Figment is a framework for creating multiplayer, text-based worlds. It was originally designed to explore the application of the "entity-component-system" architectural pattern to the realm of MUDs.

Components, as Figment defines them, are little chunks of behavior that can be attached to any Entity. Composability is a powerful pattern, and Components are no exception. Here are some ways you can use them:

• Fire that spreads to nearby entities with the Flammable Component
• NPCs with a Vigilante Component who will attack criminals on sight
• Armor with a Healing Component that gradually restores health when worn
• Doors with a Breakable Component that can be knocked down
• Switches that can only be weighed down by entities with the Heavy Component

Figment is explicitly designed to empower worldbuilders to create dynamic environments populated by entities that interact with each other in intricate (and even unexpected) ways, so: experiment and have fun!

Figment is under active development. You can install it from PyPI:

$ pip install figment

Or directly from this repository (recommended, for now):

$ pip install git+git://github.com/vreon/figment.git

To create a world, you'll need to familiarize yourself with some terminology:

• An Entity is any thing that exists within your world. It doesn't need to be physical or tangible.
  Examples: a sword, a room, a monster spawner, a player
• A Component is like an adjective that can be attached to an Entity to change its behavior and how other Entities behave toward it.
  Examples: a Component to describe the Entity's location in space, a Component that causes the Entity to meander automatically from room to room, a Component that allows the Entity to use worldbuilding commands
• A Mode is the lens through which a textual command, like "go north", is interpreted. An Entity has one Mode at any given time (or zero if it has no agency). Commands issued by an Entity are passed through that Entity's Mode, and the Mode is then responsible for updating the state of the world and sending messages to any affected Entities.
  Examples: an action Mode for moving around within the world, a conversation Mode for talking to NPCs, a setup Mode for character creation
• A Zone is a slice of a world. It acts like an isolated space for a group of Entities. You can use Zones as server shards or to run different logical regions of the world at different tick speeds.

By extending Figment's base classes (particularly Component and Mode), you define the vocabulary unique to your world -- then construct your world's people, places, and things using that vocabulary.

While your available vocabulary of Components and Modes cannot yet be changed during runtime, they can be dynamically applied to Entities (that's the whole point, after all!) so you can even do a good chunk of worldbuilding from within the world itself if you build the appropriate tools.

Consult the example worlds to get an idea of how to structure yours.

Figment is more of a framework than an engine, and it doesn't make many assumptions about your world, so there's not much to run out-of-the-box.

If you have already created a world, or would like to run one of the examples:

$ cd /path/to/world
$ figment run

(Make sure that the Redis instance referenced in your world's config is accessible from this host.)

If the world contains ticking components, you'll also need to run a ticker:

$ figment run -t

Presently, Figment clients must communicate directly with the backing Redis instance. This is obviously insecure, so it's strongly recommended to write a client that can act as an intermediary between Redis and whatever protocol you want to support (Websockets, IRC, Telnet, etc). Eventually, Figment will provide plugins for the most common client protocols.

For now, assuming you have direct access to Redis, you can use the Figment CLI to interactively send and receive messages on behalf of an entity:

$ figment prompt <entity_id>

Figment is made available under the terms of the Expat/MIT license. See LICENSE for details.