I am seeing some of these issues as well. Also seeing the clock do some weird things. I am going to reset the host in a game or two and hopefully things will get back in sync. The game will probably be way out of sync for a few seconds while I do the reset.
Sorry to hear that. I'm not actually using the emails in any way and don't have plans to. The reason it asks for your email is that I'm using Firebase Simple Login which requests the email scope by default.
Thanks for the comment! I considered giving each team 10 seconds per turn but settled on 5 seconds since I didn't want the games to last too long. I wanted to make it such that people kept saying "oh I'll just play one more game." And - for what it's worth - I think that's the same place I first heard about the game.
It was ultimately my idea to pit these two teams together in this format but I initially got the humans vs. humans suggestion from a coworker. I initially had it as a single human team versus a computer AI but I think this makes for a more exciting matchup!
Each client writes to a "suggestions" node in the Firebase with their suggestion. Each client also listens for changes to that "suggestions" node to show you how many people have voted on a particular square. Firebase internally does all the work to send the changes on the "suggestions" node to every client. I also have a single host computer (not a server, just my laptop next to me), which goes through all the suggestions once the timer runs out and makes a move for the current team. This move is written to the Firebase and every client is notified by Firebase that the move has been made. They each update their own UI and the process starts over.
Hey HN, I'm the creator of this multiplayer tic-tac-toe game called tic-tac-tic-tac-toe. It's a Firebase-powered variant of the game everyone knows that pits GitHub against Twitter. Let me know what you think!
It seems pretty obvious from this that consumers don't understand that when they are not paying for the product, they are the product themselves. It's also clear that this graph would look vastly different if given to a HN-only crowd.
Wonderful game - the music and artwork are really great! I'm looking forward to playing my way through the whole game. What game engine did your friend use to code it?
This is unfortunately a known issue. The web version isn't responsive which makes it unplayable on small screens. A fix for this is coming soon though!
Yes, the Windows 8 game is built using WinJS. However - and unfortunately - WinJS doesn't work on the web since it tries to call WinRT APIs which it doesn't have permission to use. Microsoft doesn't provide a subset of WinJS which works on the web so I essentially had to rip out all the WinJS code to make it work on my site. That meant I lost things like saved games and high scores since I used WinJS data binding to implement them. I also couldn't integrate with the Windows 8 charms from the web so I had to get rid of that stuff as well. But other than the UI and page navigation, the rest of the code is exactly the same on the app and the web.
I'm working on removing WinJS from the Windows 8 app since I only use it in a couple places where I can roll my own solution. If I accomplish that, I should be able to simply copy the same files onto my server and have it work on every browser. That would be pretty cool!
I'm planning on making both an iOS and an Android version. If you want to be notified when that happens, I'm collecting email addresses on the home page (scroll down towards the bottom). Thanks for playing!
Thanks for the feedback! If your issue is that the word list is getting cut off, try scrolling in it. I'm planning on adding a "blurred edge" to the right side of the word list to make it more obvious that there is more content there. Also, I like your idea for increasing the difficulty. A "blind mode" like you suggested would be fun!
I'm planning on adding click and drag in a future release. The best input method is to just type the words though! You'd only realize you can do that if you read the help (which I realize no one really does). I'll think about how I can make it more obvious for players. Thanks for the feedback and for playing!
I'll take that as a compliment :) I actually was able to throw the site together in about a week. The full game on Windows 8 has more features like saved games, high scores, and Windows 8 functionality (start screen tile, charms integrations, etc). The online version is just a slimmed-down version of the game. Plus, I've got a lot of new features like achievements and multiplayer mode in the works.
The game board layout can get a bit messed up on smaller screens. Try maximizing the window and refreshing. I'm working on making the website as responsive as the actual Windows 8 app.