Well guys, here it is. Some of you, and maybe myself included, never thought this day would come. Now it's here, but I can't promise success, only that I'll be doing my very best.

I plan to tackle the project in 3 phases:

Phase 1: Non Functional Demo

Est. Time in Phase: 3 Days

In this phase I will create a mock of the system. What I want to show is what things will look like for the user. Things I want to show:

- How you login
- Where that takes you
- What options I intend to give you
- What it looks like when you use one of those options
- The process it will take to upload a prediction (or edit one)
- How you will see results
- The game's homepage of sorts on our website
- And more

Essentially I want to give YOU a feel of what this game is going to be like. In turn, I want YOU to tell me what I am doing wrong. I have never played the game, I don't know standard procedure here, so if I make what seems like a giant gaff to you, it likely seems common sense to me.

I need your help to provide a sensible, working, application. I will provide login information for this system in this thread, and anyone who wants will be able to look around and get a feel for the system.

The sky is the limit, help me get there.


Phase 2: Database Design

Est. Time in Phase: 3 Days

This phase will be boring for most of you. Anyone who has database experience, please let me know by posting in this thread. By doing so, I will contact you with my database scheme, and you can help provide feedback. If no one has experience, not to worry, I'll go looking elsewhere for feedback as well, but it would be nice if someone with knowledge of the game also has knowledge of databases.


Phase 3: Coding

Est. Time in Phase: ???

That's the big question isn't it. How long will it take to code this monster. I don't have an answer, but I imagine I'll get a much better feel as I start. I'll update accordingly.

I'll get started tomorrow, your help is greatly appreciated, so stay tuned!

Update:

It's always nice to say one thing and do another. I really did mean to start on the mock today, but I got sidetracked on other improvements instead:

- I added one new functionality to the CMS system
- I added Login | Register to the header of all main site pages. If you are logged in, it will say You are: Eagle | Logout

I also had to go through every page of our main site and remove a lot of code that was causing server issues, as well as make a one line modification so that the Login | Register would properly display in the header.

This will be useful for the BO Game, as the same login system will log you into Comments, The BO Game, and any other features we add in the future.

I'll likely work on the new section for the game later tonight, maybe I'll have something to show you guys later.

Update:

OK, we have a working Beta game. I use the term working about as loosely as possible, since all it is, is the beginning of the landing page.

Some notes:
- I plan to make this page accessible to everyone, players AND non-registered players, thus everyone will be able to see results, even if they don't play, and can do so, without logging in.
- The box on the right, will provide a spot where, if you are not currently logged in, you can log in. If you are already logged in, it will say something like Welcome! and then provide some information, possibly your score and where you ranked last week. I hope to get this coded tomorrow (though obviously it won't give any results if you are logged in).


I need your help with:
- The Name of the game. For now, it is Box Office Bonanza. I am very open to suggestions, so lets here them.
- The options in the menu, under the logo. Am I missing anything? Is there anything else you would like to see there?


Beta 1 Version: http://www.worldofkj.com/bonanza.php

More tomorrow.

Box Office... Bonanza?

As I said, it's a temporary name. I'm making this game for you guys, I figure you all deserve to name it. So start throwing out suggestions (The only one I came up with was Box Office Window).


Also, if anyone who understands the game cares to write out a detailed 'How To Play', I would really appreciate it. One less thing I have to do.

Some possible names, most of them lame:

Box Office Jamboree
Box Office Blowout
Box Office Carnival
Box Office Festival
Box Office Blast
Box Office Clambake
Box Office Feast
Box Office Rampage
Box Office Clairvoyant
Box Office Ball
Box Office Oracle
Box Office Bard
Box Office Wizard

Could go simple and just call it Oracle ...

I'll be fine with any name mentioned.

Since no popular opinion seems to be emerging, Box Office Bonanza will remain throughout the Beta process. If we come up with something else, I will switch it before releasing the game.


In other news, the login functionality is now working. If you login from the landing page, it re-directs you back. If you login from somewhere else, you will still be logged in, but it won't re-direct you to the game. If you are logged in, it will show you last weeks score, and your position. You can test it out with your username and password, it will work. If it doesn't, please let me know!

What I could use help with:

- As said above, could use someone to help write the "How to Play" section.
- Right now, the only other thing I know I am going to put somewhere on the landing page I linked to is the previous weeks top 10 or 20 players. What else would you like to see? Here are some things I'm considering:
- Previous weekends top 10 BO actuals.
- The user's specific records ... meaning ... their best weekend % ever ... their highest finish ever, etc. If someone isn't logged in, it will show the best weekend ever out of everyone, etc. This would only show the #1 person.

I really don't know what else, so if you have suggestions, let me know. I suppose I could do a 'note' section, where I can leave a system wide message regarding the game. Something that can change from, Congrats to ____ , last weeks winner. To something like, All predictions are due by Thursday.

Help me out, what else should I put in here?


What's coming next:

Next I'm going to be working on the menu. It's there, but it goes nowhere. I'm going to start making all of those pages, so you can see how they will look, the type of information they're gonna show, etc.


Are we on schedule:

As of now, I should have the mock finished within the 3 days I allotted myself, so we're going good. I've even coded some things like the login, so that will just make things easier down the road. Going good so far, I hope I get more feedback in the future though. Any and all suggestions, I want to hear them!

Looking good, looking good.

Have we decided though how it'll be played? I mean, will it be the same as derby, or there will be changes?

Love the look now, and that "Last week..." box.

As of right now, I plan to play it pretty much exactly the same as the derby. I don't expect this to change.

What will be different is this:

I plan on taking the top 64 people, and having a tournament at some point of every year. The tournament will run about 10 weeks, and the people in the tournament can also predict the standard week everyone else does.

So say we had a derby in 2007. The top 64 of 2007 would compete in a tournament sometime in 2008.

It will be run the same way as march madness in basketball, people will be seeded according to performance over some given time frame (likely the previous year).

The winner will get some undetermined prize. Etc.

The twist is, we might make these 64 people predict different movies. Limited releases, etc, etc.

Just a thought.

Logging in doesn't work for me, but it's probably something I'm doing wrong, no doubt.

I click on the beta link you provide, and in the login box I put my username (MikeQ.) and my password. And it gives me this message when I click submit:

"The input, mikeq., is invalid. Please try again.

Click here to return to the login screen."

Peace,
Mike

It's because of the "." in your name.

Thanks for letting me know, I'll make the change to make it work for you. Does anyone know what other characters are allowed to be used in a name on the forum?

You should be able to login now Mike, let me know.

Question:

How detailed should predictions be allowed to be? Ex. 12.1m, 12.12m, 12.125m

Edit: I decided that predictions are allowed to be 5 characters in length, including decimal point. Thus predictions can be:

Ex1: 125.4
Ex2: 12.34
Ex3: 1.234

That's actually quite a great way to do it.

I'm with Nebs, that's a brilliant way to do it. It allows one to predict precisely for small weekend grosses that need the precision, but keeps it simple for large grosses.

Very nice Eagle. And I can now login with my name, thanks!

Peace,
Mike

Update:

Well, the mock is taking longer than expected, but that's mainly because I find myself actually doing a lot of coding instead of just worrying about the look. So it's taking longer now, but it will mean less time in the coding stage.

Anywho, I've now finished the "This Week's Entry" page, where you can submit your prediction.

http://www.worldofkj.com/bonanza_entry.php

You will notice:
- The page requires that you fill out the entire form.
- If you are not logged in, a form will appear allowing you to login, and then re-direct you back to the page.
- If you are logged in, it tells you the deadline, and shows your name.

In the future:
- If you have already submitted an entry for the week, then this form will eventually allow you to edit. It will pre-populate all the form's sections with whatever you originally predicted, and you can change whatever you want, and submit again, up until the deadline.

That's it for now. I'll work on the rankings and hall of fame pages tonight.

Great job so far Eagle

I didn't get shit done today, just had no frickin time. Tomorrow's not looking bright either. Arrgh. I blame the holidays.

A perfectly understandable excuse

I got dragged XMas shopping for 5 hours

Don't worry about! This is the week before Christmas! Nobody expects you to be writing code 24/7 for the site. The fact that you are doing anything for us is great enough.

Hopefully the Christmas shopping had some good use, heh.

Peace,
Mike