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DonationCoder.com Software => Older DC Contests and Challenges => N.A.N.Y. 2018 => Topic started by: mouser on October 13, 2017, 08:40 PM

Title: NANY 2018 Release: cnpaperplay - Codenames /Codenames Duet Play on Paper Clone
Post by: mouser on October 13, 2017, 08:40 PM
cnpaperplay is a play-on-paper game based on a very of an awesome two-player cooperative word-based board game called Codenames Duet (https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/224037/codenames-duet) by Vlaada Chvátil and Scot Eaton.

Note that this game plays very well over the phone, by text, by email, etc. -- players do not have to be in the same physical location.

[ You are not allowed to view attachments ] (https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/224037/codenames-duet)


Basic rules of the game:

My version does things very slightly differently since I designed it to be played on paper, but the basic idea is the same.
The created pdf books have some brief instructions but to learn more how to play see the official detailed rules of Codenames Duet: https://czechgames.com/files/rules/codenames-duet-rules-en.pdf



What I chose to do is write some fairly flexible code that makes print-and-play "books" (pdf files) that can be split up between two players, who can then play the entire game with paper and pencil.
Each page is a separate game/puzzle.
The code can make random books of any size and with difference configuration parameters, and supports custom word files.



I'll open source the code at NANY time but for now here are two sample books.  Remember that each player gets their own book -- you can't look at the book of your partner!!

If you feel like trying a game (or 10), these two booklets are all you need.  Print them and give each player a book and a pen and you are good to go:

[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]




Or get a version with japanese and other language translations: https://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Mouser/cnpaperplay/downloads/cnpaperplay_books.zip.

Download/browse the python source code which has now been open sourced on github:
https://github.com/dcmouser/cnpaperplay

The data files (words and instructions) are easily translatable into different languages if anyone feels so inclined.
Title: Re: NANY 2018 Release: cnpaperplay - Codenames /Codenames Duet Play on Paper Clone
Post by: tomos on October 14, 2017, 06:59 AM
Sounds great !
I have played this, but once only.
Will we non-coders be able to create our own word lists? (I'm thinking for other languages as well.)
Title: Re: NANY 2018 Release: cnpaperplay - Codenames /Codenames Duet Play on Paper Clone
Post by: mouser on October 14, 2017, 08:21 AM
Will we non-coders be able to create our own word lists? (I'm thinking for other languages as well.)
Yep already implemented, and unicode supported.
Title: Re: NANY 2018 Release: cnpaperplay - Codenames /Codenames Duet Play on Paper Clone
Post by: tomos on October 14, 2017, 08:34 AM
Will we non-coders be able to create our own word lists? (I'm thinking for other languages as well.)
Yep already implemented, and unicode supported.

sounds even better :Thmbsup:
Title: Re: NANY 2018 Release: cnpaperplay - Codenames /Codenames Duet Play on Paper Clone
Post by: mouser on October 14, 2017, 10:56 PM
Someone try playing it!
Title: Re: NANY 2018 Release: cnpaperplay - Codenames /Codenames Duet Play on Paper Clone
Post by: mouser on October 15, 2017, 10:43 AM
If anyone wants me to make a pair of books in a different language I just need a text file with your words (original file has 400 english words but the number isn't important).
Title: Re: NANY 2018 Release: cnpaperplay - Codenames /Codenames Duet Play on Paper Clone
Post by: mouser on October 16, 2017, 07:45 PM
For those curious -- I wrote it first in PHP, thinking I might use the codebase for a web-based version of the game.  Then for fun I re-wrote it in python.
Title: Re: NANY 2018 Release: cnpaperplay - Codenames /Codenames Duet Play on Paper Clone
Post by: mouser on October 17, 2017, 04:12 AM
Update: I extended the utility to make books for standard team-based Codenames (https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/178900/codenames) as well.. Standby for samples..

For team play you can get away with only 2 books, one for the leaders, and one for the guessers, which mirrors how the real game is played (one key card shared between the leaders and then the public display of cards that everyone can see).

But a nice aspect of the play by paper version is you could give everyone their own booklet and they could spread out across the room in any way they wish and play.

[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]

[EDIT: See first post for download]
Title: Re: NANY 2018 Release: cnpaperplay - Codenames /Codenames Duet Play on Paper Clone
Post by: tomos on October 21, 2017, 01:38 PM
First play (of duet) this evening -- I really enjoyed it :)
We got confused about the black: I thought if something was black on my list, I couldn't guess it -- but once we figured that out that I could gues them (and it was the other player could not) it was fine.
Title: Re: NANY 2018 Release: cnpaperplay - Codenames /Codenames Duet Play on Paper Clone
Post by: mouser on October 21, 2017, 02:03 PM
Excellent.  Yeah that can be confusing -- maybe I can put a reminder about that up front.
Title: Re: NANY 2018 Release: cnpaperplay - Codenames /Codenames Duet Play on Paper Clone
Post by: tomos on October 21, 2017, 03:24 PM
How did you choose the word list mouser?
Are they random, or is there a logic or conditions to it?

(Wondering about creating a word list in other language/s)
Title: Re: NANY 2018 Release: cnpaperplay - Codenames /Codenames Duet Play on Paper Clone
Post by: mouser on October 21, 2017, 03:53 PM
It's the 400 word list used in the original board game.
There was a discussion thread on boardgamegeek about using alternate words and it was mentioned that many of the words used have alternate meanings, which was by design.
Title: Re: NANY 2018 Release: cnpaperplay - Codenames /Codenames Duet Play on Paper Clone
Post by: mouser on October 21, 2017, 04:07 PM
Here's the combined english wordlist from Codenames and Codenames Duet.
It's what I'm currently using.
Title: Re: NANY 2018 Release: cnpaperplay - Codenames /Codenames Duet Play on Paper Clone
Post by: tomos on October 22, 2017, 02:12 PM
^ thanks for the wordlist mouser -- mind if I ask where you got it?
was it from that boardgamegeek.com thread? if so any chance of a link for it -- search there is not working at the moment (504 error).

Simply translating the list wouldn't really work -- as you say, many of the words have a couple of meanings -- that would be lost in translation.

Reminds me of a german spoken game:
Teekesselchen, literally meaning 'tea-kettle', but today used to mean homonym.
Two people choose a word with two different meanings, then each person 'acts' as one meaning of that word:
'I am small' 'I grow' 'I am not alive' etc. etc.
others meanwhile try and guess the word.
Title: Re: NANY 2018 Release: cnpaperplay - Codenames /Codenames Duet Play on Paper Clone
Post by: mouser on October 22, 2017, 02:17 PM
https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1413932/word-list
https://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/136292/codenames-word-list
https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1383878/word-list-future-moderators-codenames-games
Title: Re: NANY 2018 Release: cnpaperplay - Codenames /Codenames Duet Play on Paper Clone
Post by: tomos on October 22, 2017, 03:25 PM
^ thanks mouser
Title: Re: NANY 2018 Release: cnpaperplay - Codenames /Codenames Duet Play on Paper Clone
Post by: mouser on October 22, 2017, 11:53 PM
Simply translating the list wouldn't really work -- as you say, many of the words have a couple of meanings -- that would be lost in translation.

I'm not so sure -- I don't think the specific words make that big of a difference to be honest.
Title: Re: NANY 2018 Release: cnpaperplay - Codenames /Codenames Duet Play on Paper Clone
Post by: tomos on October 23, 2017, 06:05 AM
Simply translating the list wouldn't really work -- as you say, many of the words have a couple of meanings -- that would be lost in translation.

I'm not so sure -- I don't think the specific words make that big of a difference to be honest.

With the help of phitsc's Text Inspection & Manipulation Utility (https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=36544.0), I now have ~240 german words which are all 'Teekesselchen' (homonyms).

I know that might make it too easy, but how about we go with that for the moment?
and I can get a couple of people to try it out and give feedback, and maybe improve the list for a future version
Title: Re: NANY 2018 Release: cnpaperplay - Codenames /Codenames Duet Play on Paper Clone
Post by: mouser on October 23, 2017, 02:10 PM
Games generated from your list -- can you please check the words in the games and make sure the character encoding is correct?
Title: Re: NANY 2018 Release: cnpaperplay - Codenames /Codenames Duet Play on Paper Clone
Post by: tomos on October 23, 2017, 03:05 PM
Games generated from your list -- can you please check the words in the games and make sure the character encoding is correct?

the character coding is correct so far, but I'll have to get a native speaker to look at that list, I see one word I'm not 100% sure of (sorry, should have gotten that done first :-/)
Title: Re: NANY 2018 Release: cnpaperplay - Codenames /Codenames Duet Play on Paper Clone
Post by: mouser on October 23, 2017, 03:06 PM
Only takes a second to regenerate the files, no worries.
Title: Re: NANY 2018 Release: cnpaperplay - Codenames /Codenames Duet Play on Paper Clone
Post by: mouser on December 29, 2017, 04:37 PM
Added link to github repository.
Title: Re: NANY 2018 Release: cnpaperplay - Codenames /Codenames Duet Play on Paper Clone
Post by: mouser on December 29, 2017, 05:32 PM
The code supports alternative languages -- both for the word lists and optionally for the instructions and other texts.

I have someone making a full japanese translation but I could use other language translations if anyone is willing to help.  Anyone?
Title: Re: NANY 2018 Release: cnpaperplay - Codenames /Codenames Duet Play on Paper Clone
Post by: mouser on December 31, 2017, 06:31 AM
Updated first post with link to download premade books with 100 games.

For those who haven't tried playing this, I can't emphasize how good a two-player game this is for couples.  It can be played while casually sitting in a room in different locations and is fun, challenging, and thought-provoking.  And it is a way to get to know each other's way of thinking, and gives you something to talk about afterwards.

Note that this game plays very well over the phone, by text, by email, etc. -- players do not have to be in the same physical location.

Report your best scores for specific game id#s and we can compete/compare to see which team can get the highest score on each game.
Title: Re: NANY 2018 Release: cnpaperplay - Codenames /Codenames Duet Play on Paper Clone
Post by: mouser on January 01, 2018, 01:04 AM
Updated with japanese translation of words and instructions (thanks to Naoki!).

Preview:
[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
Title: Re: NANY 2018 Release: cnpaperplay - Codenames /Codenames Duet Play on Paper Clone
Post by: tomos on January 01, 2018, 07:41 AM
I'm still not 100% clear mouser:
if someone has a word list, [1] do they have to give it to you here, or [2] can they also create a PDF themselves using the code you linked to ?

Note I went to the linked github page and dont see anything accessible (well, not to me at any rate).
Title: Re: NANY 2018 Release: cnpaperplay - Codenames /Codenames Duet Play on Paper Clone
Post by: mouser on January 01, 2018, 08:19 AM
The repository that I have open sourced, as well as the zip file download in the first link has pre-built english pdfs you can just printout and play with.

The source code repository also includes the python utilities that will let you generate new gamebook pdfs, using the included or your own custom word lists, and will let you translate the words and instructions into other languages (japanese is included).  If you can run python and you are on windows or linux x86 you should be able to use these utilities.

If you do make new translations and/or wordfiles, either merge them or send them to me and I can merge them into the official repository.


Note I went to the linked github page and dont see anything accessible (well, not to me at any rate).
It should be live and fully there.
Title: Re: NANY 2018 Release: cnpaperplay - Codenames /Codenames Duet Play on Paper Clone
Post by: mouser on January 01, 2018, 09:12 AM
By the way, the easiest way to play with new word lists is probably to create a new "language" subdirectory and then put your wordfile_default.txt in that subdirectory, and invoke from source/ directory like "cnduet.py --language MYSUBDIRNAME".

Although you are only replacing the wordlist and not creating new language translations, this is the easiest and most flexible solution for testing.
Alternatively you can put the wordfile_default.txt in the main data directory and specify it on the commandline with --wordfile argument.
Title: Re: NANY 2018 Release: cnpaperplay - Codenames /Codenames Duet Play on Paper Clone
Post by: tomos on January 01, 2018, 09:40 AM
Note I went to the linked github page and dont see anything accessible (well, not to me at any rate).

It should be live and fully there.
I'm sure it is --
I was just trying to figure out if this is something easily accessible for me personally as a basic user, or for others like me. So, if your familiar with the cammandline, it's fine.
Title: Re: NANY 2018 Release: cnpaperplay - Codenames /Codenames Duet Play on Paper Clone
Post by: mouser on January 01, 2018, 10:51 AM
For those interested in translating, look at the japanese subfolder -- that shows you a fully translated game (words, templates, etc.).  But when you translate you can leave out certain files and they will resort to default english.

Note also that you don't have to strictly translated the word list -- it will simply use whatever words are there.  In that way you could also make alternate themed versions of the game that used subsets of words (like a halloween book that only had scary words, etc.).
Title: Re: NANY 2018 Release: cnpaperplay - Codenames /Codenames Duet Play on Paper Clone
Post by: mouser on January 02, 2018, 05:51 AM
Updated with new scoring rules, as follows:
"+2 point per target found, +10 per unused turn, -5 per mistake, -10 if sudden death.  Games ended by a black word score differently: -10 points for each unused turn, mistake, and unfound target.  Penalize illegal clues by ticking an extra turn and mistake checkbox."
Title: Re: NANY 2018 Release: cnpaperplay - Codenames /Codenames Duet Play on Paper Clone
Post by: mouser on January 02, 2018, 06:03 AM
You guys who aren't playing this are missing out -- it's a ton of fun.
Title: Re: NANY 2018 Release: cnpaperplay - Codenames /Codenames Duet Play on Paper Clone
Post by: thosch on January 03, 2018, 08:35 AM
Great work, thanks!

I am a native German speaker and checked the list provided by tomos.
It's pretty good, but some word are cut off abruptly.
I corrected this / removed some of those, please find the new file attached - it would be nice if you could generate books using this. Otherwise I could try to figure it out myself, but probably would take me awhile.

Title: Re: NANY 2018 Release: cnpaperplay - Codenames /Codenames Duet Play on Paper Clone
Post by: mouser on January 03, 2018, 08:40 AM
Welcome, thosch! And thank you for the german wordlist

I'm happy to make some german books.
Do you think you might be willing to translate the instruction text as well?

By the way, we have a larger wordlist now.. If you feel like translating the extra words..
Title: Re: NANY 2018 Release: cnpaperplay - Codenames /Codenames Duet Play on Paper Clone
Post by: tomos on January 03, 2018, 08:48 AM
I am a native German speaker and checked the list provided by tomos.
It's pretty good, but some word are cut off abruptly.
I corrected this / removed some of those, please find the new file attached - it would be nice if you could generate books using this. Otherwise I could try to figure it out myself, but probably would take me awhile.

thank you very much thosch !
Title: Re: NANY 2018 Release: cnpaperplay - Codenames /Codenames Duet Play on Paper Clone
Post by: mouser on January 03, 2018, 08:50 AM
I have uploaded a "translator pack" here:
https://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Mouser/cnpaperplay/downloads/cnpaperplay_translatorpack.zip

It has instructions and all the files that need translating to create a full new language version.

I have also added the translator pack files under the documentation/ subdirectory in the github repository.
Title: Re: NANY 2018 Release: cnpaperplay - Codenames /Codenames Duet Play on Paper Clone
Post by: tomos on January 03, 2018, 09:37 AM
When you've uploaded the german language 'books', I'll try and spread the word here a bit.
Title: Re: NANY 2018 Release: cnpaperplay - Codenames /Codenames Duet Play on Paper Clone
Post by: thosch on January 05, 2018, 03:31 AM
Yes, I can do some translations - I will look into it on the weekend!
Title: Re: NANY 2018 Release: cnpaperplay - Codenames /Codenames Duet Play on Paper Clone
Post by: mouser on January 05, 2018, 08:09 AM
Awesome.
Anyone else? Would be nice to have some chinese, french, italian, arabic, greek, polish, etc., etc!
Title: Re: NANY 2018 Release: cnpaperplay - Codenames /Codenames Duet Play on Paper Clone
Post by: IainB on January 05, 2018, 11:02 AM
Awesome.
Anyone else? Would be nice to have some chinese, french, italian, arabic, greek, polish, etc., etc!
Well, I was once fluent in Welsh, though a bit rusty now.
And I speak Esperanto like a native.
My wife might be willing to help with Thai, if I asked her nicely.
Ditto for my daughter and Maori.
Title: Re: NANY 2018 Release: cnpaperplay - Codenames /Codenames Duet Play on Paper Clone
Post by: thosch on January 08, 2018, 02:17 PM
I translated the English word list, combined it with the list from tomos (deleting duplicates), and added and removed some words on my own discretion. Find the list with 729 German words attached.

I am in the process of translating the text on the duet html page.
One rule question: why is there a "mistake track", shouldn't the time track be enough? And why the rule to tick an additonal time box, if no mistake boxes remain? I also own the boardgame and I read the rules as follows: if you pass, turn over a time token. if you guess wrong, put a time token on a word tile.
-> in both cases 1 turn token is spent.

So the only difference between passing and guessing wrong is that you don't run the risk of hitting a black word by passing.
Maybe I am missing something, I haven't played using your booklets yet.
Title: Re: NANY 2018 Release: cnpaperplay - Codenames /Codenames Duet Play on Paper Clone
Post by: mouser on January 08, 2018, 02:24 PM
One rule question: why is there a "mistake track", shouldn't the time track be enough? And why the rule to tick an additonal time box, if no mistake boxes remain? I also own the boardgame and I read the rules as follows: if you pass, turn over a time token. if you guess wrong, put a time token on a word tile.  -> in both cases 1 turn token is spent.

In the original game, you can play different missions (difficulty levels) that simply tell you how many turns and mistakes you are allowed to make.  The less turns allowed, and the less mistakes allowed, the more challenging the game.

While the scripts can be used to print out books with different numbers of these, players could also simply agree how many turns and mistakes they are allowed for a given game.

But I decided to add something, by introducing a scoring mechanism.  In this way, you are penalized in your score for making more mistakes.
The new score instructions from the intro.html page say:

Scoring: +2 points per target found, +10 per unused turn, -5 per mistake, -10 if sudden death.  Games ended by a black word score differently: -10 points for each unused turn, mistake, and unfound target.  Penalize illegal clues by ticking an extra turn and mistake checkbox.



The scoring is the one way the paper version "differs" from the original box. (That and I obviously removed a lot of explanation in order to get the rules to fit on one page, so players will have to figure out some details).

So turn track and mistake track are important to help you calculate your score. IF you care about score.. For most of us just winning and losing is fine.

Personally I find the paper version significantly more enjoyable and practical, and the scoring adds a fun way to compare your score against other couples and to strive for a high score.

It also lets you compute a score even if you "lose" -- though it will be bad and can easily go negative :)




ps. The python scripts support lots of options for creating games with different numbers of words, turns, allowed mistakes, number of each color, etc.  So if codenames is too easy/hard for you you could experiment with alternative games.
Title: Re: NANY 2018 Release: cnpaperplay - Codenames /Codenames Duet Play on Paper Clone
Post by: thosch on January 09, 2018, 06:23 AM
Oh, right I see - I ignored the missions when I first got the game and then forgot about them.

I think this rule
with the restriction that the maximum number of guesses on a given turn are the number specified by the clue giver plus one.
applies only to the team vs. team variant. At least in my German rulebook for Duet it says "as long as your partner guesses successfully, he may continue" and I don't see anything about having to stop after +1 guesses.
Title: Re: NANY 2018 Release: cnpaperplay - Codenames /Codenames Duet Play on Paper Clone
Post by: mouser on January 09, 2018, 07:29 AM
At least in my German rulebook for Duet it says "as long as your partner guesses successfully, he may continue" and I don't see anything about having to stop after +1 guesses.

This is definitely NOT right, at least in the english rules.  It's such a core mechanic I can't imagine it's not the same in your german rules.
You are always restricted to guessing at most +1 extra word than the cluegiver said.

The only exception to this is at the end of the game in sudden death mode, where you can continue guessing until you make a mistake and there are no more clues allowed.


I just read the english rules again and I was *WRONG*!!! The rules do in fact say you can make unlimited guesses.  You were right.

Yikes! I've been playing it wrong then!!!!  Thanks for enlightening me...
Hmm now I am in a quandry.. I don't like the rule change from Codenames base game.  I prefer it the old way.
I suppose with the new sudden-death end-game rule, it doesn't make that much of a difference if you can guess unlimited words in mid-game or at the end.
Still, I prefer the rule that you can't guess more than 1 beyond the number said by the clue giver.  So I would like to keep the rule in the print and play version.

I think maybe the print and play version needs some extra info on the last page of the book describing the differences between this version and the original; it can mention this rule and the scoring mechanic.



PDF rulebook on line: https://czechgames.com/files/rules/codenames-duet-rules-en.pdf
Title: Re: NANY 2018 Release: cnpaperplay - Codenames /Codenames Duet Play on Paper Clone
Post by: thosch on January 17, 2018, 10:29 AM
I translated and attached the Duet pages. German words are generally longer and I added a sentence explaning what the number in the clue means. So I used more space, but the rules still fit on one page for me (A4 paper size).
Please tell me if everything is all right, and if so: can you please generate German booklets?

Re: +1 rule.
Well, maybe you know this saying "A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."
I think this one rule could be taken away in Duet :-) Also considering the constrained space of the rules manual.
Title: Re: NANY 2018 Release: cnpaperplay - Codenames /Codenames Duet Play on Paper Clone
Post by: mouser on January 17, 2018, 10:54 AM
I will download and generate some books.  If it takes up too much space I can always reduce font size.  Standby.
Title: Re: NANY 2018 Release: cnpaperplay - Codenames /Codenames Duet Play on Paper Clone
Post by: mouser on January 17, 2018, 11:02 AM
Check these out and let me know if they are good to go.
If so I will update official downloads with the german books:
https://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Mouser/cnpaperplay/downloads/cnpaperplay_books_german.zip


It would be nice to give credit to the translators -- could you write a little translator_readme.txt note for me to include?  Or if you just want to tell me what to include I will be happy to make the file and include it.

Title: Re: NANY 2018 Release: cnpaperplay - Codenames /Codenames Duet Play on Paper Clone
Post by: thosch on January 21, 2018, 10:41 AM
Hey, sorry for the delay.

It seems you took the old word list (which has errors and less words), can you please find the "wordfile_default_german_sorted.txt" in my post above and generate again?

Translator note attached here

Title: Re: NANY 2018 Release: cnpaperplay - Codenames /Codenames Duet Play on Paper Clone
Post by: mouser on January 21, 2018, 12:16 PM
Can you try downloading new version and let me know if it looks good:
https://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Mouser/cnpaperplay/downloads/cnpaperplay_books_german.zip
Title: Re: NANY 2018 Release: cnpaperplay - Codenames /Codenames Duet Play on Paper Clone
Post by: thosch on January 21, 2018, 01:31 PM
Yes, looks good! Thanks!
Title: Re: NANY 2018 Release: cnpaperplay - Codenames /Codenames Duet Play on Paper Clone
Post by: tomos on January 21, 2018, 02:49 PM
It seems you took the old word list (which has errors and less words)

also wanted to report, thanks to you both for sorting it out :Thmbsup:
Title: Re: NANY 2018 Release: cnpaperplay - Codenames /Codenames Duet Play on Paper Clone
Post by: mouser on January 21, 2018, 03:21 PM
Ok looks like we now have an official german translation complete, I will push it to the github repository.
Title: Re: NANY 2018 Release: cnpaperplay - Codenames /Codenames Duet Play on Paper Clone
Post by: mouser on April 15, 2018, 04:53 AM
I have racked my brain for months trying to come up with another word game similar to codenames duet that I could use my codebase to create, without much luck.  Nothing even remotely as fun as codenames duet.
Can anyone think of a new game that has similar mechanisms and might be fun?  I'd be happy to modify code to support a new kind of game if we could think of something worth doing.

Here's what I've been trying to capture, that codenames duet does so well:
1. Cooperative
2. Thinky, fast turns
3. Push your luck element
4. Need to get inside the mind of your partner
5. Fun to talk about afterwards
Title: Re: NANY 2018 Release: cnpaperplay - Codenames /Codenames Duet Play on Paper Clone
Post by: wraith808 on April 15, 2018, 10:36 AM
I love Gloom (http://www.atlas-games.com/gloom/).  It plays a lot to my daughter's strengths as a writer and a lover of Supernatural.  Not sure if this is the type of game you're looking for, not having played Codenames however.  There's also twilight struggle, but there's been so many implementations that I'm not sure if that would be a good fit either.
Title: Re: NANY 2018 Release: cnpaperplay - Codenames /Codenames Duet Play on Paper Clone
Post by: mouser on May 30, 2018, 02:59 PM
I've reuploaded the translator pack (see url link above).  Would love to have some more translations if anyone is willing!
Title: Re: NANY 2018 Release: cnpaperplay - Codenames /Codenames Duet Play on Paper Clone
Post by: david842 on February 02, 2019, 04:03 PM
My wife and I just played this, and this is my report and review of the game (not of the program that generates games).

I printed just the instructions and the first game for each player, so we could both try it.

We were terribly confused by the instructions (except the part about taking turns, which we understood thoroughly), but kept reading the instructions as we went along.

What we needed was a complete sample game, showing exactly what happened in each turn. What we got was only difficult instructions.

For example, the guesser is supposed to say a word and a number. We never did understand what the number was for, since it wasn't used during our experiment. We chose great clue words (cigarette was the clue for ASH and horse was the clue for STABLE), but that had nothing to do with who got green and was "correct" and who got yellow and was "incorrect"! So unintuitive.

Looking at our two sheets, I see that most of the words have the SAME color. This is confusing, because I thought they were supposed to be random, so I was expecting them to be mixed up. I kept being "correct" and my wife kept being "incorrect", which doesn't work well with our interpersonal dynamics.

We gave up during our 4th turn because we were so lost and saw no point in continuing to play the game.

Our experiences were perhaps not representative of other people, but for us the game, lacking an example of correct play, was only entertaining in that it was kind of funny to be so completely confused.
Title: Re: NANY 2018 Release: cnpaperplay - Codenames /Codenames Duet Play on Paper Clone
Post by: wraith808 on February 02, 2019, 05:33 PM
My wife and I just played this, and this is my report and review of the game (not of the program that generates games).

I printed just the instructions and the first game for each player, so we could both try it.

Did you look at the instructions for the game that it is based upon?  I think that he just included his alterations, so that might help.

https://czechgames.com/files/rules/codenames-duet-rules-en.pdf
Title: Re: NANY 2018 Release: cnpaperplay - Codenames /Codenames Duet Play on Paper Clone
Post by: tomos on February 02, 2019, 05:42 PM
For example, the guesser is supposed to say a word and a number. We never did understand what the number was for, since it wasn't used during our experiment.
I haven't played in a long time but,
you try and give a clue that will work for as many words as possible e.g. 'fruit' for apple, pear, -- that's where the number comes in, 2 in this case. So the other knows the clue refers to two words on their page.
Title: Re: NANY 2018 Release: cnpaperplay - Codenames /Codenames Duet Play on Paper Clone
Post by: mouser on February 02, 2019, 11:09 PM
Due to space constraints, it may be hard to follow the rules just from my one sheet if you have never played the full game.  Wraith links to the real full game rules which do a much gentler job of explaining how to play.
I encourage you to give it another try after reading the real game rules (see Wraith's post above) -- it's an incredible game.
Title: Re: NANY 2018 Release: cnpaperplay - Codenames /Codenames Duet Play on Paper Clone
Post by: mouser on May 11, 2020, 04:54 AM
I have updated the ENGLISH book downloads with better instructions.
Title: Re: NANY 2018 Release: cnpaperplay - Codenames /Codenames Duet Play on Paper Clone
Post by: ThR1LL on August 30, 2021, 02:43 PM
How do I randomize the wordlist via command line? It keeps creating the same 10 books with the same word order each time. Does anyone else have this problem?
Title: Re: NANY 2018 Release: cnpaperplay - Codenames /Codenames Duet Play on Paper Clone
Post by: mouser on August 31, 2021, 04:56 PM
Hi ThR1LL.

This is by design so that games are predictable between users.

You can use the --seedstart option to pass in a different seed number which will generate different random values; every time you use a different seed number you will get different games.

It may seem confusing but the idea was that YOUR games #1-10 would be the same as MY games #1-10, for easy comparison and playing together.

So the way I do it is I don't change the see, but I just make a pdf with like 500 games, and then just print a few of those at a time.  I thought I had an option where you could tell the program what game # to start printing at, but it seems I was wrong; I should probably add that feature.



You'll find commandline options in the readme.txt in the documentation folder:

//---------------------------------------------------------------------------
usage: cnduet.py [-h] [--language OPTION_LANGUAGE]
                 [--wordfile OPTION_WORDFILE]
                 [--patternfile OPTION_PATTERNFILE] [--outpath OPTION_OUTPATH]
                 [--turncount OPTION_TURNCOUNT]
                 [--mistakecount OPTION_MISTAKECOUNT]
                 [--goalcount OPTION_GOALCOUNT] [--seedstart OPTION_SEEDSTART]
                 [--gamecount OPTION_GAMECOUNT] [--bookname OPTION_BOOKNAME]
                 [--format {html,pdf}]

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --language OPTION_LANGUAGE
                        language name (specifies a subdirectory of the data
                        directory where wordfile and templates will be looked
                        for)
  --wordfile OPTION_WORDFILE
                        filename (word list text file to user; should not
                        include subdirectory; will be looked for in
                        data/language and then data/ directories) (each word
                        should be on its own line)
  --patternfile OPTION_PATTERNFILE
                        filename (optionally with path) of card coloring
                        pattern data (each line is a triple specifying
                        cardcount, player1color, player2color); just base name
                        no subdir
  --outpath OPTION_OUTPATH
                        path to save output files
  --turncount OPTION_TURNCOUNT
                        number of turns per game
  --mistakecount OPTION_MISTAKECOUNT
                        number of mistakes allowed per game
  --goalcount OPTION_GOALCOUNT
                        number of goals needed to win game)
  --seedstart OPTION_SEEDSTART
                        starting seed number to use
  --gamecount OPTION_GAMECOUNT
                        number of games to generate
  --bookname OPTION_BOOKNAME
                        base name of book output files
  --format {html,pdf}   final output format (should be html or pdf)

E:\MyDocs\Programming\Python\cnpaperplay\source>

//---------------------------------------------------------------------------