6 ms·

Node.js powered MMO scrabble

61 points by jaekwon 16y ago

BarkMore 16y ago
Word² was originally named Scrabbly. Here's the previous discussion on the application: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1656057 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1656057
morphir 16y ago
It uses websockets to provide realtime multiplayer action. And canvas to draw the graphics. This is a sweet taste of what is to come with HTML5.
- lawfulfalafel 16y ago
  It sucks that Firefox 4 won't have sockets because of transparent proxies. I feel like that's sort of an edge security case just cause those proxies can't be that popular, but then again I might just be ignorant of something. I am actually sort of worried why the chrome team hasn't announced handling this. I searched google for a response from the chrome team but I guess they didn't think it warranted one. http://www.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/hybi/current/msg04744.html http://www.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/hybi/current/msg04744.h...
  - lawfulfalafel 16y ago
    Did I say something rude? I would seriously appreciate a reply here cause I really have no clue at all as to why my previous comment is being downvoted. It isn't offtopic, since the root comment mentions how the software is using websockets. It isn't rude to either the firefox or chrome development teams, as I said I can't really judge how severe the security problem is. So how on earth am I offending people?
    - gommm 16y ago
      For some reason, there seems to be an more random downvotings by members just because they can.. So, I often see interesting and on topic answers like yours first being downvoted and then upvoted... I wonder what could be done by pg to counter that? Maybe have a limit of numbers of downvote per day?
      - jaekwon 16y ago
        how about we spend our points to downvote others?
Maciek416 16y ago
Wow, the map at top left when expanded looks awesome. This seems to draw nicely and fast on the iPad, but I can't get it to scroll around. Anyone figured it out yet?
- railsjedi 16y ago
  No iPad support yet. Soon though! We're actively working on it.
railsjedi 16y ago
Confession: it now runs on Rails 3 :-)
- BarkMore 16y ago
  Can you share your reasons for switching from Node.js to Rails?
  - railsjedi 16y ago
    Library support mainly. Node.js is awesome, but the ecosystem is still very very early. Libraries are almost always alpha quality and don't have the level of polish you'll find in Ruby libraries that have been around a couple years. If you need something specific in Node, 9 times out of 10, you have to implement it yourself. I imagine in a couple years, it will catch up with Ruby. For example: the MongoDB libraries for Node gave us many problems. I won't go into the specifics as that would take a while, but switching to Ruby mongo driver along with the Mongoid ORM resulted in a huge increase in code readability and is much more reliable I think. Also being able to use amazing Ruby libraries like devise/omniauth are a big win I think. Similar with Jammit, Barista, Rspec, the list goes on. Here's our current Gemfile: https://gist.github.com/68f0326a9480266d462e https://gist.github.com/68f0326a9480266d462e. Some of these libraries have Node.js equivalents, but they are all very early stage. That said, most of our code is UI side anyways. For that I'm using coffeescript / jquery / backbone.js. We'll probably reintroduce some small, focused Node.js server components in the future for the most highly accessed http requests as we start to ramp up the traffic.
    - bodhi 16y ago
      > Library support mainly. Node.js is awesome, but the ecosystem is still very very early. Fascinating, I remember 2-3 years back people were saying exactly the same thing, but replacing Node.js with Rails and Ruby with Python. The more things change, the more they stay the same!
      - zhyder 16y ago
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
savoy11 16y ago
Excellent HN material. Out of the 0 startups, that ran Node.js to be successful, 0 ran it to do Scrabble for their day-to-day-work. Thank you HN for that unique experience. You are almost as good as state school and IT hot-shot series at Martha Stewart TV.
fecklessyouth 16y ago
I've done like 6 turns and I still get a message about only placing them next to mine for the first turn.
- jaekwon 16y ago
  i think, once you start the game you have to keep building off of your blocks. this wasn't obvious to me at first (if it is true -- i haven't tested it)
Luyt 16y ago
Weekend challenge: Write a bot which uses http://www.lexicalwordfinder.com/ http://www.lexicalwordfinder.com/ to bust the high score.

61 points by jaekwon 16y ago

Word² was originally named Scrabbly. Here's the previous discussion on the application: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1656057 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1656057

morphir 16y ago

It uses websockets to provide realtime multiplayer action. And canvas to draw the graphics. This is a sweet taste of what is to come with HTML5.

lawfulfalafel 16y ago
It sucks that Firefox 4 won't have sockets because of transparent proxies. I feel like that's sort of an edge security case just cause those proxies can't be that popular, but then again I might just be ignorant of something. I am actually sort of worried why the chrome team hasn't announced handling this. I searched google for a response from the chrome team but I guess they didn't think it warranted one. http://www.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/hybi/current/msg04744.html http://www.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/hybi/current/msg04744.h...
- lawfulfalafel 16y ago
  Did I say something rude? I would seriously appreciate a reply here cause I really have no clue at all as to why my previous comment is being downvoted. It isn't offtopic, since the root comment mentions how the software is using websockets. It isn't rude to either the firefox or chrome development teams, as I said I can't really judge how severe the security problem is. So how on earth am I offending people?
  - gommm 16y ago
    For some reason, there seems to be an more random downvotings by members just because they can.. So, I often see interesting and on topic answers like yours first being downvoted and then upvoted... I wonder what could be done by pg to counter that? Maybe have a limit of numbers of downvote per day?
    - jaekwon 16y ago
      how about we spend our points to downvote others?

Maciek416 16y ago

Wow, the map at top left when expanded looks awesome. This seems to draw nicely and fast on the iPad, but I can't get it to scroll around. Anyone figured it out yet?

railsjedi 16y ago
No iPad support yet. Soon though! We're actively working on it.

railsjedi 16y ago

Confession: it now runs on Rails 3 :-)

BarkMore 16y ago
Can you share your reasons for switching from Node.js to Rails?
- railsjedi 16y ago
  Library support mainly. Node.js is awesome, but the ecosystem is still very very early. Libraries are almost always alpha quality and don't have the level of polish you'll find in Ruby libraries that have been around a couple years. If you need something specific in Node, 9 times out of 10, you have to implement it yourself. I imagine in a couple years, it will catch up with Ruby. For example: the MongoDB libraries for Node gave us many problems. I won't go into the specifics as that would take a while, but switching to Ruby mongo driver along with the Mongoid ORM resulted in a huge increase in code readability and is much more reliable I think. Also being able to use amazing Ruby libraries like devise/omniauth are a big win I think. Similar with Jammit, Barista, Rspec, the list goes on. Here's our current Gemfile: https://gist.github.com/68f0326a9480266d462e https://gist.github.com/68f0326a9480266d462e. Some of these libraries have Node.js equivalents, but they are all very early stage. That said, most of our code is UI side anyways. For that I'm using coffeescript / jquery / backbone.js. We'll probably reintroduce some small, focused Node.js server components in the future for the most highly accessed http requests as we start to ramp up the traffic.
  - bodhi 16y ago
    > Library support mainly. Node.js is awesome, but the ecosystem is still very very early. Fascinating, I remember 2-3 years back people were saying exactly the same thing, but replacing Node.js with Rails and Ruby with Python. The more things change, the more they stay the same!
    - zhyder 16y ago

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

savoy11 16y ago

Excellent HN material. Out of the 0 startups, that ran Node.js to be successful, 0 ran it to do Scrabble for their day-to-day-work. Thank you HN for that unique experience. You are almost as good as state school and IT hot-shot series at Martha Stewart TV.

fecklessyouth 16y ago

I've done like 6 turns and I still get a message about only placing them next to mine for the first turn.

jaekwon 16y ago
i think, once you start the game you have to keep building off of your blocks. this wasn't obvious to me at first (if it is true -- i haven't tested it)

Luyt 16y ago

Weekend challenge: Write a bot which uses http://www.lexicalwordfinder.com/ http://www.lexicalwordfinder.com/ to bust the high score.