Kevin Hakanson
Created October 15, 2018

Rochambeau Buttons

Rochambeau Buttons is a two player, Echo Buttons enabled version of rochambeau/roshambo (a.k.a Rock Paper Scissors).

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Schematics

Logical Architecture

Echo Buttons connect to the Echo Dot. Alexa Skills Kit requests are handled by AWS Lambda (JavaScript), which writes logs to CloudWatch and metrics to X-Ray.

Gadgets Skills Interaction

This image from Understand the Gadgets Skill API [1] illustrates how the Game Engine and Gadget Controller interfaces interact with the skill code.

[1] https://developer.amazon.com/docs/gadget-skills/understand-gadgets-skill-api.html

Code

PlayGameIntent vs LaunchRequest

JavaScript
A "launch Rochambeau Buttons" will generate a LaunchRequest and setup the buttons via "roll call" but when the user says "launch Rochambeau Buttons and play a game" that needs to be handled as well. The snippet below checks for a new session, sets up the roll call, but also allows the skill to proceed directly into the game after setup by valuing a session attribute.
    let rounds = getSlotValue(request.intent, 'rounds') || 1;
    // validation logic...
    sessionAttributes.rounds = rounds;
   
    let response;
    if (requestEnvelope.session.new) {
      console.log('launched into PlayGameIntentHandler, setup roll call first');
      response = handlerInput.responseBuilder
        .speak(LAUNCH_PLAY + TICKING_SOUND)
        .getResponse();

      buttonUtil.setupRollCall(request, response, sessionAttributes);
    } else {
      response = handlerInput.responseBuilder
        .speak(PLAY_NOW + WAITING_SOUND)
        .getResponse();

      buttonUtil.setupGame(request, response, sessionAttributes);
    }

    return response;

Varying the "tie" response

JavaScript
Tiebreakers are frustrating, and hearing the same long winded response that "It's a tie, go again" would make it even more so. The code snippet below highlights how the first, second, and remaining tie responses get more concise to pick up the pace.
            let speak = `Player 1 chose ${sessionAttributes.one.color} and Player 2 chose ${sessionAttributes.two.color}. `;
            winner = engine.compare(sessionAttributes.one.color, sessionAttributes.two.color);
            console.log(`winner => ${winner}`);
            if (winner == 'tie') {
              sessionAttributes.tieCount += 1;
              switch (sessionAttributes.tieCount) {
                case 1:
                  speak = speak + `It's a tie, go again. ` + WAITING_SOUND;
                  break;
                case 2:
                  speak = `Both players chose ${sessionAttributes.one.color}. Another tie, go again. ` + WAITING_SOUND;
                  break;
                default:
                  speak = `Tie on ${sessionAttributes.one.color}, go again. ` + WAITING_SOUND;
              }

'tearDownGame' response directives

JavaScript
After one of the players has won and the results are announced by Alexa, there is a winning animation that runs for a few seconds (and a lose animation sets the light to 000000). The input handler directive includes a time out value that will used to trigger the 'timeout' event in the next code snippet.
exports.teardownGame = function(request, response, sessionAttributes) {
  sessionAttributes.CurrentInputHandlerID = request.requestId;

  response.directives = response.directives || [];
  let short = (sessionAttributes.rounds == 1);
  response.directives.push(buttonOutroInputHandlerDirective(short));

  let winner = sessionAttributes.winner;
  let loser = (winner == 'one' ? 'two' : 'one');
  response.directives.push(buildButtonWinAnimationDirective([sessionAttributes[winner].buttonId]));
  response.directives.push(buildButtonLoseAnimationDirective([sessionAttributes[loser].buttonId]));

  delete response.shouldEndSession;

  return response;
};

GameEngine.InputHandlerEvent "timeout" event

JavaScript
The 'timeout' handler might be invoked for different reasons. If neither play "buzzed in" there is one message, but if either player did, they get a "you win" message.

The 'timeout' also handles a case where the game is complete with a winner, but I wanted to let a button animation for a bit before the "Goodbye" message was spoken and the session ended.
        case 'timeout': {
          let response;
          let winner = sessionAttributes.winner;
          console.log(`timeout winner => ${winner}`);
          if (winner == undefined) {
            let speak = '';
            console.log(`one => ${sessionAttributes.one.color} ; two => ${sessionAttributes.two.color}`);
            if (sessionAttributes.one.color == null && sessionAttributes.two.color == null) {
              speak = NEGATIVE_SOUND + 'Neither player selected a color. ';
            } else if (sessionAttributes.one.color == null) {
              speak = PLAYER_2_SOUND + `Player 1 didn't select a color, player 2 wins by forfeit. `;
            } else if (sessionAttributes.two.color == null) {
              speak = PLAYER_1_SOUND + `Player 2 didn't select a color, player 1 wins by forfeit. `;
            }
            response = handlerInput.responseBuilder
              .speak(speak + THANK_YOU)
              .getResponse();
          } else {
            let loser = (winner == 'one' ? 'two' : 'one');
            let speak = `Player ${winner} wins the best of ${sessionAttributes.rounds}: `
              + `${sessionAttributes[winner].winCount} to ${sessionAttributes[loser].winCount}. `;
            console.log(speak);
            response = handlerInput.responseBuilder
              .speak(THANK_YOU)
              .withSimpleCard(`Results`, speak) // doesn't seem to render
              .getResponse();
          }

          buttonUtil.stopInputHandler(response, sessionAttributes);
          response.shouldEndSession = true;
          return response;
        }

AWS X-Ray Integration

Adds an AWS X-Ray subsegment and Metadata for an Alexa Skills Kit triggered Lambda.

Credits

Kevin Hakanson

Kevin Hakanson

2 projects • 0 followers

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