Roku Developer Program

[kbenson]

For anyone that wants to do a little beta testing for me, here you go:
https://owner.roku.com/Account/ChannelC ... de=REVERSI

It's something I coded up to test out some tech we are working on. It will be changing often in the future. Some of the changes may seem somewhat odd, but that's in line with it's purpose, testing.

Notes:

• It's fairly ugly. Mostly that's due to performance reasons. The rest of the reason is my lack of graphic design ability.


• The AI is rudimentary, but even so, for a game like this it does a fairly good job, and there is a difference between the levels. I'll probably add a "Hardest" level to the AI later if people complain it's too easy (likely).


• Let's avoid posting this other places or in the general forum, please. I don't care if people run it, but I would rather not have the test version running everywhere if I have a choice.

Comments, suggestions, bugs welcome.

Edit: Oh yes, PLEASE feel free to comment on any problems when using it on SD sets. I sure spent enough time trying to make it fit well, I want to know of any problems.

[renojim]

Looks good! I only had time to play it once (I think on the easiest level) and I crushed it. It was a little strange when the computer player didn't have a move. I think it moved for me, although I could be mistaken.

Looks fine on my SDTV. Plenty of room.

-JT

[pjoshua5000]

You should explain what this channel is. So far I guessing its a game. But that is it. And if it is a game the rules would be nice. Thanks.

[pjoshua5000]

I did Google Search for Reversi. And find a Wikipedia page.

[kbenson]

"pjoshua5000" wrote:
You should explain what this channel is. So far I guessing its a game. But that is it. And if it is a game the rules would be nice. Thanks.

Fair enough. I got so worked up in the details, I just assumed everybody knew what it is. The common, popularized name is Othello from the board game released in the 1970's, but that's copyrighted. Reversi dates back to the late 1800's apparently.

I'll throw in a help/about button.

[pjoshua5000]

Maybe you can add a training mode that shows up what will happen if you place a chip in a given spot . I still don't understand how the chips flip. Sometimes only the horizontal, vertical, or diagonal flip and not the others. I read the rules on Wikipedia but still far short of understanding how the flipping works.

thanks
-josh

[kbenson]

"pjoshua5000" wrote:
Maybe you can add a training mode that shows up what will happen if you place a chip in a given spot . I still don't understand how the chips flip. Sometimes only the horizontal, vertical, or diagonal flip and not the others. I read the rules on Wikipedia but still far short of understanding how the flipping works.

When a piece is played, for each of the 8 directions, any continuous line of pieces of the other color between your newly placed piece and another piece of the same color will switch to your color. You can only play a square where it causes pieces to change.

[bluegras]

be sure to send this up to http://www.roku-channels.com/ to get up there.

Thanks

Bluegras

[kbenson]

"bluegras" wrote:
be sure to send this up to http://www.roku-channels.com/ to get up there.

Actually, I would prefer if this didn't make it up there. At least not yet. This is intended (currently) to be a proof of concept channel for some rapid development and testing with a wider audience.

At a later date we may decide to make it more generally available. I don't mind if people install it, but I would rather they came here, saw the post, and understood that it may or may not function as they expect at any point. Hopefully they would know where to post for any problems, as well.

[TheEndless]

It's very disorienting when a player doesn't have any moves. I had one game that had several instances like that. The game puts up a message saying "No moves - skipping WHITE's turn", but then a bunch of flashing happens. So much is going on, that I'm not sure if it really skipped the turn or not. It certainly didn't feel like it, but by nature, Reversi is kind of hard to follow at that point in a game... I don't know if you can force that kind of situation for debugging, but you may want to look into. I'm not sure if it's just a UI idiosyncracy, or a problem with your AI, but I thought it was worth mentioning...

I'd also like to request that you remember the Human/AI settings between games. I don't care if you remember it between channel launches, but it's kind of annoying to have to reset it to AI before every game.. 😉