{"slug":"offline","title":"Offline","date":"2022-01-13T00:00:00.000Z","excerpt":"Turning Optics into a PWA","tags":["code","gaming"],"html":"

I added an offline mode to Optics. It was easy to do - just added bundle.js, bundle.css, index.html to the PWA cache. The game is all local - played on the same computer, so no need for anything fancy.

Optics is an installable Progressive Web App built with Svelte based on a card game called Illusion.

","css":{"code":"","map":null},"head":"","readingTime":"1 min read","relatedPosts":[{"slug":"domination","title":"Domination","date":"2022-07-23T00:00:00.000Z","excerpt":"I made another chess puzzle game thing.","tags":["code","gaming"],"html":"

Play It!#

domination.ihtfy.com

Intro#

There’s a classic chess puzzle called the Eight Queens Problem. The goal is to place eight queens on a chessboard such that no two queens are attacking each other. It’s pretty tricky. Eight also happens to be the maximum number. It’s clear we cannot place nine, because each queen must occupy a private column and row.

This puzzle can be generalized to any of the other pieces. Pawns are a bit funny, because they are the only piece whose movement depends on the board orientation.

Game Modes#

I call this “Non-Attacking” mode, and the goal is to place as many of a given piece type without any pieces attacking each other. There is another mode called “Domination”.

The goal of domination is to attack or occupy every square on the board with the fewest number of pieces - using only one type of piece.

Solutions#

The blue buttons will generate solutions for either game mode and any piece. The solution set is not complete for every combination at the time of writing.

Highlighting#

If there are mixed pieces on the board, the position is not a valid solution, so some of the pieces will be highlighted.
In Non-Attacking mode, pieces that attack each other will be highlighted
In Domination mode, any squares that are not covered by a piece will be highlighted

Saving#

The scoreboard and sound/highlighting/game mode settings are stored in the browser’s localStorage. This means it will persist if you leave the site and come back later. You can click the RESET SCORES button to clear this at any time.

PWA#

It is also an installable PWA with offline support, so you can add it to your phone or computer as an app.

","css":{"code":"","map":null},"head":"","readingTime":"2 min read"},{"slug":"lingo","title":"Lingo","date":"2022-02-01T00:00:00.000Z","excerpt":"Wordle is trending","tags":["gaming","review","code"],"html":"

I played Wordle a while ago, and it reminded me of Mastermind. I knew there was another game that was more similar, and I just remembered the gameshow Lingo.

Wordle is a daily word game, but it could very easily be a normal game that you can play repeatedly. I guess the daily aspect makes people burnout slower, and it promotes sharing with friends since everyone sees the same word - like a daily puzzle on lichess or chess.com. Also, what else can you do while waiting for another word?

It would be simple to expand the game to use words of different lengths, or have categories of words, or allow unlimited guesses and accumulate an aggregated score for X number of rounds.

I might make my own version of the game with extra options for fun.

The “share” text is also unique. It uses emojis to represent how well you did: black boxes for wrong letters, yellow for wrong position, and green for correct placement. This let’s people share their game in a cryptic way, which makes people search for “Wordle” to figure out what ot means.

I know it started to go viral on tiktok a few weeks ago. Largely, people were sharing strategies, and some people were looking at the code of the game to find the list of target and guess words.

","css":{"code":"","map":null},"head":"","readingTime":"2 min read"},{"slug":"pwa","title":"PWA","date":"2022-01-14T00:00:00.000Z","excerpt":"Making the Knight Puzzle a PWA","tags":["code","gaming"],"html":"

I converted the Knight Puzzle to a PWA. It’s cool to be able to turn a website into a mobile app with just a little bit of code. I’ll probably convert most of my other code tools and demos I have on github.

","css":{"code":"","map":null},"head":"","readingTime":"1 min read"}]}

Offline

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