Dungeons and Portals Game

Purpose:

The Dungeons & Portals Game is designed to differentiate between clinical populations with behavioral compulsions and healthy control (HC) populations.

The game tracks the player's ability to accurately model cost-benefit in complex-deterministic environments, and to make rational choices to maximize game rewards.

Deviations from expected behavior may indicate an inability to correctly model cost-benefit of complex decisions. Correlation between irrational behavioral choices and behavioral compulsions may suggest that the inability to correctly model complex environments underlies behavioral compulsions in clinical populations.

Gameplay Overview:

The player is presented with two options in the game:

• Option A: High reward, high cost - always results in a net negative point balance.

• Option B: Moderate reward, no cost - always results in a net positive point balance.

Description:

Instructions and Practice Rounds:

The player is guided through a set of written instructions on how to play the game. This is followed by a set of practice rounds to familiarize the player with the mechanics.

Main Gameplay:

• The game begins on the Home Screen, where the player chooses to enter one of two dungeons.
• Unknown to the player, these dungeons correspond to Option A (high reward, high cost) and Option B (moderate reward, no cost).
• Upon entering a dungeon, the player earns a certain number of points.
• Each dungeon contains portals, with the goal of finding a way to the "escape" door.
• The player navigates through these portals, which teleport them to different sections of the dungeon, until they reach the escape door.
• Depending on whether the dungeon represents Option A or B, the portals may cause the player to lose points.
• Once the player escapes the dungeon, they return to the Home Screen to make another choice.

Objective:

• Throughout the game, the player monitors their point balance to determine the best dungeon to enter.
• The game consists of a set number of rounds (e.g. 10 rounds total).
• Over multiple rounds, the player may develop a preference for a particular dungeon.

Analysis:

Player behavior and preferences are mapped to Bayesian inference models to discern group-level differences between HC populations and clinical behavioral compulsion groups.

Deployment using Render

1. Prepare Your Repository

Ensure the application has the following Flask files:

• app.py (or your main Flask file)
• requirements.txt (listing all dependencies)
• Any additional required files (e.g., templates/, static/)

2. Push to GitHub

If your code is not already in a GitHub repository, initialize one and push your changes:

git init
git add .
git commit -m "Initial commit"
git branch -M main
git remote add origin https://github.com/yourusername/your-repo.git
git push -u origin main

3. Create a New Web Service on Render

1. Go to [Render Dashboard](https://dashboard.render.com/).
2. Click New Web Service.
3. Connect your GitHub repository.
4. Select your branch (usually main).

4. Set Environment Variables

1. Go to the Environment Variables section.
2. Add the following variable:

   Key: FLASK_ENV
   Value: production
   

5. Configure Build and Start Commands

• Build Command:

  pip install -r requirements.txt

• Start Command:

  python app.py

6. Ensure Flask Binds to the Correct Host and Port

Modify app.py to use the PORT environment variable:

import os

if __name__ == "__main__":
    port = int(os.environ.get("PORT", 10000))  # Use Render's assigned port
    app.run(host="0.0.0.0", port=port, debug=False)

7. Deploy and Test

• Click Deploy on Render.
• Wait for the deployment to complete.
• Once deployed, visit the provided URL to test your Flask app.

8. Troubleshooting

If deployment fails, check:

• Render’s logs for errors.
• The correct host and port binding in app.py.
• That all dependencies are listed in requirements.txt.