ShipLock · how-to ·
Add a high-score tracker to any game
Your AI wrote you a game. Give it an arcade high-score table: when you die, the score is already in and you type three letters.
The shape
The game and the table live in one file. The page keeps score while you play. When you die, the score goes on screen where nobody can edit it, three boxes light up for your initials, and SAVE writes one row to the app's database: {name: "AVA", score: 120}. The table under it is the top ten, read straight back from the same place, with your new line picked out.
Three letters is on purpose. It is what arcades did, it fits a phone keyboard, it keeps the table tidy, and it stops the kids typing a paragraph. Each box takes one letter and jumps to the next; backspace jumps back.
Any game
Snake is just the one in the picture. The tracker is the same few lines whatever the game, so if your AI already wrote you one, paste the file back and say: "Add an arcade high-score table to this game. When it ends, show the score and three boxes for initials, save them, and show the top ten." It keeps the game and adds the table. Works for a quiz, a typing test, a reaction timer, anything that ends with a number.
Who gets which link
Players need to do two things: post a score and read the table. That is an Edit link, so send that one to the group chat. (Add only would take the score and hide the table; View would show the table and refuse the score.)
An edit link can change things, so this is a table for friends and family, not for prizes. Someone who knows their browser's developer tools can post any number they like. If it has to be tamper-proof, split it: the game posts through an Add only link, a View link on the telly shows the table, and only you can delete a row.
Good for
- Any game your AI wrote you: snake, breakout, a reaction-time test, a quiz.
- Anything the page can measure: words per minute, laps timed on a phone, how many books the kid read this week.
- The scoreboard on quiz night, kept on one phone and shown on the big screen with a View link.
Ask your AI: "Snake, on a canvas, arrows or swipe on a phone. When the snake dies, show the score and three boxes for arcade-style initials, save them to the database, and show the top ten under the game."