Comparing to Stake Math SDK

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Slot Engine is inspired by Stake's Math SDK

Slot Engine Core and Stake's Math SDK share many similarities, including comparable APIs. Originally conceived as a TypeScript port of the Math SDK, Slot Engine evolved during development to deliver an improved developer experience and enhanced code versioning capabilities.

Challenges & Solutions

Here's how Slot Engine addresses key challenges encountered with the Math SDK:

Stake Math SDK Challenges

Stake's solution provides a Python codebase that developers can clone and customize. However, game development with the Math SDK presents several challenges:

Complexity Barriers

• Requires deep understanding of complex inner workings
• Features deep class inheritance and functions spanning multiple files
• Can overwhelm developers, especially those new to programming

Type Safety Issues

• Lacks comprehensive type definitions
• Results in any types throughout the codebase
• Complicates development and debugging

Version Management Problems

• Not distributed through package managers
• Upgrading existing games becomes cumbersome and risky
• Custom code modifications make updates nearly impossible without significant refactoring

Despite these challenges, the Stake Math SDK is battle-tested and widely used by industry professionals for creating sophisticated games.

Slot Engine's Approach

Slot Engine improves the developer experience by reducing some complexity through design choices:

Simplified Architecture

• Consciously avoids exposing all source code during development
• Provides utility functions, services, and hooks instead
• Reduces the need to override core functionality

Better Developer Experience

• Lower learning curve for new developers
• Cleaner, more maintainable code structure
• Improved type safety

Package Distribution

• Distributed as an npm package for easy installation and updates
• Semantic versioning ensures predictable upgrade paths
• No need to clone and modify source code directly

Fundamental Differences

"Magic Methods"

Examining Stake's example games reveals that developers must manually invoke methods like reset_seed(), reset_book(), or check_repeat(). The purpose of these methods isn't immediately clear—understanding their role in game simulation requires diving deep into the underlying implementation.

Slot Engine eliminates most "magic methods" by incorporating their functionality directly into the core logic, reducing developer confusion and improving code clarity for developers.

Game Flow

(This text explains some opinions of the author and the reason for certain design decisions)

Stake's Math SDK provides pre-built functions for common game mechanics. However, these functions are designed for standard game patterns and often fall short when implementing unique features. For instance, the default functions cannot accommodate super bonus mechanics without modification. Since every slot game has distinctive requirements, developers frequently need to override entire functions to achieve their desired functionality.

Slot Engine takes a fundamentally different approach to address this. Rather than offering monolithic functions for major game flow components, the Core library provides granular utility functions that serve as building blocks for custom game logic.

Developers implement their complete game flow within a single hook function that integrates with the game configuration. This hook orchestrates the entire game sequence using utility functions combined with custom code. While this approach may initially appear more complex than navigating pre-built functions, it offers significant advantages: it eliminates the need to navigate complex source code hierarchies and override multiple interconnected functions, ultimately providing developers with greater flexibility to create truly customized gaming experiences.