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I'm also very interested in iPhone app development and think casual games such as Hearts have great potential in a mobile environment. Why not write it as a we

by danw 19y ago

I'm also very interested in iPhone app development and think casual games such as Hearts have great potential in a mobile environment. Why not write it as a web app? That way you won't have to port to Win/Linux and you can develop for iPhone already. Using WURFL you could also make the app available to other mobile devices.

allenbrunson 19y ago
i've never heard of WURFL before, so i googled it, and it sounds interesting. not really up my cup of tea, though. i think you can get a much richer user experience by writing native Mac and iPhone apps, which i intend to do.
- danw 19y ago
  Hopefully the SDK will let you do lot's of nifty stuff like pick who you want to play against from the contacts or detect gestures. Plus the app can work offline, the major downside to iPhone/iPod Touch apps.
  - allenbrunson 19y ago
    i'm not sure how you could pick a network player from your list of contacts. you need to establish a tcp/ip connection; how do you go from a phone number to an ip address? my idea was to use udp broadcasts to detect other people on your local network who are running copies of the game. if you want to play against somebody who's not on your local network, you'd have to enter a hostname or ip address.
    - boucher 19y ago
      Or have a centralized server, a la Xbox Live, Battle.net, etc. If users of the game "sign in" to the server, than anyone can connect to anyone. Plus, your phone's contacts typically have iChat contacts associated with them, so if done well, the system could match up based on phone number and/or ichat screen name, and be able to find mobile and desktop clients of your friends.
jws 19y ago
As the iPhone stands, with a web app your user interface options are limited to onclick(). No drag, no drop, no respond to the touch to give feedback, nothing until until the finger is removed and you get the click. Compare this to just the first few seconds of iPhone experience... 1) Press button to turn on. (no buttons for you) 2) Slide to unlock. (no sliding for you) 3) Enter unlock code, notice how the buttons highlight as you touch them. (no highlighting for you, no click feedback) 4) Touch an icon to run it, notice the feedback highlight (no highlighting for you) 5) Kept my finger down too long, icons are now jiggling (not for you, no notion of how long the finger was down) I took that limit as a challenge and wrote a sudoku player that is designed for click-only. I enjoy the interface more than the traditional web sudokus to the point where I won't play them anymore, but it is limited. I don't support marking (I don't mark) and cheating is trivial (I don't cheat), but within those constraints it is a peaceful user experience. http://sudoku.lunarware.com http://sudoku.lunarware.com if you want to peek
- Tichy 19y ago
  Finally a sudoku that is fun! When I played it, it just filled in the correct numbers wherever I clicked. Solved the puzzle in no time - I feel so smart now ;-)

by danw 19y ago

allenbrunson 19y ago

i've never heard of WURFL before, so i googled it, and it sounds interesting. not really up my cup of tea, though. i think you can get a much richer user experience by writing native Mac and iPhone apps, which i intend to do.

danw 19y ago
Hopefully the SDK will let you do lot's of nifty stuff like pick who you want to play against from the contacts or detect gestures. Plus the app can work offline, the major downside to iPhone/iPod Touch apps.
- allenbrunson 19y ago
  i'm not sure how you could pick a network player from your list of contacts. you need to establish a tcp/ip connection; how do you go from a phone number to an ip address? my idea was to use udp broadcasts to detect other people on your local network who are running copies of the game. if you want to play against somebody who's not on your local network, you'd have to enter a hostname or ip address.
  - boucher 19y ago
    Or have a centralized server, a la Xbox Live, Battle.net, etc. If users of the game "sign in" to the server, than anyone can connect to anyone. Plus, your phone's contacts typically have iChat contacts associated with them, so if done well, the system could match up based on phone number and/or ichat screen name, and be able to find mobile and desktop clients of your friends.

jws 19y ago

As the iPhone stands, with a web app your user interface options are limited to onclick(). No drag, no drop, no respond to the touch to give feedback, nothing until until the finger is removed and you get the click. Compare this to just the first few seconds of iPhone experience... 1) Press button to turn on. (no buttons for you) 2) Slide to unlock. (no sliding for you) 3) Enter unlock code, notice how the buttons highlight as you touch them. (no highlighting for you, no click feedback) 4) Touch an icon to run it, notice the feedback highlight (no highlighting for you) 5) Kept my finger down too long, icons are now jiggling (not for you, no notion of how long the finger was down) I took that limit as a challenge and wrote a sudoku player that is designed for click-only. I enjoy the interface more than the traditional web sudokus to the point where I won't play them anymore, but it is limited. I don't support marking (I don't mark) and cheating is trivial (I don't cheat), but within those constraints it is a peaceful user experience. http://sudoku.lunarware.com http://sudoku.lunarware.com if you want to peek

Tichy 19y ago
Finally a sudoku that is fun! When I played it, it just filled in the correct numbers wherever I clicked. Solved the puzzle in no time - I feel so smart now ;-)