Learn OpenTelemetry tracing through a grand strategy game: introducing Game of Traces

Game of Traces is an innovative grand strategy game designed to teach engineers the fundamentals of OpenTelemetry tracing by simulating interactions within a microservice architecture. Developed by Jay Clifford and Tom Glenn at Grafana Labs, this game uses Python Flask servers to represent capitals and villages, allowing players to collect resources, create armies, and engage in strategic battles against an AI opponent. Each in-game action is tracked as a trace, composed of spans that provide insights into service calls and interactions. The game leverages the Grafana LGTM Stack to visualize and correlate telemetry signals, such as traces, logs, and metrics, enabling players to understand complex observability concepts. Game of Traces also introduces the use of span attributes and links to illustrate the flow of events and relationships between spans, offering a comprehensive learning experience for those new to observability.