Support a user allowlist for maps in the development stage.

[JackOfMostTrades]

This makes it easier for non-admins to add maps still under development by restricting creation of tables for that map to an allowlist of testers.

[YourDeveloperFriend]

This is a good idea, but it was what I eventually intended for the alpha phase. The plan I had was that only the implementer could create games in the alpha phase, but I like the idea of an allowlist as well.

Out of curiosity, would it be better to have map-specific allowlist, or just a small group of allowlisted users across the site that can create games? Should we also force games created this way to be unlisted?

Just some thoughts.

[JackOfMostTrades]

but it was what I eventually intended for the alpha phase

I could switch this behavior to the alpha phase if you'd like; I don't have any particular opinion there. It just implies that all the current alpha maps should get bumped to beta.

Out of curiosity, would it be better to have map-specific allowlist, or just a small group of allowlisted users across the site that can create games?

That's a totally fair question; in practice it's probably going to be a small, recurring set of users with access to pre-release maps anyway. I've got a couple of reasons I think I'd prefer to keep it map-specific personally. The first is that it would allow map designers to put up early revisions of maps and restrict it to their preferred group of playtesters. This casts a bit of a wider net on who might be in the allowlist for a given map, as opposed to the usual suspects of choochoo developers. (This is the first use-case I have in mind, in fact, as Michael Webb was asking about the possibility of doing this for a new map design that's nearing completion.) The other reason I prefer the map-specific allowlist is that it just leans more into the notion of modularity with maps; I like the idea that anyone could add a map and keep things like this allowlist contained to its src/maps/impl directory.

Of course, this doesn't preclude adding something like a DEVELOPER role that would also grant access to every map with development status. That's something else we could add if desired.

Should we also force games created this way to be unlisted?

Since the intent is to limit who can play on a map that's not quite ready yet (for whatever reason) I think it makes sense to force the games to be unlisted. If there's a case where the developer wants to have an open invitation, I suppose they could always just paste a link to the unlisted game into the lobby chat?