"Clock, comms and file upload" function for variant games?

[Sheddy]

Some family/friends and I are planning to play variant games on maps of our own devising. Our default plan to submit orders is to share password protected files which each other before each deadline and then subsequently send the passwords. Or maybe we will be able to find a neutral person to receive the files (without password protection) and then distribute then to all after the deadline.

While pondering other options I came up with an idea for a site suggestion, which I suppose others may have had before.

Would it be possible to adapt the basic site game functionality to be a game clock (i.e. deadlines for each phase with the finalise option") and comms (i.e. messages between players and Public Press/shoutbox) tool, alongside a way to submit orders by uploading or writing text files. So there would be no need for a map or rules adjudicator as part of the "game".

The order history would simply need to display the contents of each set of (uploaded) orders once the deadline has elapsed - or they could just be posted in the Public Press. The orders would be resolved by the players themselves (or an independent adjudicator) after each deadline. I suppose it might also be useful to be able upload images of the game map for each turn, either to the shoutbox or elsewhere.

If anything like this exists already on the internet, please let me know.

Thanks!

[Sheddy]

Having thought about this a bit more, I think this is a potential way for people to play on the site using any map of their choosing. This could be similar to "Play by Forum", but without the need for a non-playing GM to set up and manage the game, receive and adjudicate all the orders. All that might be needed occasionally is for an independent referee to be asked to adjudicate if at any time there is disagreement or confusion among the players on resolving a set of orders. This could be anyone from a pool of willing site referees, it wouldn't necessarily have to be the same person for one game.

As far as I can see, it shouldn't be too hard to develop the code to do this. All that could be needed is a generic functional shell of game mechanics, much of which (clock and communications, including uploading images) exists already. The only new bit may be a way of writing a set of orders which gets revealed to all players at the end of each turn.

Does anyone else have any thoughts or comments on this idea? Has something similar been suggested before, or is it available on any other sites?
Or am I missing that there is already an easy way to do this using standard email, other than attaching password protected files?