Football Mania

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  The core of the skill is a simple Jovo Framework application

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  The majority of game play is just simply functions that work out specific scenarios

Inspiration

I originally wrote the first version of Football Mania over a year ago as I wanted to see what could be done in the 'sports game' realm of Voice First gaming. The basic version involves some simple offense, defense, and special team options and you play against 'the computer'. Even with the basic version there are a number of scenarios and options, and just like in the real game, it takes the combination of strategy and luck to consistently win.

Since Amazon released the ISP options for Alexa, I've been considering upgrading the skill with at least some game add ons. This devpost contest is what finally motivated me to move that 'to do' item up my list.

What it does

The new updates (for this contest) are all part of an "all pro" package that the game now offers. You can still play the basic version of the game for free, but if you upgrade to the "all pro" version for a one time fee, you unlock a number of new offense, defense, and special team options and scenarios you can take advantage of within the game (it makes game play even more fun, gives you a lot more strategy options to consider, and really improves the game replay-ability).

How I built it

Since the in-production version was written in Jovo, I decided to also take this chance to update to the latest version of the Jovo framework. Once I did that, I just had to add support for the ISP endpoints and then just upgrade some of the game logic to handle the new options (when a player is an "all pro").

Challenges I ran into

This was the first time I have tried to implement ISP for any of my skills, so the certification process took me a few tries to get right. The first time through I was not handling cancellation requests properly (and incorrectly submitted to some areas that do not support ISP yet).

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

I really like that the basic version of the game still works well and I think I worked in the 'upsell' mentions in a nice, subtle way (as an example, first time players are not told about the 'all pro' package at all and just jump into a game; repeat players are told about the ISP and it's also casually mentioned randomly at various points of the game).

I'm also proud of the variation and strategy that the "all pro" package brings to the overall game experience (and the value you get for the very small one-time fee).

What I learned

Adding ISP to an Alexa skill is pretty simple and straight forward.

What's next for Football Mania

I would like to figure out a multi-player version of the game (perhaps a time-delay back-and-forth situation); I want to add the ability for a player to 'continue' a game if they need to end their current game early for some reason; I would like to consider adding in even more ISP options (maybe some consumable items) over time.

Built With

• jovo
• lambda
• mongodb