Lines: The Game (In Beta Release) Is Available
Link to Lines: The Game.
Lines: The Game is a text-based game to play while waiting in line at Disney theme parks. It is designed to be simple to play on a (sometimes unreliable) mobile phone network.
Instructions
In Lines: The Game, you’re a guest on a 21-day trip to the Magic Kingdom. Unfortunately, you took out a loan to pay for your trip. Your job is to make money to pay back your loan, by buying things such as attraction FASTPASSes, food, and clothing in one part of the park, and selling them for more money in other parts of the park.
Visiting Lands
You can visit any of the lands in the Magic Kingdom by clicking the button with that land’s name. For example, if you’re on Main Street USA, clicking the “Fantasyland” button will bring you to Fantasyland tomorrow. Moving to another land will end your current day in the park, and your next day will start in the new land.
Making Money
You make money by buying things cheaply in one part of the park, and selling them for more money in other parts of the park. Occasionally there will be drops or spikes in the prices of some items. Take advantage of these if you can. Anything that you’re holding when your trip ends does not count toward your final score.
Your Backpack
You get to bring a backpack with you into the park. It’s a magic backpack! It can hold up to 100 separate items.
Friends
You’ll occasionally have the chance to hire friends to help you carry things around the park. Hiring a friend increases the number of things you can carry. They also help when you’re confronted by opponents.
Tools
Every once in a while you’ll find a market that allows you to buy special tools, such as a bottle of “Tour Group Body Odor.” These tools are expensive and take space in your backpack. Tools are used when fighting opponents.
Opponents
There are lots of people who don’t want you running around the park selling things: overzealous employees, management types, and evil stepmothers. If they catch you they can take items from you, take money from your wallet, or cast spells to make you weak. They can also ask you to leave the park. When you encounter an opponent, your options are to stay where you are, run, or fight.
Fighting and Health
Fighting is best done when you have special tools, since these tools inflict damage on your opponents. If you decide to fight an opponent, your health and the health of your opponent may suffer. You start with 100 points of health. You lose points each time an opponent damages you during a fight. You’ll be asked to leave the park if you run out of health.
First Aid
You may find First Aid stations around the park. First Aid allows you to regain health points after a fight. Increasing your health costs money.
ATMs
You can deposit or withdraw money at ATMs located around the park. Money deposited in the ATM cannot be taken by opponents. Money can be withdrawn at any ATM.
Loans
You start the game with a loan of $5,000, which must be repaid (with interest) at the end of your trip. During the game, the Sheriff of Nottingham may offer you other loans at very high interest rates. These also must be repaid at the end of your trip.
Credits
Lines: The Game is an open source adaptation of an open source work by John E. Dell.
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I can’t register for the game. I would love to try it out. Thanks for the help!
Bug report: As far as I can tell, if I’m about to ultimately lose a fight with a Manager (possibly other CM), I get an error message, “The change you wanted was rejected. Maybe you tried to change something you didn’t have access to.”
“Drug Wars” for Disney, eh? 😉 Terribly addicting…
Is the game gone?
I see the URL changed…so looks like the game is still there!
Yep. Just noticed that, through the Lines app
http://ec2-23-21-6-222.compute-1.amazonaws.com/
Access is still up and down for me from the frequent something went wrong’ with smatterings of you are not authorized to make that change’. Always happens at the worst times too. I had that manager on the ropes!!
YESSSS I finally made the leader board! I had to play an embarrassing number of times, but I have made it into last place! Nice work, Len… super addicting!
Ugh, I can’t access the game on my phone. I always get an error message.
I tried to borrow money at the bank in Fantasyland, but I couldn’t. Are there any requirements to borrow money, and is there a maximum that can be borrowed?
WDW has some interesting micro-climates. On the same day I got the following alerts:
– Temporary cold snap means no one wants frozen treats. Dole Whip prices fall.
– Surprise heat wave makes crowds thirsty!
Of course, I had a pack full of Dole Whips…
I am a paid member, but my login information does not seem to work for the Lines Game app. How exactly do I get the game?
There should be a register button where you create a login separate from your touring plans account.
Just made my spreadsheet. Game face = ON.
More items should be on sale now.
Still down 🙁
Up now. Sorry!
I think it is still down. I can’t open it.
Is the link down? I can’t seem to get to it.
Really loving this game, will there be a designed interface added? I think it could look really awesome. And if you need any help with that, I’m up for it, 🙂
I can repay the Sheriff of Nottingham (at the Bank at Fantasyland), but I cannot borrow more from him. Am I doing something wrong?
Hmmmmm….I’ll check on that.
Is there a difference between the lands in terms of either:
The probability of an item being for sale
OR
The price of an item?
Also, I have noticed that the only two items that seem to go to astronomical prices (5k+) are the Green Hats and the Pretzels? Is that accurate or have I just not played enough games yet?
The Taco Salads can fluctuate quite a bit as well.
Cool idea! Is the source available somewhere?
On Github as a public repository. I’ll get the link.
Brilliant Len! Gotta try this out… but thanks for another great idea!
Love the game. It’s all about the taco salads, baby! I’ve never come across a first aid station though. Where does one find that?
I haven’t ever seen a first aid station either, or “the prince of nottingham”. It’s been offered that I hire a friend once, but I only had 2 days left anyway.
I’m checking on those two things. I may have set too low the probability of encountering those things.
Thanks for playing!
I’m absurdly bored at work so I made a spreadsheet that I’m filling out with prices as I go through the game. The spreadsheet averages out the prices (bottom of spreadsheet) as I add them. I also highlighted in green if the price was low according to the game (ie Buzz FASTPASS machine goes crazy) and red if the price was high (ie low-card diets are a fad, everyone wants pretzels!). Hopefully this will be helpful to others.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ag_0zvdYM7fVdElVaWdQX0phbFhZX0xIRkVtczYtU3c
OK, here are the average costs of each item according to my last few games
Big Thunder Mountain FASTPASSes 830
Bottles of Water 954
Buzz Lightyear FASTPASSes 39
Casey’s Corner Hot Dogs 1,723
Dole Whips 2,379
Dumbo FASTPASSes 466
Green Peter Pan Hats 1,708
Jungle Cruise FASTPASSes 1,020
Main Street Bakery Cupcakes 1,209
Peco’s Bill’s Veggie Burgers 2,566
Peter Pan FASTPASSes 582
Space Mountain FASTPASSes 39
Splash Mountain FASTPASSes 795
Tomorrowland Pretzels 6,549
Tortuga Tavern’s Taco Salads 3,005
Winnie the Pooh FASTPASSes 185
I love this. Love love love it.
Unfortunately those facists at Google limit the size of their spreadsheets so I could only do it until it filled up.
Strangely enough, I still can’t get on the leader board. I should have kept this to myself!
I am finding this game very realistic. Pretzels are over $2,000
This would be the 2014 Disney dining plan.
I will quote you on this. 🙂
I never wait in lines at WDW 😉 Between touring plans and my own “brand” of using baby swap and going during light crowd levels, I don’t remember the last time I waited in a really long line (like more than 10 minutes)…
The advice of the unofficial guide has me so SPOILED!!
It sounds like a game that doesn’t have to be played just in the park.
I don’t get it. I bought some stuff and now all I can do is sell them for nothing. How am I supposed to make any money?
I keep getting chased, and the amount I owe is going up.
Am I missing something?
The price for each item changes each “day”. Some days, the items are worth nothing, so hold onto them until another day when the price goes up and you can sell them.
The amount you owe goes up every day because you’re getting interest on your loan.
In order to escape from cast members, you either need to run away or fight them. In order to decide, you should look at the tools you have (if they’re better than your opponents’) and if your endurance is better.
I’ve got your back, Len haha
Thanks Madison!
Jeff, Madison is correct. Some items cannot be sold on certain days.
Is it just me… or between this and the new interactive queues am I wanting to spend more time in line and less time on rides all of a sudden? I think you are going to need a new Touring Plan for those that WANT to spend more time in lines 🙂
Looking forward to giving this a go. Will be great way to get my fix between trips 🙂
I can’t figure out how to use the tools during the game and I never encountered a first aid station, so the whole cast member-fighting thing was kind of confusing. Also, it would be helpful to have some sort of average price for the items so you can tell if something is a good deal or ridiculously expensive. Otherwise, it’s a really cool game and I think I will be playing it a lot at work tomorrow.
Thanks Madison! I’ll try to make the use of tools more obvious. (Just having them in your backpack is sufficient when fighting; you don’t have to wield them or anything.)
I’ll think about the ‘average price’ display.
Good idea about the average price thing. I’ve struggled with the same thing.
It won’t let me login to play (I should be using my touring plans login and password right? )
Same issue!
Apparently you need to register first, not use your touring plans login.
Yes, a separate registration is required for this. We’ve not yet linked it to our regular Lines system. Thanks for your patience.
That really is a fun, simple game. I ran through it a couple of times already and I can see it being a fun diversion at work… Not that I’d play a game when I should be working our anything…
Haha, this sounds great! I didn’t realize that you were serious until about half-way down – it sounded like something you & the guys would joke about on WDW Today. “Tour Group Body Odor”, LOL!
Can’t wait to try it!
Yes, if not on WDW Today, then it would be in the Color Companion….
Great, now that I’m curbing my addiction to optimizing various touring plans, along comes something equally addicting. What a fun way to help with the in-between WDW trip blues!
And it should be back up now. Thanks for your patience!
Wow. well, this will give me something to do when waiting by myself for Ride Swap!
Ah, there seems to be a problem with too many people on the server. I’ll take a look at this now.
This is so great! Now I am going to have to intentionally find attractions with longer wait times so that I can have more time to play.
Now we need developed the Opposite Touring Plan so that we can MAXIMIZE our waiting in line. 🙂