This project focuses on enhancing the player experience in the game "Party in My Dorm" (PIMD) by automating the discovery of the "party of the day" (POTD), a key feature offering the best rewards.
Players manually search for the POTD, which is time-consuming and frustrating.
Built an automation system to notify players about the POTD via push notifications.
Made the app available to over 7 million users, boosting player engagement.
Background
Every day, the game selects a "party of the day" (POTD) that provides the best rewards. Players eagerly search for this party by trying out different parties to see if they offer good rewards as the POTD does. This creates a fun scavenger hunt experience which the game encourages.
Challenge
Finding the POTD was still too manual, taking about an hour for the community to discover and for the word to spread. As the party jockey, constantly checking the forum was tiring.
Solution
I developed automation to scrape forums and send push notifications to my phone once it's been discovered. I called it "Lazy Parties" and published it on the Google Play Store so others could get alerts too.
Process
I used the Python library Beautiful Soup to fetch data from forums. A dedicated player posts updates as soon as the POTD is found, so I programmed my code to capture these updates and set it up on a cron job on Heroku.
def findPOTD():
currentTime = str(datetime.datetime.now()).split('.')[0]
# currentTimeReduced = str(datetime.datetime.now() - datetime.timedelta(seconds=60)).split('.')[0]
currentTimeUTC = currentTime + ' UTC'
# currentTimeUTCReduced = currentTimeReduced + ' UTC'
cred = credentials.Certificate("partyjockeypimd.json")
firebase_admin.initialize_app(cred)
db = firestore.client()
db.collection(u'potds').document(currentTimeUTC + ' Changeover').set({
u'potd' : 'Testing',
u'foundAt' : currentTime
})
parties = []
potd = ''
while not potd:
URL = 'https://forum.partyinmydorm.com/threads/%EE%8C%92parties-of-the-day%EE%8C%92.110277/page-50000'
page = requests.get(URL)
soup = BeautifulSoup(page.content, 'html.parser')
goddessHailey = soup.find_all('li', attrs={'data-author':'GoddessHailey'})
ch = soup.find_all('li', attrs={'data-author':'Ch'})
ayrshi = soup.find_all('li', attrs={'data-author':'Ayrshi'})
snake = soup.find_all('li', attrs={'data-author':'iLetSnakeSlitherIn'})
suresh = soup.find_all('li', attrs={'data-author':'sureshsingh'})
if goddessHailey:
for party_pool in goddessHailey[-1].find_all('span', attrs={'style':'color: #00b300'}):
parties.append(''.join(party_pool.findAll(text=True)))
if ch:
for party_pool in ch[-1].find_all('span', attrs={'style':'color: #00b300'}):
parties.append(''.join(party_pool.findAll(text=True)))
if ayrshi:
for party_pool in ayrshi[-1].find_all('span', attrs={'style':'color: #00b300'}):
parties.append(''.join(party_pool.findAll(text=True)))
if snake:
for party_pool in snake[-1].find_all('span', attrs={'style':'color: #00b300'}):
parties.append(''.join(party_pool.findAll(text=True)))
if suresh:
for party_pool in suresh[-1].find_all('span', attrs={'style':'color: #00b300'}):
parties.append(''.join(party_pool.findAll(text=True)))
if parties:
if 'Pizza' in parties[-1]:
potd = ''
elif '(PRO)' in parties[-1]:
if 'Pizza' in parties[-2]:
potd = ''
else:
potd = parties[-2]
continue
else:
potd = parties[-1]
continue
time.sleep(60)
currentTime = str(datetime.datetime.now()).split('.')[0]
currentTimeUTC = currentTime + ' UTC'
# db = firestore.client()
db.collection(u'potds').document(currentTimeUTC).set({
u'potd' : potd,
u'foundAt' : currentTime
})Getting the push notifications to work correctly was rewarding. I utilized Firebase CLI and ensured synchronization with my Flutter app.
export const sendPPotdToDevice = functions.firestore
.document('ppotds/{date}')
.onCreate(async snapshot => {
const querySnapshot = await db
.collection('tokens')
.get();
const tokens = querySnapshot.docs.map(snap => snap.id);
const ppotd = snapshot.get('ppotd')
let payload = {}
if (ppotd == 'Testing') {
payload = {
notification: {
title: `Changeover`,
body: `Testing for PPOTD has initiated`,
click_action: 'FLUTTER_NOTIFICATION_CLICK'
},
data : {
title: `Changeover`,
body: `Testing for PPOTD has initiated`,
click_action: 'FLUTTER_NOTIFICATION_CLICK'
}
};
}
else {
payload = {
notification: {
title: `PPOTD found!`,
body: `It's '${ppotd}' today😏`,
click_action: 'FLUTTER_NOTIFICATION_CLICK'
},
data : {
title: `PPOTD found!`,
body: `It's '${ppotd}' today😏`,
click_action: 'FLUTTER_NOTIFICATION_CLICK'
}
};
}
return fcm.sendToDevice(tokens, payload);
});Neomorphic UI was trending at the time, so I incorporated it into the app's design, enhancing the user interface.
Outcomes
Overall, "Lazy Parties" helps me find the POTD lazily. It makes the game more enjoyable for me and enjoyable for millions of players worldwide.