Padfoot240.com

Wow, since my last post too many things have happened. Well we broke the record for Blue Like Jazz. Yay!  I have a couple of posts coming up. One about projects I want to work, another about the merits of online gaming, and of course my thoughts on the new Harry Potter movie; Deathly Hallows part 1.  I am also slowly putting up some code snippets up on the top bar under Code.  Checkers is finally there, hopefully some other games/apps will join it soon.

But right now, something needs to be shared.

Gamer shows his mom a reflection of Starcraft from Day[9], and she posts her impressions in her blog.  This blog is a must read.  A truly remarkable summary of so much that the gaming community strives for.  I am so glad that someone who gets it speaks out and posts it in a public place.  We need more of this and less of the “gaming is for losers bro” posts.

I need to set up a portfolio page on here, but not as part of my actual blog.  I need to design a clean looking portfolio where I can post my work online.  Any tips from you guys?

I have another game I’ll be posting up this weekend called GridMatcher.  It’s pretty simple.  You just match a given shape to its twin in a grid.  The faster you match, the more points you can get.  Matching 10 in a row correctly multiplies your score.  Heck, since it’s going online, maybe I should implement a high-score feature…So I am going to be trying to fix that Checkers thing soon.  The same issue is probably going to affect this game as well so if you couldn’t play Checkers, then you probably won’t be able to play GridMatcher either.

Anyway.  For all you Android OS phone owners, check out PIXEL JAMZ!  Coming to your phone at the end of this quarter!!  Or at least that is the plan anyway.  It is my last project class and I’m kind of excited for it.  So if I am blowing off playing Starcraft II or Halo: Reach with you, this is what I am working on.

Okay, I promised you some kind of new content.  And new content you shall have!

Checkers AI

Last quarter I was in an AI class and for my project my team built this pretty effective Checkers AI.  I finally got around to putting it up on the web and I need your help!  Please take a look at it and tell me if it works/loads for you.  I’m getting mixed results on a few of my visits on various computers/OSs/browsers.  So If you could please leave a comment to tell me:

• what OS and browser you are using?
• does it load correctly?
• does all the text and buttons show up?
• does it work?
• did you win?
• was it easy enough to understand/intuitive or did you need the instructions?

Try it on your cell phones if you can too!  I’m curious to see where it does and doesn’t work.

Instructions:

You play as the black pieces by default.  All possible pieces you can move are outlined in blue.  After selecting what piece you want to move, possible move destinations are outlined in green.  If you can jump, you must.  ‘Make AI Move’ uses the current player color’s AI to decide what move to make.  You can switch colors by pressing ‘Make AI Move’ once and then start playing as the other color.  You can also click ‘Make AI Move’ repeatedly to watch two AIs play each other.  ‘Resign’ ends the current game, you forfeit.  ‘New Game’ resets the game board for a new game, only allowed after a game is over.  The depth for each player is essentially the AI’s difficulty.  The numbers correspond to how many moves the AI looks ahead when deciding what move to make.  The Evaluating Function is the method the that the AI thinks.  Basic is very deterministic and simply counts the number of pieces.  Piece Table adds to basic by assigning each square on the board a value to help the AI move to avoid possible attacks.  Random is…random moves.