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        Arimaa >> General Discussion >> Arimaa Facebook application
        
(Message started by: Cyestd on Feb 5^th, 2008, 2:33pm)

Title: Arimaa Facebook application
Post by Cyestd on Feb 5^th, 2008, 2:33pm

I sent feedback to Omar about this, and he asked me to make a forum post about it.

I really wish there was a Facebook application for playing Arimaa. There's already one for Chess. You can't use it unless you have a Facebook account, but you can view it's introduction page: http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=2427617054&ref=s

The good thing in Facebook is that there's a huge amount of users, and it's very easy to start a game with someone. It's ecspecially easy to start a game with your friends, if they are also on Facebook.

I believe a Facebook application would boost Arimaa's popularity and make it more well-known. Of course it's not difficult to go to arimaa.com and play there, but compared to facebook.com, not many people ever go to arimaa.com in the first place. And, as for myself, I've never played Chess online on any gaming site, but now I have two games going on on Facebook.

Title: Re: Arimaa Facebook application
Post by leo on Feb 6^th, 2008, 7:24am

Hello Cyestd. I had a quick look at the developer pages (http://wiki.developers.facebook.com/index.php/Main_Page) of Facebook, and I think it could be possible to adapt the Javascript version of the game interface for the Facebook API. I haven't seen a Flash API yet. But there's a Ruby on Rails API (Hey, Froody! your gameroom client might make its way to Facebook!)

PS: Do you know the town Arimaa? It's in your land :)

Title: Re: Arimaa Facebook application
Post by Cyestd on Feb 12^th, 2008, 12:35pm

Sounds great! I can't wait to challenge my friends to play Arimaa on Facebook.

I don't know of a Finnish town Arimaa, but there's a lake Arimaa in Finland. :) Arimaa also seems to be a Finnish surname, although an uncommon one.

Title: Re: Arimaa Facebook application
Post by leo on Feb 15^th, 2008, 2:26am

Oops, my bad, Arimaa is a lake indeed. Have you seen this thread (http://arimaa.com/arimaa/forum/cgi/YaBB.cgi?board=other;action=display;num=1151133577)?

Adapting the Arimaa game client for Facebook would require some adaptation, otherwise it would lose much of the functionality of the Gameroom, such as the list of the current games. Since you're used to Facebook, do you have any idea how this could be achieved to fit best the style of Facebook?

Title: Re: Arimaa Facebook application
Post by Fritzlein on Feb 15^th, 2008, 9:43am

I wouldn't try to replicate the gameroom interface. What a individual is likely to want is a list of their own ongoing games, a way to make a move in those games, and a way to invite their Facebook friends to a game. They probably won't want to play against a random member of the Arimaa community so much as they want to share this neato game with their existing friends.

Title: Re: Arimaa Facebook application
Post by Cyestd on Feb 24^th, 2008, 12:58pm

Sorry for the delay in replying. I think a search feature is important, too, and would be used a lot. Some people want to play games on Facebook but don't have any friends that do. And there probably already is some free-to-use code package that could perform the search feature with minor modifications.

I'll try to summarize the features of the Facebook Chess application. I've marked the features I think are very important with a +.

---

+1. You can put a box in your Facebook profile which displays your stats. The box has a button for challenging you.

+2. The app records the following stats: wins, losses, draws, rating, games played. Rating appears to be some sort of a ladder system.

+3. The app records entire games, under the following categories: In-Progress, Won, Lost, Drawn. The In-Progress category is on the page you first see when you open the application, and it informs you if it's your turn.

+4. The application has a page that shows all your friends who have the Chess app and their stats. You can challenge them also via this page.

+5. You can search for other players who are not on your friends list. You can search for players with a rating similar to yours, random players and players whose ratings are within top 50.

+6. You can change some settings. You can ignore all challenges, or you can make the app e-mail you every time you are challenged.

7. You can change the graphics of the app.

8. You can use a notifier. It refreshes about once per minute and notifies you if it's your turn in some ongoing game. You can leave the notifier open in a browser tab and do other things, and it makes a noise when it's your turn.

+9. The app records all moves made in a game and shows them in the game window while playing. There's also an indicator that tells whose turn it is, and a button that refreshes the game window.

10. You can chat with your opponent while in the game window.

11. If your opponent hasn't made a move in a long time, you can "poke" your opponent to remind him/her to do so. The poke appears on the first page they see when they log in to Facebook.

EDIT: Whoops, this summary is lacking some features. Such as the ability to view other users' games while they are in-progress.

---

The application seems to lack a chess timer, but as you can see, it is otherwise quite sophisticated. The easiest way to make an Arimaa application would probably be to ask the source code of the Chess app from the developer and modify it.

The Chess app is developed by Jamie Holding. It seems to be a non-profit app, so it's quite possible he'd agree to give the source code. Should I, or someone, send him a message via Facebook and ask him?

Leo: haven't seen that thread. I'll write a reply. :)