Playable Locations Explorer Demo

The Playable Locations Explorer Demo is a web app that allows you to construct and test search requests for the Playable Locations API. It provides a visual representation of the search results (displays the playable locations located within the S2 Cell)—so you can easily build a query to find the Playable Locations that are best suited to your particular game.

Note: In this demonstration version of the Playable Locations Explorer, the playable locations data-set is limited to coverage of downtown Manhattan, New York.

Launch the Playable Locations Explorer Demo

Search location

To begin a new search, enter the address of the location that you want to explore into the Search field at the top of the map. For example, "75 9th Avenue, New York, NY, United States". The Explorer then retrieves the geographic coordinates for that location, and calculates the S2 Cell that covers that area. Finally, the Explorer populates the S2 Cell with small colored icons, each one of which represents a playable location.

Note: For the Playable Locations Explorer Demo, you can search for locations—but they must be located within Manhattan, New York.

S2 Cell level

The S2 Cell Level control allows you to set the S2 Cell level, which specifies the area that contains the playable locations that are returned. The default level is 12. The minimum is 11 (the largest area coverage), and the maximum is 16 (the smallest area coverage).

Note: The S2 Cell level value is used to calculate the ID of the S2 Cell that is centered upon the location address.

Show API request/response

After you've set the controls to the values that you want, you can see what the resulting HTTP request to the Playable Locations API would look like, and you can also see what the resulting HTTP response would look like. To do so, click Show API Request/Response.

Save to Drive

You can save the HTTP request to your Google Drive by clicking Save to Drive. The file is named playable_locations-v3-request.json.

Note: To save HTTP requests to your Google Drive, you must configure your browser to allow pop-ups. When you do, you'll see a pop-up that requests access permissions to Google Drive.

Copy to clipboard

You can copy the HTTP request to the clipboard by clicking Copy.

Use your own credentials

Google has pre-configured the Playable Locations Explorer with an API key, but to re-use HTTP requests messages in your production environment, you must use your own key in HTTP requests. To make it easier to re-use the HTTP requests that the Explorer creates, you can configure the Explorer to use your own key by clicking Open Credentials, and then by selecting a key from your list of API keys in the Google Cloud Platform Credentials console.

Add Criterion

You can configure a set of criteria, one for each game object type. To add an individual criterion, click Add criterion. The Add Criterion dialog appears.

When you're done configuring the criterion, click Save criterion.

Game object name

You begin criterion creation by entering the name of the game object that this criterion is for, into the field with the prompt Enter a name for your Game Object.

Note: When it calls the playableLocations.search API, the Playable Locations Explorer converts your game object name into a number, and passes it as the value of gameObjectType.

Game object type icon

In the top right corner of the Criterion dialog is a square icon with a drop-down selector to the right of it. This control allows you to choose an icon for this type of game object.

Game object type icon color

You can use the Color Chooser control to pick a color for your game object type icon. The Color Chooser is a small colored disk beneath the game object type selector.

Fields

Use the Fields control to choose which playable location fields to return from your search.

Filters

Use the Filters control to configure the search filters.

Filter	Description
Max location count	The maximum number of playable locations returned for this game object type.
Minimum spacing (meters)	The shortest distance between any two playable locations of this game object type.
Point type	Specifies where to place the playable location. Either upon the center of the place, or upon the place's position—snapped to the sidewalk of the nearest road.
Content rating	By default, the Playable Locations API serves playable locations that are appropriate for use by players of all ages. But if your game targets adult players only, then this control gives you the option of including playable locations associated with age-restricted venues like bars, casinos, and nightclubs.
Access type	This refers to a place's admission requirement.

Ranking

Use the Ranking control to configure weighting factors for ranking search results. With it, you can emphasize/de-emphasize occurrences of playable locations according to several ranking factors.

Ranking Factor	Description
Busyness	Favors either bustling playable locations, or playable locations with little activity. Busier locations have higher crowd densities.
Large capacity venues	Favors venues that accommodate a large crowd capacity.
High dwellability	Favors playable locations in which people tend to stay for a relatively long time.
Artistically interesting	Favor places that people find artistically interesting.

Place types

This is where you choose the types of playable locations that you want to include and exclude from the search results. By default, all playable location types are included.

Types prominence modifier

The Types Prominence Modifier allows you to adjust the weighting of prominence levels for particular types of playable locations. For example, {park: 2, cinema: 3, banks: -1}. Here, the prominence of parks is boosted by 2, that of cinemas is boosted by 3, and that of banks is reduced by 1. The value can range from -10 to +10, inclusive.

Exclusion points

You can avoid overlapping your own content with playable locations by specifying points to exclude from the search results. You do it by clicking a point on the map that you want to exclude, and then by adjusting the slider that appears—to set the radius of the circle that defines the bounds of the excluded area.