Build a Game for Echo Buttons - an Alexa Gadget! (ALX405-R2) - AWS re:Invent 2018

© 2018, Amazon Web Services, Inc. or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
Build a Game for Echo Buttons – An
Alexa Gadget!
Chachi Kruel
Sr. Software Development Manager
Alexa Gadgets
A L X - 4 0 5

Workshop Repeats
Wednesday, November 28
ALX-405-R1: Build a Game for Echo Buttons – An Alexa Gadget!
11:30 AM – 1:45 PM | Venetian, level 4, Marcello 4403
Thursday, November 29
ALX-405-R2: Build a Game for Echo Buttons – An Alexa Gadget!
2:30 PM – 4:45 PM | Aria West, Level 3, Ironwood 1

Related Sessions
Wed, November 28
ALX312-R Three Lessons from “Escape the Room” That Apply to Making Money with
Your Alexa Skills
11:30 AM – 12:30 PM | MGM
Wed, November 28
ALX403-R Supercharge Any Alexa Skill by Understanding What Games Do
4 PM – 5 PM | Venetian

Agenda
• Getting Started with the ASK CLI
• Understanding Echo Buttons Directives and Events
• Build Your Own Skill
• Demo Your Skill
• Awards

Everyone Loves a Good Game
Million s of Cu stomers
Play Games on A lexa
1 8 0 +
Ec h o Bu tton s
Games Skills
Ten s of th ou san d s say “A lexa, Let ’s
Play a Game” eac h d ay
Trivia – Most Req u ested
Ec h o Bu tton s Game Gen re

Building a Skill – Faster for Developers

Skill Development Process – New and Improved
1. Initial deploy of your Skill via the ASK CLI
2. Edit the Skill’s code in your code editor
3. Update your Skill and Lambda function with the ASK CLI
4. Test your Skill with the Alexa Dev Portal Simulator

• Collection of self-service APIs (Skill Interfaces)
• Tools (Alexa Developer Console)
• Documentation (developer.amazon.com/docs)
• Code samples (developer.amazon.com, GitHub)
Add capabilities, or skills, to Alexa using the Alexa Skills Kit
Alexa Skills Kit (ASK)

Based on Node JS
Runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux
Manage Skills Programmatically
uses Skills Management API (SMAPI)
Deploy Skill Lambda Functions
connects to AWS services directly
ASK CLI != AWS CLI
ASK Command Line Interface (ASK CLI)

• new
• deploy
• clone
• simulate
• validate
• lambda
• api
− create a new skill project in the current directory
− deploy a skill project and optionally deploy AWS Lambda code
− creates a new local skill project by cloning an existing skill from your account
− simulates an invocation of your skill with text input
− executes tests to validate a skill before submitting for certification
− retrieve and upload code for an AWS Lambda function
− commands that map to underlying SMAPI
ASK Command Line Interface (ASK CLI)

Profiles = named configuration options
Amazon Developer Portal mapping
AWS Account Mapping (via AWS CLI Profile Name)
Support for Multiple Profiles
$ ask init –p new-profile-name
ASK CLI – Profiles

Create new skill project locally
$ ask new -n new-skill-name –p profile-name
-n
-p
--template
− Option to name the skill project
− Option to select the ASK profile to use
− Option to use a specific template to create the skill (default is to create a
“Hello World” skill project)
ASK CLI – Create New Skill Project

• .ask/config
ASK CLI config file mapping to a CLI profile
• lambda/custom/
skill code (to be uploaded to Lambda)
• models/
intents, slots, values, per language
• skill.json
skill config and publishing options (skill manifest)
Skill Project File Structure

$ ask deploy –p profile-name
• Execute from the skill folder (where skill.json is located)
• Deploys to Developer Account associated with the profile
• If skill does not exist it creates the skill
• Deploys Lambda to the AWS account associated with the profile
• If Lambda does not exist, it creates a new function
ASK CLI – Deploy Skill

$ ask deploy –p profile-name –t {all|lambda|model|skill}
• all
• lambda
• model
• skill
− Deploy everything (default)
− Deploys only the skill code to Lambda
− Deploys only the skill’s interaction model
− Deploys only the skill metadata (manifest)
ASK CLI – Deploy Skill (Advanced Options)

Time for some hands on practice!
https://bit.ly/reinvent-alx-405
Follow Lab 1 to setup the ASK CLI on your laptop and deploy your first skill.
Give It A Try!

$ ask clone –p profile-name [--skill-id <skillid>]
• Creates a local project from an existing skill in your account
• If no --skill-id specified, prompts to choose from a list of skills available
• Skill to clone must be in the DEVELOPMENT stage (i.e. not published/certified)
AWS CLI ASK CLI Deep Dive Troubleshooting
ASK CLI – Clone Skill Project

{
"deploy_settings": {
"skill-name": {
"skill_id": "amzn1.ask.skill.12345678-64ba-4d6d-ad08-84f09cf47246",
"was_cloned": "false",
"merge": {
"manifest": {
"apis": {
"custom": {
"endpoint": {
"uri": "ask-custom-SkillName"
}
}
}
}
}
}
}
ASK Config
.ask/config – Configuration file located in the skill folder
– Contains named-profile based configuration for the skill, such as the endpoint (i.e.
Lambda function)

Skill Manifest
The skill manifest is the JSON representation of your skill and provides Alexa with all of the required metadata.
• publishingInformation
how the skill is presented to customers in the Skill Store or Alexa app
• apis
defines which interfaces your skill supports
• permissions
ask the user for specific personal information, such as access to the physical address of their device
• privacyAndCompliance
data related to user privacy, such as the URLs for your privacy policy and terms of use
• events
events to which a skill wants to subscribe (e.g. notification on skill enablement)

{
"manifest": {
"publishingInformation": {
"locales": {
"en-US": {
"summary": ”A sample Hello World skill.",
"examplePhrases": [ "Alexa open Hello World" ],
"keywords": [ ”keyword1", ”keyword2" ],
"name": ”Skill Name",
"description": ”Demo skill built using the Alexa Skill Kit."
}
},
"isAvailableWorldwide": true,
"testingInstructions": ”Skill testin instructions.",
"category": ”CATEGORY_NAME",
"distributionCountries": []
},
"apis": {
"custom": {
"endpoint": {
"sourceDir": "lambda/custom”
}
}
},
"manifestVersion": "1.0”
}
}
Skill Manifest

$ ask deploy –p profile-name –t {all|lambda|model|skill}
• all
• lambda
• model
• skill
− Deploy everything (default)
− Deploys only the skill code to Lambda
− Deploys only the skill’s interaction model
− Deploys only the skill metadata (manifest)
ASK CLI – Deploy Skill (Advanced Options)

"[Error]: Cannot resolve profile [default]"
• Did you forget to include the "-p profile-name" option?
• The most likely reason for this error is executing a CLI command without
specifying a named profile. The CLI will then attempt to run the command in the
default profile but that profile may not exist.
Troubleshooting Common Errors

"[Error]: Cannot resolve profile [some-profile-name]"
• Double check the profile name given with the "-p" option!
• If the profile name is correct, then you may have not yet initialized the profile.
Run "ask init –p <profile>".

Error code: 401
"message": "User is not authorized to access this skill."
• Double check the profile name given with the "-p" option!
• This error usually indicates that the skill you are attempting to modify belongs to
a different Amazon Developer account than the one you have mapped to the ASK
profile you’re using.

Other common sources of errors:
• IAM permissions – does the IAM user mapped to your AWS Profile have the correct
permissions to update Lambda functions, create IAM roles, etc.?
• AWS Profile mapping mismatch – the AWS Profile mapped to the ASK Profile is not
the correct one.
• Skill Manifest Configuration
• ASK config (endpoint or profile misconfiguration)

Echo Buttons Events and Directives

New Capabilities for Skills
Independent
Input Event
Channel
Session
Extension
Mic Control Configurable
Input Handlers
Queue or
Interrupt TTS

GameEngine – Define & Receive Button Press Events
t h r e e B l u e s

GameEngine – Define & Receive Button Press Events
GameEngine.StartInputHandler:
{
"type": ”GameEngine.StartInputHandler",
”timeout": int,
”maximumHistoryLength": int,
”proxies": [ ],
”recognizers": [ ],
”events": { }
}
GameEngine.StopInputHandler:
{
"type": ”GameEngine.StopInputHandler",
”originatingRequestId": string
}

GameEngine – threeBlues → playerWins
{
"type": "GameEngine.StartInputHandler",
"timeout": 30000,
"maximumHistoryLength": 256,
"recognizers": {
"threeBlues": {
"type": "match",
"fuzzy": false,
"anchor": “end",
"pattern”: [ { "action": "down", "colors": [ "0000FF" ], "repeat": 3 } ]
},
"events": {
"playerWins": {
”meets": [ "threeBlues" ],
“reports": "matches",
“shouldEndInputHandler": true
},
"timeout": {
"meets": [ "timed out" ],
"reports": "history",
"shouldEndInputHandler": true
}
}
}

playerWins Event
{
"request": {
"type": "GameEngine.InputHandlerEvent",
"requestId": "amzn1.echo-api.request.e48235fc-077d-4ae7-adef-3064db6ab609",
"timestamp": "2018-11-26T09:54:44Z",
"locale": "en-US",
"originatingRequestId": "amzn1.echo-api.request.8013a5e5-5ab6-49eb-819b-7e00db5c92dd",
"events": [
{
"name": ”playerWins",
"inputEvents": [
{
"gadgetId": "amzn1.ask.gadget.05RPH7PJG9C61DHI4QR0RLOQOHKS31J6ECRU5T0LOVGB3UI6N",
"timestamp": "2018-11-26T09:56:12Z",
"color": ”0000FF",
"feature": "press",
"action": "down”
},
...
]
}
]
}
}

GadgetController.SetLight
Structure:
{
"type": "GadgetController.SetLight",
"version": 1,
"targetGadgets": [ string ],
"parameters": {
"triggerEvent": string,
"triggerEventTimeMs": int,
"animations": [
{
"repeat": int,
"targetLights": [ "1” ],
"sequence": [ { } ]
}
]
}
}
Animation Example:
“animations”: [
{
”repeat": 10,
"targetLights": [ “1” ],
”sequence": [
{
”durationMs": ”300",
”color": “00FF00”, // green
”blend": “true”
},
{
”durationMs": ”300",
”color": “0000FF”, // blue
”blend": “true”
}
]
}
]

Skill Response – Mic Control and TTS Interrupt
If you want to keep the mic open:
handlerInput.responseBuilder.getResponse().shouldEndSession = false;
Close your skill and end the session:
handlerInput.responseBuilder.getResponse().shouldEndSession = true;
NEW! Keep your skill active but not listening for voice input:
delete handlerInput.responseBuilder.getResponse().shouldEndSession;
NEW! Interrupt Alexa when a button is pressed:
response.outputSpeech.playBehavior = 'REPLACE_ALL';

Keep In Mind…
Store Your Game and
Gadgets State
Alexa Makes a Great Game
Host!
Keep Your Players
Engaged

Now that you’re familiar with the GameEngine and GadgetController Skill Interfaces,
build your own Echo Buttons Skill!
https://bit.ly/reinvent-alx-405
Follow Lab 2 and start building.
Build Your Own Game Skill

Thank you!
Chachi Kruel
chachik@amazon.com

Build a Game for Echo Buttons - an Alexa Gadget! (ALX405-R2) - AWS re:Invent 2018

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