5 ms·

Show HN: A Werewolf bot for Slack

96 points by bass_case 11y ago

chrislloyd 11y ago
So awesome :) Thanks for putting this together. I'd love to see a Secret Hitler bot next!
itake 11y ago
ha, this is perfect. love it. sharing
purpled_haze 11y ago
This is neat, but I still wonder where people get the time to play games like this.
- bass_case 11y ago
  Between 12pm and 1pm, or after 6pm haha :P
- lambda 11y ago
  Take a little time off from checking HN?
  - pheroden 11y ago
    But that would eat into my Reddit checking time.
- at-fates-hands 11y ago
  Used to work at a startup and after 3pm Thurs and Fri, our sys admin would set up a server for Counter Strike for the developers. Man I miss those days. . .
- forrestthewoods 11y ago
  We played Secret Hitler in the office as part of a games day. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/maxtemkin/secret-hitler https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/maxtemkin/secret-hitler
  - bass_case 11y ago
    Haven't seen this game but it sounds awesome. Eager to give this one a try.
- xerophyte12932 11y ago
  My coworker and I happen to have a very strict One Slime schedule. Even slack bot knows about it and gets excited
- eru 11y ago
  At work..
anonfunction 11y ago
I've never heard of this game, maybe a description or link to a wikipedia page[1] in the readme would be good. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mafia_(party_game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mafia_(party_game)
- bass_case 11y ago
  Good suggestion, I added to Readme
- giancarlostoro 11y ago
  I've played it as "Mafia" but never as "Werewolf" so thanks for the informed link.
  - scrollaway 11y ago
    If you enjoy Mafia, check out Town of Salem - a web/desktop based version. Games are quicker than usual Mafia. https://www.blankmediagames.com/ https://www.blankmediagames.com/
    - eru 11y ago
      There's also `Secret Hitler'. A game that's better than its name sounds.
  - 8note 11y ago
    here's the werewolf version: http://www.games-wiki.org/wiki/Werewolves_of_Millers_Hollow/ http://www.games-wiki.org/wiki/Werewolves_of_Millers_Hollow/ having cards available as reminders of who's alive is very helpful
- jschulenklopper 11y ago
  And there is this great story in Wired on the history and popularity of this game, especially at tech conferences: http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2010/03/features/werewolf http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2010/03/features/wer...
qwertyuiop924 11y ago
As I don't use Slack, I'm totally building an IRC version of this. Actually, I'd prefer frontend-agnostic, so I can hook the logic to IRC/matrix/XMPP/websockets.
- bass_case 11y ago
  I'm down to build this into this project. Build an IRC client in ReactPHP (async websocket pkg) and we'll work towards the necessary abstraction to make the game logic completely secular.
  - level3 11y ago
    You might want to look up existing IRC bots for reference (like XylBot [1]). I'm not sure how usable the code is, but it could be useful for role ideas. [1] https://github.com/RossM/XylBot https://github.com/RossM/XylBot
- anonfunction 11y ago
  If you're a rubyist check out Lita[1] which is a ruby bot framework that has many adapters[2] to work with various chat services like IRC, slack, etc... 1. https://github.com/litaio/lita https://github.com/litaio/lita 2. https://www.lita.io/plugins https://www.lita.io/plugins
- xena 11y ago
  https://github.com/nickrw/TWGbot https://github.com/nickrw/TWGbot works for me
- qwertyuiop924 11y ago
  I've actually been looking at scheme. I need the practice, and it has enough frontends to make it work. Also, there is CHICKEN's C FFI, which is amazing. But ruby might be good, too.
RodericDay 11y ago
Have you tried out The Resistance?
- bass_case 11y ago
  Yep, I'm a fan of Resistance and Avalon as well. I think I prefer Werewolf and One Night Werewolf more.
- jayhuang 11y ago
  Resistance is one of my favourite games of this type. It's great when you have 2 or 3 really talky people. Kind of falls apart when everyone is quiet though.
  - bass_case 11y ago
    Sometimes you have to rally the group to play a second game and then they'll get it. I've also seen quiet groups completely come around if you act a little more like a moderator and start asking questions. Have everyone say who they are and why. Always ask people why they voted a certain way. Its usually not too hard to get the quiet ones talking.
pavel_lishin 11y ago
I wonder why it's written in PHP. Seems like an odd choice.
- bass_case 11y ago
  It's what I'm most familiar with and I didn't want to spend a lot of time building it. There is a great Slack RTM client written with ReactPHP (http://reactphp.org/ http://reactphp.org/) that I took advantage of.
  - Sir_Cmpwn 11y ago
    You should really consider investing time in learning more languages.
kiernanmcgowan 11y ago
Very cool! I wonder how the game dynamic changes when people are not required to be in the same room as each other.
zorrb 11y ago
Really cool. I built something similar in python for giggles a couple months ago [1]. One day I'll get around to implementing other roles. Honestly the most fun part of it was co-workers hilarious attempts to break the script. ```!vote DROP TABLES``` https://github.com/nickweinberg/werewolf-slackbot https://github.com/nickweinberg/werewolf-slackbot
an4rchy 11y ago
It's a fun group game... glad to see another addition to the growing list of Slack games...
WA 11y ago
Small nitpick: That screenshot shows a situation which shouldn't occur in the game. If there's only 1 player left, he's the winner. So I wonder: Is there a winning condition built in?
sandij 11y ago
Nice, in my experience online Werewolves can be fun when you know each other well but live far away. So I could imagine it working with teams on Slack. How were your experiences thus far? I built https://github.com/sander/lunacy https://github.com/sander/lunacy for a similar purpose (CouchDB + Node + AngularJS). After a few months it did become a bit boring, I think mainly because the stakes are lower when dropping out of a game doesn’t actually mean having to sit and watch others continue to play live (you can just quit the app), and because the lack of facial expressions that can give away roles.
arcatek 11y ago
Lycanobot is an IRC bot with much more roles: http://dotsec.fr/index.php/Lycanobot http://dotsec.fr/index.php/Lycanobot
entelect 11y ago
Anyone know how to host this on Heroku?

96 points by bass_case 11y ago

chrislloyd 11y ago

So awesome :) Thanks for putting this together. I'd love to see a Secret Hitler bot next!

itake 11y ago

ha, this is perfect. love it. sharing

purpled_haze 11y ago

This is neat, but I still wonder where people get the time to play games like this.

bass_case 11y ago
Between 12pm and 1pm, or after 6pm haha :P
lambda 11y ago
Take a little time off from checking HN?
- pheroden 11y ago
  But that would eat into my Reddit checking time.
at-fates-hands 11y ago
Used to work at a startup and after 3pm Thurs and Fri, our sys admin would set up a server for Counter Strike for the developers. Man I miss those days. . .
forrestthewoods 11y ago
We played Secret Hitler in the office as part of a games day. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/maxtemkin/secret-hitler https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/maxtemkin/secret-hitler
- bass_case 11y ago
  Haven't seen this game but it sounds awesome. Eager to give this one a try.
xerophyte12932 11y ago
My coworker and I happen to have a very strict One Slime schedule. Even slack bot knows about it and gets excited
eru 11y ago
At work..

anonfunction 11y ago

I've never heard of this game, maybe a description or link to a wikipedia page[1] in the readme would be good. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mafia_(party_game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mafia_(party_game)

bass_case 11y ago
Good suggestion, I added to Readme
giancarlostoro 11y ago
I've played it as "Mafia" but never as "Werewolf" so thanks for the informed link.
- scrollaway 11y ago
  If you enjoy Mafia, check out Town of Salem - a web/desktop based version. Games are quicker than usual Mafia. https://www.blankmediagames.com/ https://www.blankmediagames.com/
  - eru 11y ago
    There's also `Secret Hitler'. A game that's better than its name sounds.
- 8note 11y ago
  here's the werewolf version: http://www.games-wiki.org/wiki/Werewolves_of_Millers_Hollow/ http://www.games-wiki.org/wiki/Werewolves_of_Millers_Hollow/ having cards available as reminders of who's alive is very helpful
jschulenklopper 11y ago
And there is this great story in Wired on the history and popularity of this game, especially at tech conferences: http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2010/03/features/werewolf http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2010/03/features/wer...

qwertyuiop924 11y ago

As I don't use Slack, I'm totally building an IRC version of this. Actually, I'd prefer frontend-agnostic, so I can hook the logic to IRC/matrix/XMPP/websockets.

bass_case 11y ago
I'm down to build this into this project. Build an IRC client in ReactPHP (async websocket pkg) and we'll work towards the necessary abstraction to make the game logic completely secular.
- level3 11y ago
  You might want to look up existing IRC bots for reference (like XylBot [1]). I'm not sure how usable the code is, but it could be useful for role ideas. [1] https://github.com/RossM/XylBot https://github.com/RossM/XylBot
anonfunction 11y ago
If you're a rubyist check out Lita[1] which is a ruby bot framework that has many adapters[2] to work with various chat services like IRC, slack, etc... 1. https://github.com/litaio/lita https://github.com/litaio/lita 2. https://www.lita.io/plugins https://www.lita.io/plugins
xena 11y ago
https://github.com/nickrw/TWGbot https://github.com/nickrw/TWGbot works for me
qwertyuiop924 11y ago
I've actually been looking at scheme. I need the practice, and it has enough frontends to make it work. Also, there is CHICKEN's C FFI, which is amazing. But ruby might be good, too.

RodericDay 11y ago

Have you tried out The Resistance?

bass_case 11y ago
Yep, I'm a fan of Resistance and Avalon as well. I think I prefer Werewolf and One Night Werewolf more.
jayhuang 11y ago
Resistance is one of my favourite games of this type. It's great when you have 2 or 3 really talky people. Kind of falls apart when everyone is quiet though.
- bass_case 11y ago
  Sometimes you have to rally the group to play a second game and then they'll get it. I've also seen quiet groups completely come around if you act a little more like a moderator and start asking questions. Have everyone say who they are and why. Always ask people why they voted a certain way. Its usually not too hard to get the quiet ones talking.

pavel_lishin 11y ago

I wonder why it's written in PHP. Seems like an odd choice.

bass_case 11y ago
It's what I'm most familiar with and I didn't want to spend a lot of time building it. There is a great Slack RTM client written with ReactPHP (http://reactphp.org/ http://reactphp.org/) that I took advantage of.
- Sir_Cmpwn 11y ago
  You should really consider investing time in learning more languages.

kiernanmcgowan 11y ago

Very cool! I wonder how the game dynamic changes when people are not required to be in the same room as each other.

zorrb 11y ago

Really cool. I built something similar in python for giggles a couple months ago [1]. One day I'll get around to implementing other roles. Honestly the most fun part of it was co-workers hilarious attempts to break the script. ```!vote DROP TABLES``` https://github.com/nickweinberg/werewolf-slackbot https://github.com/nickweinberg/werewolf-slackbot

an4rchy 11y ago

It's a fun group game... glad to see another addition to the growing list of Slack games...

WA 11y ago

Small nitpick: That screenshot shows a situation which shouldn't occur in the game. If there's only 1 player left, he's the winner. So I wonder: Is there a winning condition built in?

sandij 11y ago

Nice, in my experience online Werewolves can be fun when you know each other well but live far away. So I could imagine it working with teams on Slack. How were your experiences thus far? I built https://github.com/sander/lunacy https://github.com/sander/lunacy for a similar purpose (CouchDB + Node + AngularJS). After a few months it did become a bit boring, I think mainly because the stakes are lower when dropping out of a game doesn’t actually mean having to sit and watch others continue to play live (you can just quit the app), and because the lack of facial expressions that can give away roles.

arcatek 11y ago

Lycanobot is an IRC bot with much more roles: http://dotsec.fr/index.php/Lycanobot http://dotsec.fr/index.php/Lycanobot

entelect 11y ago

Anyone know how to host this on Heroku?