category, and teams get to put down an amount to guess, and then they win or lose that amount. They can wager up to their current total score, and they must make the wager after being shown the category, but before the question. They have 30 seconds to guess, etc.

Writing Games

To write a game, the easiest thing to do is copy a file in _data/boards to your own custom name. For each game, you are required to have three rounds:

• single
• double
• final

Each of "single" and "double" requires 6 columns (categories) each with (recommended) 5 questions. If you change the number of questions the board will grow appropriately, but make sure you have the same number across each one. This will be tested in the automation workflow. You also are required to have (under the "double" round one isDailyDouble question. The final question is randomly chosen from the set you provide, so make sure to provide at least two. It's recommnded to run new sets of questions on your localhost, and only to only add your game to the website after that (to ensure nobody can cheat).

Thanks

The original source credit goes to nominalaeon and the original MIT license is included here.