8 ms·

Show HN: Kriegspiel

68 points by binarymax 13y ago

binarymax 13y ago
Hello! I've been sitting on this for awhile. I mostly built it so my cousin and I could play against each other (both long time fans of the classic variant). The source is here: https://github.com/binarymax/kriegspiel https://github.com/binarymax/kriegspiel
- pekk 13y ago
  Hey, I just want to say: good for you to develop your thing and show it off on HN and make the source available. It takes a little bravery.
1337biz 13y ago
This needs some easy way to try it out. Or at least some screenshots right on the landing page. I don't really know what kind of game this is just by going to the url, and I am surly not registering at some site without having some solid idea that I will use it more than once.
- ZoF 13y ago
  It explains it decently well on the landing page... registration doesn't require email validation just use random atrings.
rb2k_ 13y ago
German here: You're technically missing an second s: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kriegsspiel_(wargame) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kriegsspiel_(wargame)
- binarymax 13y ago
  Yes you are right. You know us crazy Americans. My apologies for the misspelling! The chess variant is typically spelled with one 's': http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kriegspiel_(chess) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kriegspiel_(chess)
  - Perseids 13y ago
    Does anybody know the etymology of "Kriegspiel"? All I find are references to "Kriegsspiel" but nobody explains where the 's' went. Was it just a misspelling by those who popularized it?
    - philsnow 13y ago
      It's a lot harder (for me) to say Kriegsspiel than (the incorrect) Kriegspiel, because the first 's' is voiced (IPA /z/) and the 'sp' is unvoiced[0]. I'm not saying that's why this alternate spelling has arisen, but it could be a transcription of a mispronunciation. [0] IPA /ʃp/ rather than /sp/ because initial 'sp' in german is pronounced that way. I don't know if this rule has a name... "post-alveolarization"?
      - Perseids 13y ago
        No no, actually the first s is /s/ i.e. voiceless as in "sea" or "pass", so the complete transcription should be /kʀiːksʃpiːl/. The transition between the /s/ and /ʃ/ is then just making your lips round for the /ʃ/ after the wide and flat /s/. It is still not as easy as just leaving it out, but it is whole lot more doable.
        philsnow 13y ago
        I must be extremely out of practice with German :\ I definitely thought that the 'g' in 'Krieg' was /k/ but the 'g' in 'Kriegs' was /g/.
- Udo 13y ago
  German is tricky that way. In this case the literal translation of "war game" does not exist because to the German ear those two words must be expressed in a way that suggests a relationship between them. The additional "s" accomplishes that, in essence the phrase becomes a contraction of Krieg's-Spiel (apostrophe added for better readability) which is a special short form that developed from "Spiel des Kriegs" or, translated, "game of war". That said, as a project name Kriegspiel is totally fine. :)
stefan_kendall3 13y ago
I was having fun, and then I timed out trying to make a move. Clean interface, fun concept.
binarymax 13y ago
Hi All. Server is getting absolutely pummelled right now. If you get stuck in a game, you can hit 'refresh' and it should come back. Thanks for playing! Technicals: It is a medium EC2 running a single node process with socket.io. Database is an EC2 micro running rethinkdb. --EDIT-- Replay functionality seems to be down entirely due to load. Games are still running though. --EDIT2-- Replays are back up! Just need to wait a while. For those who are discouraged by the signup - I understand, but due to the nature of the game it is necessary to prevent cheating. Email is not required. Feel free to create a random string as a username and password if you want to give it a try.
- nkuttler 13y ago
  Love it! And won my game :-)
- Oculus 13y ago
  Any insight on what's killing your server? I've been recently looking into socket.io's issues with scaling.
  - binarymax 13y ago
    Trying to figure that out now. DB seems spiffy, and express is logging requests just fine. Thats the trivial stuff - now I need to start getting my hands dirty. EDIT - OK serious issues now. getting a range error on redis and the call stack is blowing out, recycling node every 15 seconds or so. Will let you know when its back up. EDIT2 - Turned out to be an exception due to an invalid date string. Fixed!
  - dtien 13y ago
    Along the same lines, what are some of the metrics of your traffic that caused socket.io to choke (total connections, # concurrent, etc)? or was it the other pieces in your stack that caused the bottleneck. BTW, great idea.
- eurleif 13y ago
  >For those who are discouraged by the signup - I understand, but due to the nature of the game it is necessary to prevent cheating. Can you please elaborate on why you believe signup is necessary to prevent cheating?
phaer 13y ago
Is it related to the old Prussian game, or Guy Debords game?
MichaelAza 13y ago
Awesome game, but you could make two imporvments: 1. Add a turn indicator or a "waiting for opponent" message of some sort. 2. Make it clear in-site that you can refresh and still get the same game.
- binarymax 13y ago
  There is a 'wait/move' indicator at the top left. Its faded text though so not immediately noticable. Definitely need to improve the instructions - such as your second point. Also the game-join logic is kinda wacky. Thanks for the feedback - really glad you like it!
- hrjet 13y ago
  3. Clarify the timeout. I have 3 games running in which the opponent is not responding. Do I win? Also, is there a score?
leoc 13y ago
The up-front requirement to create an account put me right off.
- diggan 13y ago
  Well, at least it doesn't require an email so it's just the username and password.
joelthelion 13y ago
That's really cool. I wish I could see the game unblinded when it's over though.
- binarymax 13y ago
  Thanks! Replays will be back up eventually - DB server is tiny and having memory trouble. Can't mess with it now since it will interrupt the games.
senorgomez 13y ago
very fun, thanks for making this.
dzuc 13y ago
See also: http://r-s-g.org/kriegspiel/ http://r-s-g.org/kriegspiel/
kashif 13y ago
I am hooked.
kriro 13y ago
Nicely done. "AI a Modern Approach" has a nice section on the game if anyone wants to read up on AI a bit.
EGreg 13y ago
I used to play Kriegspiel, Bughouse, Crazyhouse, Loser's Chess and many other variants at the ICC. Anyone remember that? My favorite, however, was Kung Fu Chess, at kungfuchess.com . Whatever happened to that?
valtron 13y ago
I started working on a similar thing last year [0]. In my version, your pieces can see any spot on the board they are allowed to move to. [0] https://github.com/valtron/fog https://github.com/valtron/fog
- joelthelion 13y ago
  Too bad you didn't finish it :)
itry 13y ago
really really nice! thanks for creating it. the problem with the "hanging" games must be fixed though. you definately need clocks. so the enemy canmot think forever.
brimstedt 13y ago
@asdfasdf, get back there and finishbour game ;)

68 points by binarymax 13y ago

Hello! I've been sitting on this for awhile. I mostly built it so my cousin and I could play against each other (both long time fans of the classic variant). The source is here: https://github.com/binarymax/kriegspiel https://github.com/binarymax/kriegspiel

pekk 13y ago
Hey, I just want to say: good for you to develop your thing and show it off on HN and make the source available. It takes a little bravery.

1337biz 13y ago

This needs some easy way to try it out. Or at least some screenshots right on the landing page. I don't really know what kind of game this is just by going to the url, and I am surly not registering at some site without having some solid idea that I will use it more than once.

ZoF 13y ago
It explains it decently well on the landing page... registration doesn't require email validation just use random atrings.

rb2k_ 13y ago

German here: You're technically missing an second s: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kriegsspiel_(wargame) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kriegsspiel_(wargame)

binarymax 13y ago
Yes you are right. You know us crazy Americans. My apologies for the misspelling! The chess variant is typically spelled with one 's': http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kriegspiel_(chess) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kriegspiel_(chess)
- Perseids 13y ago
  Does anybody know the etymology of "Kriegspiel"? All I find are references to "Kriegsspiel" but nobody explains where the 's' went. Was it just a misspelling by those who popularized it?
  - philsnow 13y ago
    It's a lot harder (for me) to say Kriegsspiel than (the incorrect) Kriegspiel, because the first 's' is voiced (IPA /z/) and the 'sp' is unvoiced[0]. I'm not saying that's why this alternate spelling has arisen, but it could be a transcription of a mispronunciation. [0] IPA /ʃp/ rather than /sp/ because initial 'sp' in german is pronounced that way. I don't know if this rule has a name... "post-alveolarization"?
    - Perseids 13y ago
      No no, actually the first s is /s/ i.e. voiceless as in "sea" or "pass", so the complete transcription should be /kʀiːksʃpiːl/. The transition between the /s/ and /ʃ/ is then just making your lips round for the /ʃ/ after the wide and flat /s/. It is still not as easy as just leaving it out, but it is whole lot more doable.
      - philsnow 13y ago
        I must be extremely out of practice with German :\ I definitely thought that the 'g' in 'Krieg' was /k/ but the 'g' in 'Kriegs' was /g/.
Udo 13y ago
German is tricky that way. In this case the literal translation of "war game" does not exist because to the German ear those two words must be expressed in a way that suggests a relationship between them. The additional "s" accomplishes that, in essence the phrase becomes a contraction of Krieg's-Spiel (apostrophe added for better readability) which is a special short form that developed from "Spiel des Kriegs" or, translated, "game of war". That said, as a project name Kriegspiel is totally fine. :)

stefan_kendall3 13y ago

I was having fun, and then I timed out trying to make a move. Clean interface, fun concept.

binarymax 13y ago

Hi All. Server is getting absolutely pummelled right now. If you get stuck in a game, you can hit 'refresh' and it should come back. Thanks for playing! Technicals: It is a medium EC2 running a single node process with socket.io. Database is an EC2 micro running rethinkdb. --EDIT-- Replay functionality seems to be down entirely due to load. Games are still running though. --EDIT2-- Replays are back up! Just need to wait a while. For those who are discouraged by the signup - I understand, but due to the nature of the game it is necessary to prevent cheating. Email is not required. Feel free to create a random string as a username and password if you want to give it a try.

nkuttler 13y ago
Love it! And won my game :-)
Oculus 13y ago
Any insight on what's killing your server? I've been recently looking into socket.io's issues with scaling.
- binarymax 13y ago
  Trying to figure that out now. DB seems spiffy, and express is logging requests just fine. Thats the trivial stuff - now I need to start getting my hands dirty. EDIT - OK serious issues now. getting a range error on redis and the call stack is blowing out, recycling node every 15 seconds or so. Will let you know when its back up. EDIT2 - Turned out to be an exception due to an invalid date string. Fixed!
- dtien 13y ago
  Along the same lines, what are some of the metrics of your traffic that caused socket.io to choke (total connections, # concurrent, etc)? or was it the other pieces in your stack that caused the bottleneck. BTW, great idea.
eurleif 13y ago
>For those who are discouraged by the signup - I understand, but due to the nature of the game it is necessary to prevent cheating. Can you please elaborate on why you believe signup is necessary to prevent cheating?

phaer 13y ago

Is it related to the old Prussian game, or Guy Debords game?

MichaelAza 13y ago

Awesome game, but you could make two imporvments: 1. Add a turn indicator or a "waiting for opponent" message of some sort. 2. Make it clear in-site that you can refresh and still get the same game.

binarymax 13y ago
There is a 'wait/move' indicator at the top left. Its faded text though so not immediately noticable. Definitely need to improve the instructions - such as your second point. Also the game-join logic is kinda wacky. Thanks for the feedback - really glad you like it!
hrjet 13y ago
3. Clarify the timeout. I have 3 games running in which the opponent is not responding. Do I win? Also, is there a score?

leoc 13y ago

The up-front requirement to create an account put me right off.

diggan 13y ago
Well, at least it doesn't require an email so it's just the username and password.

joelthelion 13y ago

That's really cool. I wish I could see the game unblinded when it's over though.

binarymax 13y ago
Thanks! Replays will be back up eventually - DB server is tiny and having memory trouble. Can't mess with it now since it will interrupt the games.

senorgomez 13y ago

very fun, thanks for making this.

dzuc 13y ago

See also: http://r-s-g.org/kriegspiel/ http://r-s-g.org/kriegspiel/

kashif 13y ago

I am hooked.

kriro 13y ago

Nicely done. "AI a Modern Approach" has a nice section on the game if anyone wants to read up on AI a bit.

EGreg 13y ago

I used to play Kriegspiel, Bughouse, Crazyhouse, Loser's Chess and many other variants at the ICC. Anyone remember that? My favorite, however, was Kung Fu Chess, at kungfuchess.com . Whatever happened to that?

valtron 13y ago

I started working on a similar thing last year [0]. In my version, your pieces can see any spot on the board they are allowed to move to. [0] https://github.com/valtron/fog https://github.com/valtron/fog

joelthelion 13y ago
Too bad you didn't finish it :)

itry 13y ago

really really nice! thanks for creating it. the problem with the "hanging" games must be fixed though. you definately need clocks. so the enemy canmot think forever.

brimstedt 13y ago

@asdfasdf, get back there and finishbour game ;)