Waytale

Project outline

The Waytale project is structured into following parts. Please note that Waytale is under heavy development. Many of the features described here are work in progress. More information on the current state will be provided soon.

Nagivating spaces

Viewer

The web-based interface for viewing and navigating spaces. With an avatar you meet other people in 2D maps, interact with components (gadgets), and travel to other maps (on other servers).

The technology used here is deliberate simple: HTML, CSS, and client-side Javascript. With that it is possible to host and use your own space on virtually any hosting service: For free and without requiring a lot of tech know-how.

Extensibility

Maps are extended by means of “gadgets”: Interactive functionality tied to items or areas, either embedded into a map or set up by yourself. Some of the planned features include the following items.

This list will be updated with more specific information in the future, stay tuned!

Infrastructure

Waytale uses peer-to-peer technology whenever possible. However, to establish contact between peers, some centralised brokers are needed, e.g. STUN/TURN or WebRTC signalling servers. No readable peer communication is transmitted over these servers.

Such infrastructure will be provided in early stages. But to encourage further decentralised infrastructure, some ready-made templates can be used to set up your own infrastructure on popular hosting services.

Creating spaces

Local tools

For maximal control and creative freedom, local tooling exists to help with developing and automating spaces. This may include other excellent software, such as the Tiled map editor and working with its native files.

Online editor

A web-based editor helps to create maps in a more high-level way. This is intended to be easier than placing tiles and more customisable than picking a premade map. Integration with some Git-based hosting backends is planned.

Resources

Some prepared resources help getting started quickly. This includes example maps to kickstart an own space, and ready-to-use tilesets you can load into a tile-based editor.

Connecting spaces

Community

A healthy community of people using and creating with Waytale benefits from mutual exchange, helping, and sharing.

Currently suitable means to foster such a community are being explored. Stay tuned!

Discoverability

You can explore your friends’ recommendations for spaces, but how do you discover new spaces? How can you make your space more visible? Currently some limited support for ActivityPub/Fediverse-based discoverability is being explored.