How Plot games work
A Plot game is an independent browser app made from HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and any other assets the browser can load. You can use React, Vue, Phaser, a canvas engine, plain JavaScript, or another browser-friendly stack.
When a group starts a session, Plot loads the game for each participating player. Each player uses their own phone or computer, so your game can give people different information and controls while they work toward one shared outcome.
What your game owns
Your game is responsible for:
- its visuals, sound, interaction, rules, and pacing;
- the layout on phone and desktop screens;
- its bundled assets and normal browser compatibility;
- clear loading, unavailable, and error states;
- using only the Plot features needed by the experience.
The initial creator format is a client-side web app deployed as static assets. Do not assume that server code is included with a game upload.
What Plot owns
Plot is responsible for the surrounding platform experience, including account and purchase flows, bringing a party into a session, launching the correct game, and granting supported platform features. Your game receives only the information and abilities documented by the SDK.
Do not read Plot page data, credentials, or private platform APIs. If your game needs something from Plot, use a documented SDK feature.
One app, one player view
Think of each running copy of your game as one player's view into the same experience. Design explicitly for:
- information everyone can know;
- information only one player should know;
- actions one player can take;
- results the whole group should see;
- a player arriving late, refreshing, or temporarily losing connectivity.
The SDK will provide versioned features for these patterns as they become available. Check for optional features instead of assuming that every Plot environment supports every capability.
Current SDK status
Version 0.1.0 will only establish the game's connection to Plot:
It does not yet expose player identity, shared state, private state, realtime events, media features, or session controls. Those concepts describe how Plot games are intended to work, not APIs you can call in this release. The API reference is the source of truth for what is available now.