[sphere]

After about a month of intense work and fun we are very happy to release the first public version our XBMC addon "WhatTheMovie".
This addon will be available in the official addon repo for Dharma and Eden(-pre) after a short testing phase. Until then you can download and install it via zip file:

Download script.game.whatthemovie-0.9.0.zip

Our project main page is located at github.

What is WhatTheMovie?



http://whatthemovie.com is a movie quiz webpage where you may solve movie snapshots by guessing its movie titles.
This addon enables you to play this movie quiz with your friends and family on your TV in your living room - or wherever you installed XBMC ;-)

Gameplay



The game is very simple - just start the addon and you'll see a snapshot from a movie. If you think you recognize the movie, select the guess-button and type the title - if your answer is correct you will score one point* and the next random shot will be loaded automatically. You can guess as often as you like and need to solve it, but of course you can skip any shot by just jumping to the next one :-)

whatthemovie.com account



You don't need to create an account to play - some features however require that you are logged in:

• Disabling the display of shots already solved
  
• Persistant score
  
• Rating shots
  
• Bookmarking shots
  
• Favourite shots
  

Some settings are only available with an account:

• Random options (Difficulity, include/exclude "The Archive" and include/exclude already solved shots)
  
• Navigation options (configure if you want the "next/previous shot" or "next/previous unsolved shot" with the navigation buttons)
  

Basic rules and hints
Here are the basic rules and some hints for the quiz:

• You don't have to type the full movie title in most cases. "Star Wars" e.g. does the job well for "Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back". Small typing errors will also be detected and ignored.
  
• Point for the Hall of Fame are only gained by solving snapshots in the category "Feature Films".
  
• If a shot is older than 30 days, its category will change from "Feature Films" to "The Archive" - you can still guess the title but you won't score points for the Hall of Fame. The solution to those shots can also be shown by selecting the "solve"-button (the bulb down right).
  
• Recently uploaded shots are called "New Submissions" - these shots stay in this testing state for 48 hours - you gain "WTM Bucks" for rating those. After this period of time a shot will either join the "Feature Films" or become a "Rejected Shot". If you solve a shot from the "New Submissions" and it makes it to the Feature Films, you will be credited the points.
  

[sphere]

The GUI



Most buttons and labels should be self-explanatory, but here is a little overview:

• You can zoom the shot by hovering or focusing the picture.
  
• Above the shot you will see who submitted this nice shot, how often it has already been solved and who solved it first.
  
• Under the picture you see the shot's id and release date. You can jump to a specific shot id via the jump button, the "#" down right.
  
• In the middle up to five of the languages WTM knows the movie's title in are displayed (You can choose them in the addon settings).
  
• In the first button row the four outer buttons are the navigation buttons (First, Previous, Next and Last).
  
• The three middle ones are "Back" - this will jump to the last seen shot, "Guess"- the main button to type a guess, and of course the "Random"-button.
  
• The two buttons down left are the "Favourite"- and "Bookmark"-buttons. You will make the uploader happy if you favourite their shots. Bookmarking is for just not forgetting this one :-)
  
• Down to the right is the "show solution" button (active for shots from "The Archive") and the jump button.
  
• Down center you can see the amount of votes, the rating bar and the overall-rating/your-rating label.
  

Hotkeys



You can define your own hotkeys for most of the frequently used functions (default keys in brackets):

• Guess (context key)
  
• Random (play)
  
• Back (rewind)
  
• Next Shot (page down)
  
• Previos Shot (page up)
  
• Jump to given shot id (show info)
  
• Bookmark this shot (home)
  
• Favourite this shot (end)
  
• You can rate the shot with the number keys, 1 => 1, ..., 9 => 9, 0 => 10 (higher is better)
  

Features
Here a list of the main addon features:

• Log in with your whatthemovie.com account
  
• Solve, favourite, bookmark, and rate shots
  
• Show the next, next unsolved, and next random shot
  
• Instantly go back to the last shot shown
  
• Zoom the snapshot
  
• Rate with number keys: 1 to 10 (0=>10 points)
  
• Set random and navigation options
  
• Automatically jump to the next or random-next shot if your guess was right
  
• Select five languages to see if WTM knows the movie title in this languages
  
• Set hotkeys for the functions: guess, random, back, next, previous, jump, bookmark, favourite and solve
  
• Costomize the look - you can configure the visibility of shot properties: posted by, solved, id, date, flags, tool and navigation buttons
  

Languages
Currently the addon is translated into English and German (updates and more languages are welcome)

Permission, support and donations
We have the permission to publish this addon and the WTM crew is indeed very happy with this addon :-)

Donations

If you like this addon please think about becoming a "WTM Supporter" (see here).

Of course you are also invited to help with improving the content of whatthemovie.com by rating shots and uploading new shots (please read the 5 golden rules of uploading first).

Donations to the XBMC project are also appreciated.

Reporting

If you have any bug reports, feature requests or something similar: please use our issue page or this XBMC forum thread - think twice before bothering the whatthemovie.com support team.

Future plans
Here are some features which we are planning to implement for the next versions:

• Multithreaded background scraping of shots (much faster, already in work)
  
• Switch from mechanize to plain urllib2
  
• Multishot-view (like "The Vault" and "New Submissions")
  
• See and navigate through your bookmarked and favourited Shots
  
• Read and write shouts (comments) to shots
  
• Display a shot's tags
  

Credits

• Main programming of api and gui: sphere
  
• Idea and design: skiller2k1
  
• A bit of everything: tadi
  

Thanks
Many thanks to all pre-release testers, translators and all those who helped. Special thanks go to the whatthemovie.com and XBMC teams!

Please note:

This addon is only a client application for the site whatthemovie.com. The addon is not a standalone game and we are not the inventor of this game. Usually this is a browser game, but with this fancy client-addon you can play it from within XBMC

Learn more about whatthemovie.com itself:

http://whatthemovie.com/page/about_wtm (English)
http://devatrox.de/what-the-movie/ (German)
http://whatthemovie.com/page/help#faq (FAQ, English)

If you have any other questions, just ask us. We are happy to help!

enjoy,
sphere, skiller2k1 and tadi

[Henkske]

Nice, i will try it

[turboglyde]

Fun little addon!..damn hard but fun!...thanks for the hard work!..

[darkscout]

Would it be possible to take the submitted answers that were written in and turn them into multiple choice? It'd make the 10' interface much easier to use.

So say on the website (or other method of entry) you have "Sleepless in Seattle"
75% of people submit "Sleepless in Seattle"
20% of people submit "You've got Mail"
4% of people Submit "When Harry met Sally"
1% submit statistical noise.

The program then pops up "Sleepless in Seattle", "You've got Mail", & "When Harry met Sally". It's easy and cheap to select with the remote. Much easier and faster than trying to type with a remote. (Which should be an option if people are that masochistic).

Along with that, maybe a 'timeout'. You have 60 seconds to answer before the answer is displayed and you move on. It'd make a great alternative to the Cinema Experience plugin as some 'background' before the movie.

[sphere]

Hi,

thanks for your feedback
More is always welcome - even a simple "it works like it should" would make our work more fun

Good news:
We opened a feature request for use of the "edit control" - (this is like a textbox in html for example). This was added to master yesterday.
This makes it possible to change the guess-button to an editbox - you will be able to just fucos it and start typing - or click to get the virtual keyboard.
We would be very happy if some of you could test this in a few days with a nightly build of xbmc. We will announce it here if there is something to test...

Would it be possible to take the submitted answers that were written in and turn them into multiple choice? It'd make the 10' interface much easier to use.

No this is and will not be possible - sorry. Yes we know this addon is nearly only usable for people with a full keyboard available.

Along with that, maybe a 'timeout'. You have 60 seconds to answer before the answer is displayed and you move on. It'd make a great alternative to the Cinema Experience plugin as some 'background' before the movie.

You can solve already shots - but only ones from the category "The Archive" (See the bulp-icon down right).

This is just like the game on whatthemovie.com works - we can not chenge the rules

regards

[skiller2k1]

Thanks to all for your replies!

Please note:

This addon is only a client application for the site whatthemovie.com. The addon is not a standalone game and we are not the inventor of this game. Usually this is a browser game, but with this fancy client-addon you can play it from within XBMC

Learn more about whatthemovie.com itself:

http://whatthemovie.com/page/about_wtm (English)
http://devatrox.de/what-the-movie/ (German)
http://whatthemovie.com/page/help#faq (FAQ, English)

If you have any other questions, just ask us. We are happy to help!

PS: @sphere: It would be nice if you could copy this in the first post of this thread.

[ErlendSB]

Great fun! Good job!

Is there a way to see the answer though? I tried mapping the "solve" action to a button with no luck. The "guess" action was mapped to "context menu", and I swapped it with solve, but the answer is not shown. Am I missing something?

Anyway, HUGE success! I Love it

[skiller2k1]

Is there a way to see the answer though? I tried mapping the "solve" action to a button with no luck. The "guess" action was mapped to "context menu", and I swapped it with solve, but the answer is not shown. Am I missing something?

You can only view/request the solution if the shot is in "The Archive". (The shot type is located below of the WHAT THE MOVIE logo)

Short explanation:

If a user uploads a shot, the shot is for 48 hours in the "New Submissions". In this time period the shot can be rated. If the shot is "good enough" (one of the best 30 per day), it will be transferred to the "Feature Films". For each solved shot in this category you will earn a point for the Hall Of Fame. After 30 days this shots will be moved to the category "The Archive". Then you can request the solution.

You can activate "The Archive" shots in the addon settings "Include Archive". You can also set the difficulty there.

I hope this helps. Please see also the whatthemovie-FAQ and/or the About text.

[nmat]

Have you checked Movie Quiz? http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=92540

It's a similar idea....

[skiller2k1]

Have you checked Movie Quiz? http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=92540

It's a similar idea....

Maybe it is a similar idea, but it is a complete different game. Try both and see the difference

[nmat]

Maybe it is a similar idea, but it is a complete different game. Try both and see the difference

You're right. I didn't read your description carefully. I'm gonna try it, thanks!

[skiller2k1]

You're right. I didn't read your description carefully. I'm gonna try it, thanks!

You're welcome! Feedback is always appreciated

[sphere]

Hi,

just wanted to announce that WhatTheMovie is now in the official Dharma addon repository!

thanks

[mat____]

Hi,

just wanted to announce that WhatTheMovie is now in the official Dharma addon repository!

thanks

Looks great, but where is it? In the "XBMC.org Add-ons" repo inside xbmc I cant find this in any category. Could be just me, but which category should it show up in?
Thanks.