--- WHAT IS THIS? --- Frivolity is a free, Perl-based reference implementation of the Volity platform for Internet-based multiplayer games. It is released under the LGPL open-source license. (See the accompanying LICENSE file.) Volity is a complex platform, but I've endeavored to make it easy to get started creating games through the embedded perldocs. After installing, "perldoc Volity" to get started. Further reading, including more general information about what Volity is and how it works, may be found on the Volity Developers' Site: . See especially the Wiki. Volity's more public face is the Volity Network: . Some of the games running there are written using Frivolity. You can publish your own creations to the Network, too! See . --- PREREQUISITES --- Frivolity requires several Perl modules to work; the Makefile.PL checks for their presence on your system. All are available from CPAN. --- INSTALLATION --- The usual incantation should suffice: perl Makefile.PL make sudo make install It will, by default, install several Perl modules into your site-perl location under the Volity namespace, and place a server script (volityd) in /usr/local/volity/bin. If these locations do not suit you, edit Makefile.PL appropriately. (See the ExtUtils::MakeMaker manpage for instructions on modifying this file.) You'll note there's not much in the way of testing now. We hope to add some nice test suites in the future. --- DOCUMENTATION --- Once you've installed this software, type perldoc Volity Or, visit http://volity.org/docs/ for a link to a hypertext version of the most recent Frivolity documentation. Frivolity includes a lot of modules and a lot of documentation, but I've done my best to arrange it so that the most important stuff, especially for people wishing to develop games, is easier to get to. --- RUNNING YOUR FIRST PARLOR --- While no automated testing exists yet, you can manually test your installation by attempting to set up a game parlor that runs Tic Tac Toe. At examples/tictactoe/conf.yml you'll find a configuration file that you can modify with a valid Jabber ID and password for your test to use. (If you already have a Jabber login from any source, you can just plug it in here.) Once you've updated the file (and installed Frivolity), try feeding it to volityd with a command like this (assuming that volityd ended up somewhere in your PATH): volityd -C examples/tictactoe/conf.yml If everything worked, you should now be able to create a new table at the parlor with any Volity client. In Javolin, this involves the Game->New Table At... command. (If you don't already have Javolin, you can download it from volity.org: http://www.volity.org/projects/javolin/) --- CONTACT --- Please send all questions, comments, bug reports, etc. to Jason McIntosh . For community discussion about these modules, see the volity-devel mailing list: . Its archives are on the Web, and offers open subscription to all. Use can also use any Jabber client (including Gamut, the Volity project's official Java-based client) to visit the Volity devchat, at .