This initial version requires that payments received via PayPal are approved manually. There will be an update very soon with a more integrated PayPal option. If you would like to be notified of new releases of the game plugin and / or would like installation and running support then please consider making a charitable donation using the Donate button below. Donors will be invited to the private Hoard Hunter group where support, ideas, update notifications and links to development versions of the system will be posted.

Installation Instructions

This plugin is dependent on a Hoard Hunter compatible theme being installed and in use on your WordPress system.

To install this plugin you must first unzip the downloaded archive and then upload the created hoardhunter directory to your wp-content/plugins directory. Next, login to your WordPress administration system, navigate to the Plugins menu and activate the plugin.

Setting up your pages.

Once the plugin is activated you need to create some pages within your WordPress system. You will need pages for the following (A downloadable pack of content and images for these pages, as used on the main Hoard Hunter site is available for donors):

• The Story - A back story for the game detailing the reason behind picking a sector and how it relates to the prize.
• How to Play - Instructions on how a user will play the game and what the tiles and message boxes mean.
• About - Some information about you, the game and what the payments will be used for.
• Official rules - Some legal blurb about the game and the games rules.
• Credits - some credits for the game.
• Welcome message - This is the initial message that appears when the game page is displayed

Once you have created these pages you can then navigate to the Hoard Hunter page in the Settings menu on your WordPress administration system and link your pages to the relevant Menus.

I am still undecided about the best way to release the plugin part of the game system. The plugin (and theme) were developed in order to raise money for charity so I may request that people who download the plugin either only use the plugin for fund raising or make a charitable donation. The way to do this, however, escapes me at the moment. I would rather not make payment a pre-requisite for getting the code.

Either way, the plugin will be made available tomorrow afternoon.

Download Theme

To install the theme, simply unzip the archive and then upload the hoardhunter directory to your wp-contents/themes directory and activate in the usual way. The theme can be seen in operation here.

I have now packaged up the Hoard Hunter plugin and theme ready for downloading and will aim to get them available on the site tomorrow afternoon. There is currently a small bug in the PayPal integration class, so purchased sectors have to be manually approved, but hopefully I will have it tracked down before the release (if not then the first release will have it disabled).

Once again, if you want to try out the front end of the system then head on over to HoardHunter.com and purchase a sector. It is only $5, supports charity and helps me debug the code. On top of that you could win an 2Gb iPod shuffle for your efforts.

Vent is a plugin that allows you to use the Scheduled post functionality of WordPress to add and manage future events.

Details of the next scheduled event can be displayed at the top of your blog page, as well as in a sidebar widget.

All future events can be viewed on an Event listing page, and on a “Upcoming events” sidebar widget.

You also have the option of converting past events back to standard blog posts so that they remain in the blog hierarchy.

You can specify the criteria you use to identify an event in the options panel. This means that you can still use your scheduled posts functionality for it’s intended purpose.

I’ll post more information as the development continues. I am also thinking of a possible fit into the StayPress family so StayPress will handle venues and bookings and now possibly events as well.

As I’m not entering this year, I thought that I would stick my grubby mit in my pocket and at least donate a prize to the Weblogtoolscollection.com Plugin competition.

As I can’t quite match the level of Matt or Automattic, I have decided to take a different approach.

I am offering a 2Gb iPod Shuffle to the plugin with the most intuitive, attractive or well thought-through administration panel or system.

I personally feel that the administration side of a system or plugin is just as (if not more) important as it’s “public” face. It is, after all, what the owner and main user of the blog will see and use day in and out.

Let’s see if it makes anyone come up with some ingenious solutions to an administration interface…

I am running the initial Hoard Hunter game to raise money for Oxfam and the Gurkha welfare trust (you may have seen Sponsor me messages littered around this site).

It only costs $5 to claim a sector, which will give you a 1 in 100 chance of winning the iPod (the more sectors you claim, the better your odds). All money raised will directly to charity as the prize is coming directly from me.

You could also think of it as gaining some advertising, as each sector claimed can display your gravatar and will link back to your website.

The system comprises of a custom plugin and integrated theme. The Hoard Hunter site is powered by WordPress MU (though the system will also run on standard WordPress) and uses a number of WordPress plugins to provide additional functionality.

The Game

The game follows a basic treasure hunt model. The game board is split into 100 sectors. Each sector can be claimed by a person upon receipt of a payment (in this case a donation to charity). Once the sector has been claimed an X or the Gravatar of the claimee is placed on the map, as well as a link to the claimee’s website if it was provided. If the claimee wishes to remain anonymous then they can do so, and only an X will be displayed.

The Hoard Hunter administration pages show all of the available, purchased and reserved sectors, as well as those that have been reserved but payment has not been received within 24 hours of the reservation date.

All of the menu text and pages can be configured using the Hoard Hunter settings page. This allows the game to be run in any language. All of the internal text has also been set up so that translations can be installed if required.

The Hoard Hunter code and theme are available to those wishing to run their own charity fund raising game and have their own host and WordPress installation. If you do not have your own host and would like to run a game then (thanks to the power of WordPress MU) we can set up a site for you at http://yourtitle.hoardhunter.com

Use the comments form below for more details. If you don’t want your comment shown on the site, then please mention that in the comment body.

Thanks to everyone who is interested in this system. I am currently trying to work out the best way of packaging the plugin and theme up as there is some editable content outside of the code (such as the How To Play instructions held in WordPress pages) which would be useful to get people started. If you would like a copy prior to the full package being created, then add a comment below or send an email to hoardhunter [at] clearskys dot net

It takes place on the 19th and 20th July 2008, unfortunately I will be elsewhere on those dates…

I will, however, be in the Brighton Racecourse area on the afternoon of the 20th July (fingers crossed), so if anyone would like to have an informal gathering and/or can recommend a hearty hostelry then let me know.

That total is for a single month (from the 6th May 2008) as the count was reset when I moved the blog to this new server.

I remember back last summer I was complaining about getting 57 Spam messages in one night.

Is this unusual? Or is everyone else noticing an increase recently?

Plugin competition - one month remaining

For all you plugin authors out there, there is only one month remaining in the Weblog tools collection competition. Last year the myDashboard plugin came a very respectable second. Unfortunately I won’t be entering this year due to my excessive workload (and general lack of ideas).

StayPress updates

Work is still progressing on the StayPress system, I have a few willing testers hammering away at the completed parts - so the bug reports are coming in thick and fast - I will post updates and some more screen shots as soon as I am able. In the meantime I have created a Mailing list for support questions and inquisitive minds.