RevMan is a browser-based marketplace simulation game. Players join as hotels who want to sell their rooms on several online platforms. They compete against each other by setting prices, choosing platforms, and trying to gain their guests' loyalty.

RevMan was created as the base of a hackathon at TrustYou back in 2013. Teams were asked to implement revenue management algorithms, and play against each other on a simulated marketplace.

This project is implemented in Go, for no particular reason that I wanted to learn it. Some code is unnecessarily complex, because I'm a Go beginner and wanted to try out features. Most notably the util package, which implements iterators as channels, which is neither efficient nor idiomatic.

RevMan was updated since it was written, and now requires Go 1.18. To run the server:

# Run directly:
go run .
# … Or compile and run:
go build .
./revman
# Specify a port different from the default:
./revman -addr :8888

… Then visit http://localhost:8090/ to join the game with a default player, or http://localhost:8090/spectate.html to view statistics on a running game without joining.

• The simulation is turn-based.
• Hotels (=players) have a certain number of rooms that they want to sell.
• To do that, they place offers (room for a certain price) on platforms (online booking portals).
• The game server then simulates a limited number of guests who decide which offer to book, if at all, at each turn. The simulation takes into account:
  • Each guest's price flexibility, which also gets updated over time. If hotel prices trend downward, guests will be less likely to pay higher rates.
  • Imperfect information. Guests look at a limited number of platforms and hotels to make their decision.
  • Loyalty. If guests have booked via a certain platform, or stayed at a certain hotel frequently, they are more likely to return to it.
• Each hotel has a monthly fix cost, as well as a variable cost for renting out a room. Their account balance gets updated after every round. The player with the most money wins!

# Format all Go code with
gofmt -s -w .
# Run tests
go test -v github.com/sportsracer/revman/...

Server:

• The util package implements the iterator pattern, and some util methods on iterators, using Go channels.
• model contains the basic game entities. Most business logic is implemented in Platform and Guest.
• In the ctrl package, you'll find the Game class which joins hotels and platforms together to form a common marketplace. As well as the actual Controller, which translates messages received from clients into actions in the game.
• Communication between clients and servers happens over websockets, implemented in the server package.

The game client is implemented in static/client.js. It contains a dummy revenue manager implementation which was replaced with an actual algorithm by hackathon participants.