NANY 2009 Release: HexCards

[Deozaan]

NANY 2009 Entry Information

Application Name	HexCards
Version	1.08.2008.12.30
Short Description	Card "Battle" Game
Supported OSes	Windows 98 or newer
Web Page	http://hex.deozaan.com/
Download Link	HexCards (Windows)
System Requirements	Minimum 500 MHz processor 256 MB RAM Windows 98 OpenGL or DirectX compatible accelerated 3D video card Recommended 1.0 GHz processor 512 MB RAM Windows XP nVidia or ATI accelerated 3D video card
Version History	v1.08.2008.12.30 - Final NANY 2009 Release. Game now highlights winner and automatically starts a new game. v0.07.2008.12.11 - Fixed the code to find and store adjacent tiles. Game logic now automatically captures cards. v0.06.2008.11.08 - Game board now creates an extra ring of hex tiles for walls. v0.05.2008.10.11 - More data is stored to make it easier to find adjacent cards/tiles. v0.04.2008.10.08 - Coded to dynamically create board of any size. (alternate board sizes not implemented) v0.03.2008.10.07 - Coded to dynamically scale graphics sizes based on tile size. v0.02.2008.10.06 - Streamlined creation of hex shapes for various uses (playing cards, board tiles, hand tiles, etc.). v0.01.2008.10.05 - First playable prototype.
Author	Deozaan

Description
HexCards is a card game in which two players strategically place hexagonal cards on a playing field to capture the other's cards. Each of the six sides of each card is assigned a numeric value ranging from 1 to 10 (10 is displayed as an "A"). When you place a card on the playing field, you can capture cards in adjacent tiles if the value for that specific side is larger than the value on the adjacent card's side. Watch the video tutorial for a demonstration with instructions for more information.

Features

• It's playable.

Screenshots

The start of a new game.


A game ending in a draw (both players have 4 cards).

Usage
Installation
Unzip into desired directory and run hexCards.exe.

Using the Application
If you're not sure how to play, check out the video tutorial.

Uninstallation
Delete HexCards directory.
It may also save a few kb of harmless data into the Documents and Settings\Username\Application Data\Craven Entertainment\HexCards\ directory.

Known Issues
No known bugs.

[mouser]

great to see a game here 

[Perry Mowbray]

Deozaan: you're a dreadful tease, to give so much information, as well as a video, and as much as I've encouraged Teasing in NANY 2009: I think you've got to stop it and let us have a game!! 

[Deozaan]

I've uploaded attachments of the current version to the original post.

I've never tried building the project for Mac computers so I don't even know if it works, so I need Mac users to test it and let me know if it works.

Also be aware of the following information (already mentioned in the original post): The only way to start a new game is to exit and restart. It doesn't announce a winner.

[Perry Mowbray]

Cool: great fun! 

[justice]

Great video btw and idea! Just wondering why is there one card left? Is this for a game mechanic reason? I thought it would be great to turn the game around  with the last card of the game. muhahah

[Perry Mowbray]

justice, I just assumed that the player going second gets a slight advantage (they know they'll have one tile left at the end).

Is that right? Is that why it's a draw: same number of tiles of each colour, both on the board and off?

It's a bit like Naughts and Crosses in that sense.

[Deozaan]

Great video btw and idea! Just wondering why is there one card left? Is this for a game mechanic reason? I thought it would be great to turn the game around  with the last card of the game. muhahah

justice, I just assumed that the player going second gets a slight advantage (they know they'll have one tile left at the end).

Is that right? Is that why it's a draw: same number of tiles of each colour, both on the board and off?

The idea is that there are an odd number of "slots" to play your card, so one player is automatically disadvantaged. The attempt at balancing out this disadvantage is to count the unplayed card, but then that gives an advantage to whoever gets the freebie. So the attempt at balancing out that disadvantage is to let the other player get first choice on where to play their card. But to be honest, I'm not sure if that truly balances the game out or if it does indeed make things fairly even.

And yes, that's why the screenshot I posted is a draw. It counts to totals of all cards, whether they've been played or not.

[allen]

I've never tried building the project for Mac computers so I don't even know if it works, so I need Mac users to test it and let me know if it works.

You could actually test it on a mac via crossbrowsertesting.com.

[Deozaan]

You could actually test it on a mac via crossbrowsertesting.com.

How? It's not a web app that you run from a browser.

CrossBrowserTesting.com allows website designers to test the cross browser compatibility of their website across different browsers and operating systems.

[Perry Mowbray]

The idea is that there are an odd number of "slots" to play your card, so one player is automatically disadvantaged. The attempt at balancing out this disadvantage is to count the unplayed card, but then that gives an advantage to whoever gets the freebie. So the attempt at balancing out that disadvantage is to let the other player get first choice on where to play their card. But to be honest, I'm not sure if that truly balances the game out or if it does indeed make things fairly even.

Yes, I couldn't quite figure out if it was an advantage or a disadvantage to go first or second. It's very similar to naughts and crosses in that sense, and is probably more based on what tiles you get and how you play them then whether you go first or second.

But I think that all things being equal that there is an inherent advantage to going second: you have one tile that you keep and you have the first option of taking an opposing tile.

But I think that's what makes this so addictive (just like naughts and crosses) you can keep playing over and over. 

[Deozaan]

Anyone with a Macintosh want to try it out?

[ewemoa]

My attempt resulted in a window w/ an image but not much else.



I've also attached a slightly doctored console.log (renamed to have .txt extension for upload purposes) that I found in the app's directory.  I hope there isn't anything compromising in that file

FWIW, the box I have access to claims to have MacOS X 10.4.11 installed on it.

[Deozaan]

My attempt resulted in a window w/ an image but not much else.

I've also attached a slightly doctored console.log (renamed to have .txt extension for upload purposes) that I found in the app's directory.  I hope there isn't anything compromising in that file

FWIW, the box I have access to claims to have MacOS X 10.4.11 installed on it.

Thanks for the feedback. Every once in a while when I build the project for Windows XP something goes awry and I have similar problems. I've tried building it again and uploaded a new Mac zip file. Will you please try it again?

By the way, attaching console.log was the right thing to do!

Thanks!

EDIT: Although I don't think this was a problem in your case, I've found and listed the system requirements in the main post.

[ewemoa]

I tried again and I did not perceive any difference in behavior.

I will attempt to attach another doctored console.log.

FWIW, I did compare the file sizes of the zip file I downloaded last time to the most recent one I downloaded and the sizes look different at least.  The console.log output is also very slightly different (other than the path info).

[Deozaan]

Thanks again ewemoa. I think I'm going to have to just say no to a Mac version for NANY since clearly something is wrong but the console log doesn't quite give me enough information to know exactly what the problem is.

[ewemoa]

Ah well.

Perhaps some day

[Deozaan]

Final release is up! Original post has been updated to reflect this.

In the process I came across a similar problem as what the Mac version was doing, so in fixing it I may have solved the problem with the Mac version, so I'm uploading another test Mac build here.

Anyone with a Mac want to try it out and let me know how/if it works? Thanks!

[ewemoa]

I tried the latest.  Saw a different image in the window but not much else seemed different.

Attached, please find a doctored console.log.

[Deozaan]

I tried the latest.  Saw a different image in the window but not much else seemed different.

Attached, please find a doctored console.log.

That's too bad. I guess a Mac version is out of the question then.