Community Variant Publishing

[JorenC]

PRD: Variant Publishing MVP

Status

Draft

Background

The Variant Creator has generated significant community interest and early adoption. Players are already creating and testing custom variants, validating demand for user-generated content within Diplicity.

However, the current system lacks:

• A publishing workflow
• Clear expectations around visibility
• A distinction between personal experimentation and community-recommended variants
• Support for GM-run private games

This PRD introduces a minimal publishing workflow that enables players to create and play custom variants while providing a path for high-quality variants to be promoted and recommended.

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Goals

Enable Creative Freedom

Players should be able to create custom variants for personal use and private games.

The platform should not unnecessarily restrict variants based on gameplay quality, aesthetics, complexity, or niche appeal.

Support Community-Organized Games

Players should be able to use Diplicity as infrastructure for Discord-organized and community-organized games, including variants that may never become publicly promoted.

Curate the New Player Experience

New players should primarily encounter variants that have been reviewed and are considered high quality.

The platform should avoid overwhelming players with large numbers of unfinished, experimental, or highly specialized variants.

Create a Clear Promotion Path

Variant creators should understand how a variant moves from private experimentation to broader community visibility.

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Non-Goals

This MVP does not attempt to:

• Build a fully automated moderation workflow
• Build community voting systems
• Track playtesting statistics
• Automate quality reviews
• Solve long-term governance questions
• Create a comprehensive variant application system
• Create advanced discovery and recommendation systems

These may be addressed in future iterations.

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Variant Visibility Levels

Private

Private variants are visible only to their creator.

Characteristics:

• Can be experimental
• Can be unfinished
• Can be niche
• Can be used for private games
• Are not discoverable by the wider community

Private status affects visibility only.

Content Restrictions

Private variants remain subject to platform moderation and legal requirements.

Variants may not contain:

• Copyright-infringing content
• Unauthorized use of third-party intellectual property
• Offensive content
• Harassment
• Hate speech
• Illegal content
• Other content that violates platform rules

The fact that a variant is private does not exempt it from these requirements.

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Published

Published variants are discoverable by the community.

Characteristics:

• Available for community use
• Visible in variant listings
• Not necessarily curated
• Not necessarily recommended
• May still be experimental or niche

Publishing may initially be a manual process.

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Official

Official variants are a curated subset of published variants.

Characteristics:

• Recommended to players
• Featured in the default discovery experience
• Represent high-quality experiences
• Intended to provide the best onboarding experience for new players

Official status is a recommendation and promotion mechanism, not ownership or endorsement.

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Promotion Criteria

The exact criteria remain subject to refinement.

Current expectations include:

• Demonstrated community interest
• Functional gameplay
• Sufficient playtesting
• Reasonably complete presentation
• No legal or intellectual-property concerns

No single criterion guarantees promotion.

Promotion decisions remain discretionary.

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Intellectual Property Policy

The platform may not be used to distribute copyrighted or infringing content, regardless of visibility level.

This applies equally to:

• Private variants
• Published variants
• Official variants

Examples may include:

• Unauthorized use of copyrighted maps
• Unauthorized use of copyrighted artwork
• Variants based on protected intellectual property where publication creates legal risk

Specific enforcement processes will be developed separately.

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GM Private Games

Overview

Introduce support for games managed by a Game Master (GM) who is not an active player.

This enables Discord-style community games where:

• A GM creates and manages the game
• The GM does not occupy a nation slot
• Players participate normally
• Custom variants can be played privately

Motivation

This allows Diplicity to function as infrastructure for community-created variants without requiring those variants to become publicly visible.

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MVP Scope

Required

1. GM Private Games

Allow creation of private games with a non-player GM.

2. Official Variant Category

Add support for three visibility levels:

• Private
• Published
• Official

Initial implementation may only require database support and administrative tooling.

3. Private → Published Workflow

Allow variants to move from private status to published status.

Initial implementation may be manual.

Examples:

• Discord request
• Google Form submission
• Direct moderator review
• Administrative database update

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Future Enhancements

Near-Term

• Official/Public visibility management tools
• Better variant browsing
• Personal variant filtering
• Improved discovery experiences

Longer-Term

• Community moderation
• Application workflows
• Playtesting metrics
• Variant analytics
• Automated promotion systems
• Community review processes
• Variant quality indicators

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Open Questions

Official Promotion Process

TBD.

Discovery Experience

TBD.

Enforcement Processes

TBD.

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Success Criteria

• Players can create and use private variants
• Communities can run GM-managed games
• Variants can be promoted from Private to Published
• Official variants can be distinguished
• New players can be guided toward high-quality experiences
• Expectations are clear

[Counterink]

One quick thing:

If official variants are intended to be ideal for onboarding new players, what is to be said about the previously official variants (such as twenty twenty) which may be too niche or complex for newer players? I suggest that, while keeping the distinct categories already mentioned, there should be filters for certain aspects of maps, such as player count or estimated game time (there needn't be too many filter options). This would not only steer new players away from variants which may be too much for them to handle, but, more generally, it would allow players of any experience level to find games which suit their tastes, both inside and outside of the official roster.

[JorenC]

Yes. We need to think about what constitutes the 'official' maps. 2020 comes from a long long time ago, pre-React-Dip-v1. Back then, those were all the variants there were.

2020 might not make that cut. Not all my maps will either; right now, the more the merrier, but this system 'protects' against a landfill of variants that are not relevant to most players (but who should still be public).