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Hi guys,
My friend Erik and I have implemented a new online version of Race for the Galaxy:
http://yourturntomove.appspot.com/
Key features:
1. It uses Ajax, so you don't have to reload between moves.
2. It's running on Google App Engine, so we shouldn't have much trouble with server capacity or downtime. (You'll need a Google Account to play, but you can choose your own handle on the server.)
3. We've tried to rethink the RFTG interface for the Web as opposed to emulating the physical card game. The result is a tabular format that makes for especially fast gameplay between experienced players.
We've also created a Google Group for commentary, suggestions, and the inevitable bug reports:
http://groups.google.com/group/your-turn-to-move
Cheers,
Kenneth
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Serge
Canada
Vancouver
British Columbia
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Tested a 1p game, some more info:
-1 to 4 players
-no solitaire robot for 1p
-Base+TGS, no option to play base-only
-Has option to play Goals on or off
-Goals are shown only as their name e.g. "Galactic Status", that's rough
-No card images, similar to text version of Genie
The interface is pretty clean, looks like a solid implementation on quick overview.
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Nick Janaway
United Kingdom
Bristol
Avon
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Nice work guys! We finished a 2 player game of this, and it's quite promising, especially its speed...
A couple of bug reports:
-Galactic Studios appeared in my hand as well as in my tableau at one point.
-I had Galactic Imperium out and 2 military, but I was still awarded the Greatest Military goal.
A couple of ideas/requests:
-Produce Phase could be a bit more automatic? I only had one produce-on-windfall power and one windfall world, and it kept asking me to choose that power.
-As Serge says, goal names only is a bit difficult to work with.
Nicely done though!
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Thanks for the feedback, Serge and Nick.
I've fixed the Galactic Imperium bug and am looking into your report of Galactic Studios appearing twice.
We'll soon make goals more comprehensible, and automate both Produce and Consume to the greatest possible extent.
You can follow our progress in the release notes on our forum ( http://groups.google.com/group/your-turn-to-move).
Cheers,
Kenneth
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Perry Loh
Malaysia
Kuala Lumpur
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Very cool! I'm just curious about which frameworks did you use to implement this on GAE ?
Regards,
Perry
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David Parker
United States
Thornton
Colorado
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Looks cool.
I've thought about implementing my own web version as well. What did you have to do with Tom, or Rio Grande, etc as far as copyright goes? Did you just ask and they were pretty easy going about it?
This is the third major online implementation, correct?
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Tom Lehmann
United States
Palo Alto
California
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They didn't ask. I contacted Kenneth by email and sent him a copy of the online contract. I don't know whether he has signed it and sent it in to Rio Grande Games or not.
I strongly urge you, if you are thinking of making an online version, to contact us beforehand. Thanks.
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We're using Google Web Toolkit on App Engine.
As for the contract, I'll be sending a signed copy to Rio Grande shortly, and would of course recommend other implementors to do the same in advance as per Tom's request.
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Nolan Lichti
United States
Indianapolis
Indiana
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Was this intended to allow games to be played over longer periods of time? I have a game going on right now, and it asks me for my phase selection. Then it says it's waiting on other players. If I close the page and come back later, it's asking for my selections again. Are the moves not persisted on the server?
I like the idea of designing the UI to fit the medium, but I'm not sure I'm sold on the execution. I'll reserve further judgment until I've played a full game or two.
I actually had a similar discussion with Brian/briforge regarding the layout of the flex implementation. Basically I was arguing that cards are designed to be held in hand, so the graphic design of the physical product was implemented with the restriction of cards as the medium. Since screens are wider than they are tall, it works against displaying cards as they are taller than they are wide, which forces them to use a lot of vertical real estate.
You seem to be continuing on this same idea with your implementation. The one drawback that Brian pointed out is that, in many cases, the artwork on the cards assist in immediate identification. If one could get their hands on the raw artwork (without symbols, text, etc), there could possibly be a way to incorporate those into a UI that is more fitting for the screen.
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David Parker
United States
Thornton
Colorado
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Tom Lehmann wrote: They didn't ask. I contacted Kenneth by email and sent him a copy of the online contract. I don't know whether he has signed it and sent it in to Rio Grande Games or not.
I strongly urge you, if you are thinking of making an online version, to contact us beforehand. Thanks.
Thanks Tom. If and when I decide to do something online, I'll be sure to contact you beforehand.
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Nolan,
You make some astute points. The server is indeed meant to allow long games. What you've noticed is a side effect of our implementation. To make gameplay as fast as possible, we let you make as many moves as you can before actually synching you with your opponents. For example, consider a turn in which both you and your opponent choose Explore +1/+1 followed by Develop. In the physical game, or the game as implemented in other online versions, you would have to wait for your opponent to discard from Explore before performing your Develop. In our implementation, you can get your explored cards, discard, and choose a card to develop, all before your opponent has actually performed his Explore, because the client knows that your opponent must discard and simply decrements his or her hand size instantly by the appropriate amount. Since you won't see the cards discarded, you wouldn't gain information by waiting around for the "true" discard. (Once you've actually chosen your development, conversely, you do have to wait for your opponent to catch up.) You'd be surprised at how much faster games can be played when synching is minimized! Anyway, when the client notices that you can make several moves in sequence, it batches them together and sends them to the server all at once at the end. The upshot is this: when the client tells you that you are "waiting for opponents," your most recent moves have been sent. Keep going until you see this, and you'll never have to repeat a move.
With regard to the graphics, you pretty much recapitulate our reasoning. We actually started with a more traditional GUI before deciding on our current approach. I love the artwork in the physical game and have tried to trigger at least some associations with it in our interface by carefully matching the colors in our GUI to those on the cards. But if I could show a disco ball beside the text of Galactic Trendsetters, I would.
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Alex Rockwell
United States
Bothell
Washington
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Will you be implementing TBOW?
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Yes, but Rebel versus Imperium has higher priority.
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Jeremy Arcus-Goldberg
United States
Watertown
Massachusetts
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Does this work for other people? I can't get to the games at all.
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Serge
Canada
Vancouver
British Columbia
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tevacircus wrote: Does this work for other people? I can't get to the games at all.
It's working for me, i can see the games list. Are you logging in through the sign in that redirects to Google Apps?
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Jeremy Arcus-Goldberg
United States
Watertown
Massachusetts
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For instance this link:
http://yourturntomove.appspot.com/#opengames
shows no games
and this one:
http://yourturntomove.appspot.com/#yourgames
is blank completely
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Serge
Canada
Vancouver
British Columbia
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Those links work for me, on Firefox 3.6.8, windows 7.
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Jeremy Arcus-Goldberg
United States
Watertown
Massachusetts
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Thanks for the quick help, looks like the browser was the problem. I had IE open for this.
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