Testing

Unit tests

npm test

Game-specific tests live in test/games/. Good unit tests will save future you (and future maintainers) a lot of headaches. No need to test basic stuff tested elsewhere (like graph/grid functions), but it's wise to test end-of-game resolution and any edge cases. See existing tests for patterns.

CLI example

bin/example.ts — run moves from the command line:

npx ts-node bin/example.ts <uid> [moves...]

Browser playground

The standalone gameslib playground is not part of the docs site:

gameslib.dev.abstractplay.com

Local setup

Build — from the gameslib repo root:
```
npm run playground
```
This builds APGames.min.js, copies locales/, and copies playground.* into dist/.
Serve over HTTP — required (do not open playground.html via file://). Use WAMP/LAMP/nginx, or:
```
npm run playground:serve
```
Point your server at dist/ as the document root (or copy the contents of dist/ into your vhost).
Open — http://localhost:<port>/ or http://localhost:<port>/playground.html
Renderer — playground.html loads APRender.min.js from the dev CDN by default. Only build or copy a local renderer bundle if you are working on renderer.

Translations

Game descriptions, variant names, and other strings are loaded at runtime from ./locales/{lang}/{ns}.json beside playground.html. npm run playground copies these into dist/locales/.

If descriptions show raw keys like apgames:descriptions.complica:

Confirm dist/locales/en/apgames.json exists.
Confirm you are serving over HTTP, not file://.
Do not serve only playground/ without locales/ — serve the full dist/ output.

The browser console will warn if locale bundles failed to load.

Troubleshooting (WAMP / subfolder hosting)

If you serve from a subdirectory (e.g. http://localhost/myproject/playground.html), locale files must still sit beside playground.html in that folder (myproject/locales/...). The relative load path resolves from the page URL, not the server document root — so copying the full dist/ contents into your vhost subfolder is the simplest approach.

Hidden information (God view vs Live view)

When the loaded game’s serialize({ strip: true, player }) can differ by viewer (e.g. Thricewise, agofmars), the Game Panel shows Hidden information (view):

God mode (default): board, move history, and status use the full committed state (nothing stripped).
Live mode: the display clone uses serialize({ strip: true, player }) for the active viewer. Stripping is skipped when the game is over (full reveal). Turn-based games use currplayer; simultaneous games use Perspective / acting seat. Moves still apply to the full state in storage (playgroundStateFull when seat-mode strip-on-save is enabled).

Dump State always shows the full committed snapshot (getCommittedStateString()), not the Live view clone.

Simultaneous games (God mode vs Seat mode)

For games with the simultaneous flag, the playground Game Panel also shows Simultaneous play controls (separate from view mode above):

God mode (default): enter a full comma-separated round (e.g. a3,b5) and submit once, as before. Use Perspective / acting seat to set render perspective and seat-scoped validation for board clicks.
Seat mode: mimics live play — submit one seat’s move at a time; the round buffer merges fragments until every seat has submitted, then the committed state advances. Clear removes only the active seat’s fragment from the in-progress round. Random picks a legal move for the active seat only; Random all seats (commit) applies a full round in one step (soak testing).

Optional Strip hidden info when saving state uses serialize({ strip: true, player }) after each committed round (useful for Entropy-style hidden information). The playground keeps a full copy in playgroundStateFull when that option is on so you can still change perspective. In Seat mode, seats with isEliminated() are dimmed in the picker; move/pass/random/board input cannot submit for that seat (God mode full-row entry is unchanged).

The playground does not simulate clocks, WebSocket updates, email, or per-player API responses that hide opponents’ in-progress choices. For engine contracts and partial moves in unit tests, use inline fixtures and move(..., { partial: true }) under test/ — not bin/state.json.

Renderer output

Prototype board JSON at renderer.dev.abstractplay.com before wiring render() in your game.

Chat log

When you override collectChatLogLine or chatLogEntries, verify output with assertChatLogParity(game, playerNames) from test/fixtures/chat/helpers.ts. CI runs test/games/chatLogParity.test.ts for registry games with fixtures.

After collector changes, refresh local goldens (gitignored fixtures): npm run refresh-chat-golden-entries and/or npm run refresh-chat-golden.

See Structured move log for simultaneous indexing, aggregated frames, and anti-patterns.

Render labels

When a game emits player-named area or board titles, assert render() returns a structured object (textKey, actor.seat) — not a resolved username string. Optionally verify wording with resolveRenderLabel(label, names, mockT). See Structured render labels.

Example games

Complica tests — grep complica under test/games/