About
This is the associated website for the piecepackr, ppgames, piecenikr, and tradgames R packages. piecepackr is an R package designed to make configurable board game graphics. It can be used with the ggplot2, grid, rayrender, rayvertex, and rgl graphic systems to make board game diagrams, board game animations, and custom Print & Play layouts. By default it is configured to make piecepack game diagrams, animations, and Print & Play layouts but can be configured to make graphics for other game systems. ppgames is an R package with functions for generating piecepack game graphics, rulesets, and books as well as functions to parse and visualize games recorded using “Portable Piecepack Notation” format plus a Fuji-san solver. piecenikr contains functions for visualizing Looney Pyramids games while tradgames contains functions for visualizing games played with traditional game systems (such as checkers sets).

Some example graphics generated with piecepackr
This website contains several articles of documentation on how to use these R packages as well as some relevant theory and resources plus several demos of the software in action. It also contains the download links for several Print & Play pdfs of the piecepacks configured in the Print & Play demos that can be used to build your own piecepack. Here is a “Site Map” of the articles on this site:
Site Map
Also consider looking at each of the R packages built-in documentation:
Package | Type |
---|---|
piecepackr | development, release |
ppgames | development, preview |
piecenikr | development, preview |
tradgames | development, preview |
Docs
These are in depth articles on specific subjects of interest to piecepackr users including documentation of some of the key piecepackr and ppgames features:
Demos
Print-and-Play Demos
These are the Print & Play demos which demonstrate the code used to generate the Print & Play pdfs found on this site:
Visualizations for Specific Piecepack Games
These are demonstrations of using piecepackr and ppgames to make visualizations for specific piecepack games:
- Backgammon
- Several chess variants
- Cribbage
- Everest
- Relativity (featuring a rank-colored piecepack)
- Tablut
- Triactor (featuring the JCD piecepack)
Other Game Systems
These are demonstrations of using piecepackr to make diagrams for other game systems besides the piecepack.
Integrating with other piecepack art assets
Miscellaneous demonstrations to interact with outside piecepack art assets
- Generating alternative textures for James H. Vipond’s piecepack components
- Triactor shows how to make a configuration using the images contained in the piecepack VASSAL module
Miscellaneous
Miscellaneous articles of potential interest of piecepackr users and piecepack (game) designers.