# Play substrates — Tabletop Simulator, boardgame.io

`unverified` throughout — background knowledge, not checked this session

## What they optimise for

**Playing**, by humans, over a network. Tabletop Simulator gives a
physics sandbox with no rules enforcement; boardgame.io gives a
JavaScript framework for turn-based games with state management and a
networked client.

## How a game is defined

TTS: assets plus optional scripting; the rules live in the players' heads.
boardgame.io: JavaScript moves and turn order.

## What they can analyse

Nothing. The rules are a script, not a claim.

## Relevance to clay-borg

**None for analysis, and one thing for the interface.** Our own
`cb-play` page and [`../specs/Ornamentation.md`](../specs/Ornamentation.md)
occupy this space, and the future `clay-animate` is squarely in it.

The useful contrast: **TTS proves that a table with no rules enforcement
is still fun**, which is an argument for taking ornamentation seriously
and against assuming the mechanism is the whole game.

## Open questions

- Whether boardgame.io's state model is worth borrowing for `clay-animate`.

## Sources

None fetched. **Marked `unverified` in full.**