KnockBox.Templates 1.0.0-prerelease

KnockBox.Templates

dotnet new template pack for KnockBox game plugins.

Installs the knockbox-game template, which scaffolds a complete starter solution for a new KnockBox party-game plugin — plugin assembly, local dev host, and tests — in a single command.

Install

dotnet new install KnockBox.Templates

Use

dotnet new knockbox-game -n MyGame --routeIdentifier my-game

Parameters:

What you get

MyGame/
├── MyGame.slnx
├── MyGame/                      # the plugin assembly (Razor Class Library)
│   ├── MyGame.csproj            # references KnockBox.Core only
│   ├── MyGameModule.cs          # IGameModule entry point
│   ├── MyGameGameState.cs       # per-room state : AbstractGameState
│   ├── MyGameGameEngine.cs      # stateless singleton : AbstractGameEngine
│   ├── Components/
│   │   └── MyGameTile.razor     # home-page tile content
│   ├── Pages/
│   │   └── MyGameLobby.razor    # @page "/room/my-game/{ObfuscatedRoomCode}"
│   └── _Imports.razor
├── MyGame.DevHost/              # local F5 harness (ASP.NET Core Web)
│   ├── MyGame.DevHost.csproj    # references KnockBox.Platform + the plugin
│   └── Program.cs               # AddKnockBoxPlatform(...) + AddGameModule<T>()
└── MyGame.Tests/                # MSTest + Moq test project
    ├── MyGame.Tests.csproj
    └── MyGameGameEngineTests.cs

Every generated file carries inline comments explaining what it's for, which parts to edit, and which invariants to leave alone — so you can read the scaffold top-to-bottom and understand the shape of a plugin without leaving the IDE.

Run it

cd MyGame
dotnet run --project MyGame.DevHost

Browse to the printed URL, click the tile, create a lobby, open a second browser (or incognito window) to join. Clicking Start Game runs your engine's StartAsync and transitions the lobby into gameplay.

Next steps

• Add your game state fields to MyGameGameState, mutating them from inside state.Execute(...) blocks on the engine.
• Add command methods to MyGameGameEngine that return Result / ValueResult<T>.
• Render the in-game UI in MyGameLobby.razor by branching on GameState.IsJoinable (or a phase enum you add yourself).
• Run dotnet test to exercise your engine against a real state with logger mocks.

Developer reference

Full end-to-end walkthrough — scaffolding, state, engine, Razor, DevHost, tests, shipping, advanced patterns, troubleshooting:

https://github.com/jcub1011/KnockBox/blob/main/docs/making-a-game-plugin.md

Related packages

• KnockBox.Core — contract package every plugin references.
• KnockBox.Platform — hosting SDK; referenced by the generated DevHost.

Uninstalling

dotnet new uninstall KnockBox.Templates

Notes for template maintainers

The routeIdentifier symbol in .template.config/template.json uses "replaces": "my-game", which substitutes every literal occurrence of my-game across the scaffold — including comments and XML-doc examples. Do not introduce illustrative my-game strings anywhere in the template that are meant to remain literal after scaffolding (they won't). Same caution applies to MyGame, which is substituted by the -n name parameter.

License

MIT. See LICENSE.txt in the repository.