TL;DR Checklist
- Choose a theme that looks best for your studio setup.
- Fine-tune (or turn off) button sounds.
- Customize the random dead player messages.
- Set all the player names or keep them hidden.
- Consider using turn clocks.
Theme
Moxtopper has a variety of themes that change its look and feel. Choose a theme that will look best for your studio setup.
You can changes themes with the Theme button in the main app menu at the center of the screen.
The Flatlandia theme is a safe default choice. It is the brightest and most basic, with black text on flat color backgrounds.
The Playmats theme could be an interesting way to tie into your show’s production design. It lets you set custom background images per player. By default, the Playmats theme is limited to a handful of images bundled with the app. But you can add your own images from your device’s photo library with the Custom Photos feature. You can unlock this feature forever with a one-time purchase of five bucks. To select a Custom Photo for a player, first enable the Playmats theme, then swipe down on a player’s play area. Tap Background and scroll over to and tap on Custom Photos.
When using the Playmats theme, life total text is always bright white, so dark to medium images without much tonal variation work best.
Button Sounds
Most of the buttons in Moxtopper make playful sounds when pressed. Life total buttons are louder, other buttons are softer. There’s a Button Sounds toggle switch in the Options menu that’ll turn them off entirely. If you’d prefer to leave the sounds on, there’s a volume slider in the Options menu that controls the maximum button volume.
Options Menu
Did I mention there is an Options menu? You can find it from the main app menu at the center of the screen. Most settings, besides the Theme and the Seating Arrangement, are found in the Options menu.
Dead Player Messages
Eliminated players show snarky messages instead of their life totals. These messages randomly change approximately every thirty seconds. You have total control over the set of possible messages. Tap Add/Remove Messages to edit the list of messages to your liking. You can also turn off the randomization timer by turning off Change Periodically.
You can disable Dead Player Messages entirely with the Use Fun Messages toggle. When this toggle is turned off, eliminated players simply display “Out.” If you would prefer a different non-random message, you can accomplish this by turning Use Fun Messages back on, then tapping the Add/Remove Messages button and removing every message except the one message you prefer.
To mark a player as eliminated, swipe down on their player area and tap the Kill button. This is easily undone by tapping Unkill.
Player Names
You can display each player’s name below their life total. Moxtopper calls this feature Captions. Turn on Show Captions and Use Player Names. Tap the Edit Player Names button. You’ll be shown the player grid. Tap each player’s name to edit it.
Turn Clocks
Turn clocks are like chess clocks. Tap a clock to make that player the active player, and their time remaining in the game begins to tick down one second at a time. Tap it again to deactivate that player. Or tap another player's turn clock to make them the active player.
To use turn clocks, turn on Show Turn Clocks in the Options menu.
Turn clocks are available on iPad and iPhone, but on iPhone they are only supported for certain seating arrangments (like the standard four-player arrangement).
You can adjust the starting clock time in the Options menu (it defaults to fifteen minutes). Players can also fine-tune their remaining time with plus/minus buttons that add/remove 30 seconds of game time to their clock.