The developer's guideFrom an account to a game on sale
Seven chapters, each true of the service as it runs. The reference for the bytes is docs/protocol.md; this is the path.
As the players see it
What the network does with your game, from the other side.
The page. /<game> on the site is the boards by mode with a week of dailies where there is one, the awards with who holds them, who is on now, the news, the ratings. The store's page is the shelf's: the words, the pictures, the price, DOWNLOAD for owners.
Presence. A player on your game is on the live page — /now and /<game>/now — with the platform they are on ("Commander X16") and what HERE said; the page tickers scores and awards as they land: ANDY SCORED 48200 IN MARATHON ON TETRIBLOX (COMMANDER X16) — #3 A NEW BEST! A player who set INVISIBLE, or whose game said HERE HIDDEN, is on but unseen.
Friends. Following is one-way and public — nothing to accept, fifty at most. Friends' boards (TOP … FRIENDS) rank a player among the people they follow. A note (MSG) goes to a friend who follows back, 140 characters, kept until read; the site's mailbox and the client's Inbox read them.
Awards. The player's page carries their award points across every game, and the awards they hold on each; a landing on the client shows a new one as it arrives. JOINED THE RETROPLAY.NETWORK is the client's own, on the first login.
Ratings. A player who has played your game — a session on it, not a look — may give it a thumb up or down, once, changeable. The store page and the shelf show the tally and the percentage; you see numbers, not names; the wire's GAME <id> carries RATING <up> <down>.
The library. What a player owns, or tests, is in their library on the site and in the client; the client's Library page lists the version each channel points at and pulls it onto the card, checking every file's CRC-32 before it trusts it.
Privacy. The network keeps a gamertag, a sealed email, the secret a PIN makes (never the PIN), scores, awards, the library, who follows whom, notes, and a session a login. Pages count a view a day, nothing about who. A player can delete their account from their Privacy tab and everything under it goes.