Thread: Is anyone up for hosting the online PG game "Schemaverse"?
Hi all, The PostgreSQL game "Schemaverse" was removed from the PostgreSQL website's links a few months ago because it no longer had hosting. Does anyone around have spare server/vm/something that could be used to host it (for free)? Details in the forwarded message below. :) Regards and best wishes, Justin Clift -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Schemaverse Date: 2025-04-21 13:01 From: Joshua McDougall <joshua@mcdougall.io> To: justin@postgresql.org Hi Justin, <snip> To answer your question, Schemaverse doesn’t take massive power to host. It needs a database and a small server for the front-end, which can (and has) run off a single virtual machine. I think the last one was 4 vCPUs and 16GB of memory but we’ve hosted off smaller too. The unique part of the setup tends to be its lacking security. All players are users on the database, so the pg_hba.conf needs to be flexible and the game needs enough permissions to create users. These two requirements have made most SaaS offerings non-compatible. Admittedly, the last time I investigated such offerings was years ago now, so it’s possible things have changed. If it’s possible that we can find schemaverse a new home, that would be wonderful. I still get the occasional inquiry asking about it, usually from students, and I’d love to have it back up for those looking to learn from it. Regardless though, thank you for reaching out! -Josh
On Thu, May 1, 2025 at 5:23 PM Justin Clift <justin@postgresql.org> wrote:
Hi all,
The PostgreSQL game "Schemaverse" was removed from the PostgreSQL
website's
links a few months ago because it no longer had hosting.
Does anyone around have spare server/vm/something that could be used to
host it (for free)?
I might be interested. Is it difficult to set up?
merlin
On 2025-05-06 09:15, Merlin Moncure wrote: > On Thu, May 1, 2025 at 5:23 PM Justin Clift <justin@postgresql.org> > wrote: > >> Hi all, >> >> The PostgreSQL game "Schemaverse" was removed from the PostgreSQL >> website's >> links a few months ago because it no longer had hosting. >> >> Does anyone around have spare server/vm/something that could be used >> to >> host it (for free)? > > I might be interested. Is it difficult to set up? Definitely more a question for Josh (CC'd) than me. Josh, are you ok to discuss this with Merlin (etc)? + Justin
Hi Merlin,
The core database portion isn’t too complicated to get setup, it’s a sqitch project. There are a couple Perl scripts that run continuously in a screen session as well.
The web interfaces are a little dated and need some fiddling to get operational. This tends to be the most complicated part to get running lately.
I would happily help either by answering questions, or by directly working on the system. I could also spend some time getting it all working smoothly via docker if a container was preferred.
Thanks for your interest!
Josh
On May 5, 2025, at 7:15 PM, Merlin Moncure <mmoncure@gmail.com> wrote:On Thu, May 1, 2025 at 5:23 PM Justin Clift <justin@postgresql.org> wrote:Hi all,
The PostgreSQL game "Schemaverse" was removed from the PostgreSQL
website's
links a few months ago because it no longer had hosting.
Does anyone around have spare server/vm/something that could be used to
host it (for free)?I might be interested. Is it difficult to set up?merlin
On Thu, May 8, 2025 at 7:52 PM Joshua McDougall <joshua@mcdougall.io> wrote:
Hi Merlin,The core database portion isn’t too complicated to get setup, it’s a sqitch project. There are a couple Perl scripts that run continuously in a screen session as well.The web interfaces are a little dated and need some fiddling to get operational. This tends to be the most complicated part to get running lately.I would happily help either by answering questions, or by directly working on the system. I could also spend some time getting it all working smoothly via docker if a container was preferred.Thanks for your interest!
Sure. FYI: look familiar? https://github.com/merlinm/rpgame.
It should -- it was loosely inspired from your effort. This was the output of a SQL training class I was giving to non technical folks at a prior gig.
You may or may not recall I was the one abusing advisory locks so no one could play the game but me :-). Your project is an important part of postgres history IMO. I have some hosting through gcp; I'll set something up. Out of town until late next week but I'll circle back then.
merlin