A Basic QuizMaster Tutorial

Introduction

Welcome to this QuizMaster tutorial! The guide will help you understand how to use key features of the QuizMaster application, an open-source alternative to Kahoot. Please note that this guide explains how to use QuizMaster, not how to get it running. For this, we have created a seperate installation and troubleshooting guide. QuizMaster is written in Python and provides a powerful platform for creating and playing educational quizzes.

Table of Contents

• Home Screen
• Playing a Quiz
• Game Modes
• Creating a Quiz
• Preferences
• Arguments
• Conclusion

Home Screen

When you start QuizMaster, you will be greeted by the home screen. From here, you can choose to either play a quiz, create and edit quizzes and change the settings (strictly speaking, you can also use the About button, but it is fairly self-explanitory).

Click on Play a Quiz to start playing or Make a Quiz to create a new quiz.

Playing a Quiz

To play a quiz, follow these steps:

1. Click on Play a Quiz from the home screen.
2. Either:
• Type in the topic you want to play. Simply pressing enter will list every single quiz.
• Select a quiz from the list of available quizzes.
3. Or:
• Click on Random Quiz
4. Or:
• Click on General Knowledge Quiz, which takes random questions from random quizzes and merges them into one quiz.
• Choose the desired amount of questions using the slider.
5. Choose the game mode you want to play.
6. Answer the questions within the time limit (if applicable).
7. Your score (or time) will be displayed at the end of the quiz.

During the quiz, you will see a question and multiple answer options. Click on the correct answer to proceed to the next question, or type the number asociated with the answer.

If you selected the Speed Run mode, try to answer all questions correctly as quickly as possible. In Survival mode, be careful with your answers as you have a limited number of lives.

Game Modes

QuizMaster supports a wide range of game modes, categorized into two main types:

• Basic Game Modes: Focused on learning and answering quiz questions, with scoring based on speed and accuracy.
• Advanced Game Modes: Incorporates interactive game-like mechanics, combining knowledge testing with engaging gameplay.

Basic Game Modes

• Classic: Answer questions with a countdown timer of between 10 and 20 seconds on average. Your score is recorded, and at the end, you will receive feedback based on your performance.
• Classic V2: Similar to Classic, but with an absolute time limit instead of individual time limits for each question.
• Speed Run: Answer all questions correctly in the shortest time possible. Incorrect answers require redoing.
• Survival: Players have a limited number of lives. Each incorrect answer costs a life, and the game ends when all lives are lost.
• Practice: A relaxed environment to play the quiz with no time limit or score tracking. Users can opt to reveal the answer at any time.

Advanced Game Modes

Advanced game modes combine quizzing with interactive gameplay, offering a more dynamic experience. Each mode is designed to challenge both your knowledge and cognitive abilities in creative ways.

• Maze Run: Navigate through a maze to collect and answer quiz questions. Players must carefully plan their path while avoiding dead ends to reach the endpoint.
• Midas Mayhem: Answer quiz questions to earn gold and unlock treasure chests. Each chest holds a random reward or penalty, adding an element of chance to the gameplay.
• Strike Zone: Avoid waves of enemies while managing health and ammo. Power-ups can grant temporary advantages, such as shields or all-out attacks.
• Death Rain: Dodge falling obstacles and collect power-ups to survive. Correct answers boost your speed and help you score higher.
• Space Invaders: Defend your spaceship from an alien invasion. Answer questions to gain ammo and shoot down enemies before they reach you.

Maze Run

Navigate through a maze filled with quiz questions. Players must answer questions correctly to proceed while avoiding dead ends.

1. Start the game and choose Maze Run.
2. Navigate the maze using arrow keys.
3. Answer questions when you encounter them.
4. Reach the endpoint to complete the maze.

Features:

• Interactive maze navigation.
• Randomly placed questions within the maze.
• Penalty for incorrect answers.

Midas Mayhem

Answer quiz questions to earn gold and unlock treasure chests with rewards or penalties.

1. Start the game and choose Midas Mayhem.
2. Answer quiz questions to accumulate gold.
3. Open treasure chests to receive random rewards or penalties.
4. Complete all questions to finish the game.

Features:

• Gold accumulation based on correct answers.
• Randomized rewards and penalties from treasure chests.
• Interactive gameplay with an element of chance.

Strike Zone

Dodge waves of enemies while managing health and ammo. Use power-ups to gain an advantage.

1. Start the game and choose Strike Zone.
2. Move around to avoid enemies and projectiles.
3. Answer questions to gain ammo and health.
4. Use power-ups for temporary advantages.

Features:

• Fast-paced gameplay with increasing difficulty.
• Power-ups for shields and all-out attacks.
• Scoring based on survival time and accuracy.

Death Rain

Dodge falling obstacles while collecting power-ups to survive. Answer questions to boost your speed and score.

1. Start the game and choose Death Rain.
2. Move left or right to dodge obstacles.
3. Collect power-ups to gain temporary advantages.
4. Answer questions to increase your score.

Features:

• Dynamic obstacle-dodging gameplay.
• Power-ups to enhance speed and survival.
• Scoring based on survival time and accuracy.

Space Invaders

Defend your spaceship from an alien invasion by answering questions to gain ammo and shooting down enemies.

1. Start the game and choose Space Invaders.
2. Move your spaceship to avoid enemy projectiles.
3. Answer questions to gain ammo.
4. Shoot down aliens before they reach you.

Features:

• Action-packed gameplay with alien waves.
• Ammo gained by answering questions correctly.
• Scoring based on the number of aliens defeated.

Creating a Quiz

To create a new quiz, follow these steps:

1. Click on Make a Quiz from the home screen or start it manually via terminal.
2. Enter the quiz title
3. Add questions by clicking on the Add button.
4. For each question, enter the question text, correct answer, and a set of incorrect answers separated by commas.
5. Save the quiz once all questions have been added. Use the Save As function from Files in the top left if creating an entirely new quiz, otherwise Save (just above Save As) will suffice.

Use the interactive GUI to manage and create quiz questions. You can add, edit, delete and duplicate questions. Many of these will have tooltips, so should be self-explanitory.

Make sure to provide clear and correct questions and answers to ensure a good quiz experience.

We welcome pull requests for both code contributions and the creation of new quizzes.

Getting a new quiz integrated

We are currently working on an even more convenient way to integrate new quizzes that won't require contributors to learn version control systems like Git or the GitHub platform. However, we highly encourage using Git, as this not only makes contributions more organized but also gives credit to the contributor, ensuring that your effort is recognized within our community.

Preferences

In the preferences window, you can change the background music, volume, and background colour of the application:

Adjust the settings to personalize your QuizMaster experience:

• Music: Choose from a selection of background music tracks to play during your quiz sessions.
• Volume: Adjust the volume of the background music to your liking.
• Background Colour: Customize the background colour of the application to create a comfortable visual experience. It uses RGB so you need to determine how much of each colour to add to the screen. If the sliders are all the way to the left the screen will be black. Vice versa, white. Currently it does not update automatically, so do not worry if nothing happens. This is a bug that will soon be fixed.

Using Arguments

The quiz.py script accepts the following arguments when starting:

• -h, --help: Displays the help message and exits.
• -q [QUIZPATH], --quizPath [QUIZPATH]: Specifies the path to a quiz file. This allows you to load a specific quiz to play.
• -g [GAMEMODE], --gameMode [GAMEMODE]: Specifies the game mode. The available game modes are:
  • classic
  • classicV2
  • speedRun
  • survival
  • practice
• -v , --volume: Sets the volume level for the game. Enter a float value between 0 and 1.

Examples

Example 1: Load a Specific Quiz

To load a specific quiz, use the -q argument followed by the path to the quiz file:

./quiz.py -q path/to/quiz.json

Example 2: Set the Game Mode

To set the game mode, use the -g argument followed by the desired game mode:

./quiz.py -q path/to/quiz.json -g classic

Note that the quiz path must be specified along with the game mode.

Example 3: Set the Volume Level

To set the volume level, use the -v argument followed by a float value between 0 and 1:

./quiz.py -v 0.5

Example 4: Combine Arguments

You can combine multiple arguments when running the script. For example, loading a harry potter quiz with the classic game mode and set the volume to 0.8:

./quiz.py -q "Quizzes/books and movies/harrypotter.json" -g classic -v 0.8

The arguments may be combined in any other way, except that the quiz must be specified for the game mode argument to be given. This may be worked on in the future.

Conclusion

By using these arguments, you can customize your QuizMaster experience to suit your preferences.

Game Mode Options

• classic
• classicV2
• speedRun
• survival
• practice

Similarly in QuizCreator, a quiz parameter can be added to the end but for obvious reasons not a game mode parameter.

Conclusion

Explore these features to get the most out of your QuizMaster experience. Whether you're playing for fun or using it as an educational tool, QuizMaster offers a variety of options to suit your needs.