General Game Playing

International Competition

Overview

The IGGPC consists of periodic online competitions, an annual championship match among the top performers in the periodic competition, and occasional man-machine demonstration matches. All phases of the IGGPC are administered online via the Gamemaster competition system (http://gamemaster.stanford.edu).

Entering Players

In order to enter a player in the competition, you need to register the player in Gamemaster an upload the player code.

Registering a player. Unless your player is already signed in, there should be a Sign In link at the top of every Gamemaster page. Clicking this link will take you to a sign in page. If your player is already registered, you can use this page to sign it in. Otherwise, click the Sign Up link to go to a sign up page. Enter your preferred player identifier, your preferred player name, and the email address of the primary contact. Then press the Sign Up button. Your player's account will be created, and the player's password will be emailed to the principal contact and all additional contacts you specify. You can then use your player identifier and this password to sign in.

Uploading a player. In order to upload a player, click on the player link in the upper right corner and click the Upload Player button. Select an HTML file for your player from your local machine and press Upload. This will upload your player file and store it on Gamemaster using your player's identifier. Note that this will overwrite any previous version of the player.

Removing a player. To remove a player, click on the Profile link in the upper right corner and click the Remove Player button. Click OK. This will remove the player code from Gamemaster. (Your player will still be "registered", but it will be unable to participate in competitions until the player code is replaced.)

Automated Competitions

Once you have uploaded a player, it is automatically available for the monthly, annual, and carbon-silicon competitions. There is nothing more you need to do. If you do not want your player to be used in any of these competitions, simply remove your player as described above.

Match history. Once a match played, it is recorded in the Gamemaster database. You can view completed matches by clicking on the Matches link on the Gamemaster homepage. Clicking on the Review link link for a match allows you to step through the match.

Leaderboard. Clicking an the Leaderboard link presents a summary of the matches played in the most recent competition. You can view the leaderboard for specific players, specific games, or earlier competitions by selecting values in the drop-down lists at the top of the page.

Running Matches

You can also run matches on your own. There are five steps - (1) starting players, (2) starting a manager, (3) setting up the match, (4) "pinging" the players, and (5) initiating the match.

Starting players. To start players, go the Gamemaster home page and click Players. Select a player and click Launch. This will create a new window or tab in your browser running the player you selected.

Starting a manager. To start a game manager, go the Gamemaster home page and click Games. Select a game, and click the corresponding Manage a Match link.

Setting up a match. Once you have created a manager, you must fill in necessary details. If you want to change the start clock or play clock for the match, click on the corresponding pencils at the top of the page and enter the desired values. Whether or not you change the clocks, you must tell the managers which players to use. To do this, click on each role box in the scoreboard and, for each, enter the name of the player you want to use to play that role.

Pinging the players. In order to check that the players are running properly and able to communicate, click the Ping button. This will result in a pop up with the number of players that have responded successfully as a fraction of the total number of roles in the selected game. If the fraction is less than 1, it is good practice to try at least one more time to clear out any left-over messages in the communication channel. If the fraction is still less than 1, it means that some of the players are not functioning properly.

Initiating a match. Once you have set up a match and pinged the players, it is time to start the match. To do this, press the Run button. Then you can sit back and watch the players play the game. If you want to stop the match for any reason, press the Abort button.

Note that Gamemaster does not record matches initiated by users. So, once you have played a match, you may want to record the results on your own.