[RELEASED] Trivia Quiz Game Template

This looks like a very useful product and I have few pre-sales questions.

The primary use will be a Windows (64-bit) standalone application.

(1) What is the maximum number of questions allowed in the XML file? Would 1000 questions be reasonable size? Do you have a maximum number of questions that you have tried? I did not see anything in the documentation about size limitations.

(2) Maximum number of answers per question. Is there a practical limit that you have used as a guideline? I was hoping to support 10. The documentation did not mention a limit I am looking for practical limits.

(3) Does this come with full C# source code?

(4) Multi-player mode.

I am thinking of this more like a tv game show where the first person who presses the button (on his XBOX-360) wins the round. Based on reading the documentation it appears that for multiple players it just alternates between players.

(5) Is the Input system limited to Unity's input system? I would like to use Rewired as my input system so I can support all types of controllers.

 

@longroadhwy:

I like to give a hands on answer so here goes:
(1) I don't know what could be the limit for xml in general and for arrays ( how the questions are stored ) in unity, so I just built an XML file with 1000 questions ( about 19000 xml lines ), and imported it into one of the levels. Both the XML save and import processes took a few seconds, and the game ran as it normally would. Here is a webplayer of the game:
http://puppeteerinteractive.com/Webplayers/TQG1000Questions/

And here's a screenshot of the XML and component view after import:


For testing purposes I made one regular question, one with an image, and one with a video, and then copied them over to fill a 1000 questions in the xml before importing. So in the demo you'll basically 3 questions repeating over and over, but they are 1000 in truth.

I think the more important aspect you want to consider is file size. When testing, the file size for a game with 1000 text-only questions was 4mb, but when I added the extra image and video the size jumped to 8mb. This could be due to not using a well optimized image/video on my part, but I'm inclined to think that having 1000 image-questions in your game would be a bit much, as the resources are stored locally.

(2) In the test above I made 10 answers for each question, for 1000 questions.

(3) All my game templates include full code/graphics/sound. Basically you get what you see in the demo.

(4) The game started as a single player quiz. In the weeks after release I updated it and now it has among other things a local-multiplayer hotseat mode. I'm also considering a head-to-head type of game where you can answer simultaneously, faster guy wins. I'm also thinking of ways to allow online play, but there are a few more bridges on the way before I get there. ( Never made an online game ).

(5) In its current state the game is playable out-of-the-box on mouse,keyboard,touch, and gamepad. I don't own the Rewired system so I didn't try first hand. From your experience, did you have trouble fitting it to other games from the unity store?

 

Thanks for all of your answers.

(4) As for multi-player game show.

This product can really go after some good markets (training/education/entertainment) easily ...

If you check out this site this the type of game I was thinking of. It looks like you have most of the items in your system already. But the lockout feature would be a great addition for multi-player (using gamepads). They have a few videos on their site to show how their software works with their own hardware.

http://www.quizgamebuzzers.com/

There is another site also something used for training systems or classroom ... but the same idea to get the audience to be interactive.

http://www.trainerswarehouse.com/Buzzers-for-Games/products/122/

(5) Rewired is very easy to integrate with other packages.

https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/21676

For the very simple type of cases you can see the following:
http://guavaman.com/projects/rewired/docs/HowTos.html#converting-scripts

It comes with UFPS, Playmaker, Behavior Designer integrations and other assets have done their own integration with Rewired too such as Third Person Controller. My main interest in Rewired originally was Flight Simulation originally but it supports everything I need controller wise natively on Win/MAC/Linux.Others have made intergrations with UFS (flight simulation asset) and with Adventure Creator (http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/ad...emo-video-website.204414/page-22#post-2360508 [see msg 1090]. The Letters of Marque (naval battle game) WIP is on the Unity forums also uses Rewired along with several other assets like Ceto.

The main interest in this case is to be able to support the Control Mapper feature which allows end user remapping of controls (keyboard/mouse/usb controller). Which would be good for local multi-player feature. Which is why I am interested in the multi-player lockout option mentioned in (4) above.
http://guavaman.com/projects/rewired/docs/ControlMapper.html

The supported controller list for reference
http://guavaman.com/projects/rewired/docs/SupportedControllers.html

Documentation (including API docs are available here:
http://guavaman.com/projects/rewired/docs/

 

@Adswars : Check your private messages, I sent you the latest version of the pacakge. I've also submitted the update to the store so it should take a few days ( or more, because of the holidays ) to get online. If anyone wants the latest version of TQG send me a message with the order number ( ex: OR123456789 ) and I'll link you the update.

@longroadhwy :
(4) That looks really awesome, great idea for gatherings. Thinking in terms of how I would make the main issue would be the number of players, each with his/her own buzzer (gamepad), so I'll need to have Input Manager set up with a maximum number of players ready. I can have an option in the package to "buzz" and then take control of the screen, giving the player who buzzed a (timed) chance to answer. There's also the lose-points feature, easy to do.

(5) I've been messing around with the trial version yesterday, it seems to add a long set of premade Input Settings for a number of potential gamepads. Lot's of customization options too, but I still haven't got full grips on it. It did seem to somehow make my xbox one controller *less* responsive, but it could be a miss on my part.

I'll keep trying to see how Rewired can help the package. One thing is sure, the "buzzer" idea is awesome and I'm definitely going to add it in the next update. It might be limited to a maximum of 8 ( Unity's limit? ) players as a start, but I want to get the basic concept to work before trying to expand it. I think it deserves a demo of its own with some nice audio/visual cues to get that type of game feel right.

 

I was surprised that there were no "buzzer" style games when I first started using Unity3d too. It will be good to see that implemented in your asset.

I think 8 players should be enough for most use cases.

For standalone (windows/MAC/Linux) most Rewired users use Native Input (that only Rewired provides) and not Unity input. So we almost never have to worry about Unity changing something input related underneath us for gamepads/Flight controllers, etc. Also no 20 button limit for those who use flight controllers (which is a huge issue).
(see the first screen shot for picture of native input)
http://guavaman.com/projects/rewired/docs/RewiredEditor.html

For gamepad support most use the Dual Analog Gamepad template so you never have to worry about individual gamepad mapping. (see first item in the list of the screen shot).

http://guavaman.com/projects/rewired/docs/RewiredEditor.html#JoystickMaps

With Rewired control mapper end users can always remap if they want to or have a controller not in the template.

The Rewired forum thread is here:
http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/rewired-advanced-input-for-unity.270693/

Rewired support will probably be slower due to the holidays of course. But do post questions. It is always interesting to hear what use cases end users are working with.

I also noticed you have a shooting gallery game template and a gunslinger game template. Rewired has support arcade guns light guns too for those who like those type of game controllers. (These have Rewired Native support on Windows/Mac/Linux) which is also nice.

 

Hi Puppeteer. Great package and AWESOME support.
Here is my problem:
I have an excel fill with multiple columns:
Questions, Correct answer, Wrong ans.1,Wrong ans.2,Wrong ans.3,Wrong ans.4, image
Each column contains the list of records (in total I have around 150 questions).
How can I covert this Excel file into a .XML file to be used in your plugin?

Thanks in advance,

 

Hi Puppeteer!!! I wish to you and everybody in this forum a happy new year!!!
I have a question about the last 2 versions of the asset (1.24 & 1.26): If i run the game, the HOT SEAT 2-4 PLAYERS option does nothing (no question appears & the 4 answers are crossed). Do I make something wrong? With the previous version (1.2) i had no problems. I use Unity free 5.2.1.f1.
Thanks,
Kostas

Edit: Problems fixed!!! Everything works now!!! Thanks for the great asset!!!

 

I've had that exact same question from another user, and looking around the web there are a couple of tools that convert XLS to XML, but they don't seem to get the job done perfectly.

http://www.zamzar.com/convert/xls-to-xml/

http://www.excel-easy.com/examples/xml.html

The main problem would be if your excel file had varying answers rather than a set number of answers for each question.

I'm going to take a sample batch ( ~100 questions, with 4 answers to each question ) and see how it can be turned to XML. If there are no problems I'll take it further and put a guide on how to do it.

 

I just got my latest update accepted to the store, so that might have been it. Anyway, glad it works for you!

Here's the update info for 1.26 (22.12.2015) :
- Fixed an error when trying to build for mobile using video questions. Unity does not support video playback on mobile. - Added warning when importing video question while on a mobile platform.
- Removed example videos from package to avoid potential conflict. The package still supports video questions for Unity 4 pro and Unity 5.

 

Come the Questions Randomly? And can i deactivate the Timer?

 

The questions can be both random and sequential. You can set groups of questions based on the bonus level ( 100, 500, 1000, etc ). The game will choose a few random questions from the first group ( example: 100 ), and after you answer correctly the game will move to the next group ( ex: 500 ), and go on until the game ends.

You can also deactivate the timer by remove it from the gamecontroller.

Here is the documentation:
http://puppeteerinteractive.com/Documentation/TQG/documentation.pdf

 

Is it possible to set it up so i can change the questions server side? Looking to help a friend make a weekly challenge on his website and it would be a pain to upload a new build weekly

 

I've been taking a look at ways to load XML files from the net, and it looks like there is an option to do that. Since I've already made the parsing code I only need to get the file from a www instead of the resources.

This should be possible for browser builds at least, so I'll try to do a build and see how it works.

Stay tuned!

 

@Dmostir: We got results!

I managed to make the XML load from a web address at runtime, try it out here ( ignore the red text, it's just for testing how many questions were loaded from XML):
puppeteerinteractive.com/Webplayers/TQGExternalXML/

This works just as it would with loading from the resources folder. Online you would have a "Resources" folder sitting beside the game file, and in it you'de have an "Images" folder and a "Videos" folder if you use them. In the game ontroller ( in Unity Editor ) you would enter the address of the XML file.

This means that instead of uploading the entire game each time you changed the questions list, you can just swap out the XML file ( keeping it with the same name and at the same address you set in the game ).

The only problem I'm having now is it seems the questions are not randomized as often as they would in the regular version ( not loaded from XML ).

 

Would this be possible for mobile?

 

I just finished some tests after making a few more changes to the code, and it seems like the XML was loaded correctly on the Android device too. I also solved the randomization issue, so the questions are presented like normal.

Now I'm working on a proper way to wait for the info to be loaded from XML and present a relevant message in case the info was not loaded. This will be part of the "OnlineXML" example in the package.

 

Awesome! And for iOS? I have an ios developer account if you need help in testing.

 

@Dmsotir I'm going to test on iOS too, but first I want to cover a few edge cases such as when the XML we are trying to download doesn't exist, or fails to download, or internet connection is gone, or the download times out.

After that I'll make another build for apk and iOS to finalize the test.

This update is going to be big, lots of new quiz examples!

 

@puppeteer awesome man! That's huge! When do you expect it to be done? Can you post a message and tag me when you get it done please? I appreciate your fast responses and speedy update here! You've definitely gained a customer.

 

@Dmsotir sure, I'll submit it sometime tomorrow, so that's a few more days until it goes online in the store, if nothing goes wrong.

 

An update on the update!

I'm going to split this update in two, as it's getting bigger than I thought and I want to get something online ASAP. So this next update will have loading XML from web address, improved timer with text, 8 player hotseat mode, highlighting current player, the ability to get questions from another quiz, and some needed bug fixes.

The update after that will have a true/false mode, buzzer mode, faceoff mode, the ability to edit the names of players in-game, show quiz progress, lose bonus based on timer, auto assign name/score/lives, and some more changes.

 

Thanks. Looking forward to all your updates.

 

Ok, first update is ready and submitted, should be in the store in a few days. I'll post a couple of screenshots/vids later to show what was added.

 

Looking forward to it. Hopefully it gets approved this week.

Have you tried the new Unity 5.3.2 release yet?

 

The update is already on the store, now I'm pushing the seconds part with the game modes and hopefully better ad support.

I'm downloading 5.3.2 right now, hope they fixed all the things 5.3.1 messed up. Mostly particle stuff though, so it didn't affect trivia quiz, but it cause trouble in my game templates.

 

A select level section for harder questions is needed. Could also be used for selecting different categories like movies, celebrities, geology, etc... That would make this an all in one trivia game.

 

I'm actually thinking of a category wheel that spins and gives a random category, sort of like that trivia crack game.

 

This could be very useful. I like the idea.

 

I am looking forward to it. I was also thinking your product could be used for flash cards for training purposes. I need to read the documentation in more detail so see how to approach it.

 

Hello, is it possible to get a quick example of a screen in between questions. Most of the ideas I’ve been brainstorming have some sort of explanation or illustration of the correct answer. Two examples would be “What is this a picture of?” where you show a portion of the picture at the top but after selecting an answer the next screen displays the full image, then click next to go on to the next question. A second example would simply be an explanation of an answer “Who is the biggest music start of all time?” After the user selects an answer the next screen goes on to explain that The Beetles sold 5,000,000 records making them the biggest music starts of all time (not true just an example). Is this easy enough to do?

 

I have a couple of customers who are using the quiz as part of a training program for new employees. They mostly use the basic quiz with relevant questions. Can you show me how you would do it? A rough mockup would be nice so I understand you better.

 

I think I know exactly what you're referring to. This is how most PlayBuzz quizzes work.

I'll have to add a "followup" field to the questions, which will be displayed after you answer. If you have an image, it will be revealed fully after you answer. Something like this ( just a mockup for now ):



The question is presented along with a cropped picture. When you answer, the entire picture is displayed and some followup text appears. Is this what you're looking for?

 

Yes, that would be perfect!

 

I would like to see this added to your Trvia Quiz Game system. I am enjoying what you have included so far.

 

Here's a bit of sneak peek to the category wheel I'm working on:

Of course this also means I'm adding categories to the template. You won't be stuck with the questions list anymore, you can set a category which has a name, a color, an icon, and a list of questions associated with it. Then you can add any number of categories to your quiz, mix and match them, or select them using a category selector like in the above video.

BTW, the wheel itself is code-made, you just add the categories to the list and it calculates how the slices should fit in the wheel automatically. Using the same script you can also have a list or a grid of categories to choose from, not just a random wheel.

Good stuff, good stuff.

 

How many categories can you have and still be readable? It seems like your practical limit would be about 10 categories. Is an icon required? It seems you could get more categories if the user has the option to not include an icon.

 

Okay, here's the current state of the wheel with a few cases:



In the wheel itself you have a category object which contains an icon and a text. If you disable any of them, they will just not appear in the wheel. So you can have the wheel look like case (1) with no icons, or like case (2) with both text and icon, or you can disable the text object in the category and just have icons only like in case (3).

Case (4) shows the wheel with 10 categories. Like you guessed, it would be a bit crammed for text, so just disable it and you get case (5).

 

That looks good. I can see good reasons to be able use icons only also. A picture really helps.

 

This is perfect. I think the text is absolutely needed. I see more reasons why text would be needed over icons. I also like simple

 

How can I make an "I dont know" answer skip.

 

What does the speaker Icon do? The music icon is muting but the speaker does nothing. Is the music icon suppose to change music and the speaker icon mute?

 

The wheel looks great !

 

Add this function to your gamecontroller script:

Code (CSharp):

1. public void SkipQuestion()
2. {
3.     // Reset the question and answers in order to display the next question
4.     StartCoroutine(ResetQuestion(0.5f, false));
5. }

Now you can make a button to calle the SkipQuestion function, which simply reset the current question, show the correct one, and move to the next one without giving you a bonus or taking a life from you.

I'll add it to the update, maybe with a skip limit too. Good idea, thanks!

The speaker icon mutes sound effects, while the tune icon mutes the music.

 

Thanks for your update! And these features are really exciting.
Will loading XMLs work loading from pc? I love the idea of loading XMLs but only a local option would work for me.

 

You can already import from an XML file on your computer to your unity quiz in the editor. The online import option is for loading something built online already without having to rebuild the game.

Or are you thinking of something else? Like for example having your quiz built and ready on computers in a classroom, and you would just change up the XML file somewhere in the local game folder without needing to open unity and build again.

Is that what you want to do?

 

Yeah sorry my reply might have been a bit confusing.

I mean load an XML locally from another folder or in the games folder with an already built game.

 

I tried it out but it didn't work. This is expected because it uses the WWW class to load the address, but it could potentially work with the IO class, so it's still on the table.

Right now I'm scrambling to release the next update before the weekend, so it's a bit tight for experimentation.

 

Maybe the WWW class has security restrictions for accessing local file system?

What will you be including in the next update?

 

I think unity just used another class for local file access, but I'll keep the idea on the back burner at least until this update goes live.

This update is going to have quite a few additions, try out the current test build here:
http://puppeteerinteractive.com/Webplayers/TQGUpdate/

You can also follow development todo list here ( you can also see which ideas I'm experimenting with ):
https://trello.com/b/ml2DoSW7/trivia-quiz-game

Here's what was added so far:
Game Modes:
- Category Challenge: 6 categories, 5 questions each, answer 3 random categories successfuly to win the challenge.
- True/False: 10 questions with progress tabs, horizontal timer, no lives.
- Guess the picture: similar to PlayBuzz quizzes. The CloseUp Challenge.

Options:
- Options to randomize the question list, sort it from low to high bonus, and randomize the answers too. This affects how questions are presented.
- You can set the number of the first question. This can be used to start from a higher question number, for example if you want to start from a higher difficulty in the question list ( if we have it sorted by bonus groups from easy to difficult ).
- You can set the total number of questions asked, regardless of whether we answer correctly or not. This is used when you want a strict number of questions to be asked, otherwise the game will try to go through all available question groups.
- You can assign multiple categories ( or question lists ) to the quiz, and switch between them with the Category Selector.

Game Elements:
- Added categories which are defined by Name, Color, Icon, and a list of questions associated with it.
- Added a category wheel which chooses a random list of questions for the quiz.
- Added Progress Object which shows the current question we are on and the total number of questions before we finish. Has a tab mode and a text mode.
- Added followup text to the quiz, which appears after you answer a question.
- Added several more tab graphics, round, blurry, straight, etc

Fixes:
- Improved Gamepad and Amazon TV controller support. Credits to Jason Bentley for testing that out. Also gamepad buttons are more responsive now, and you can select and zoom into images/videos with the gamepad.
- Added WebGL to MovieTexture (video) exception list. Not sure about this one yet, but I think WebGL can't play video.
- Fixed Image/Video/Text order when displaying a question.
- Reorganized UI screens ( victory, defeat, results, player selection, etc ) to better fit both landscape and portrait modes.

I never thought how much time the actual commenting and documenting of the code is taking, but it's turning out nicely so far. I want to make a couple of videos showcasing what can be done with the game options too, I think seeing is better than reading in these things.

 

Looks very nice. Looking forward to the next update.

What gamepads are you using for testing? Is that just an XBOX-360 controller and Amazon TV Controller?

You should look into creating an interface to your input system. Then people can plug in whatever alternative input system they are using (e.g. Rewired, InControl, etc.) without having to touch your code.