Author: Chad Weisshaar

Yacht AI

One of the lessons that we learned from PAX is that it is very nice to be able to switch between a human and AI player while playing the game. The only game that had this feature at PAX was Parcheesi. It made people more likely to start a game since they knew that they could be replaced by a computer player if they got bored or had to leave.

So one of our goals is to update the existing games so that you can switch back and forth between a human and computer player during the game instead of just at startup. Most of the games will be fairly easy to adapt to this system. We generally write the computer players in C++ while the rest of the game logic is in torquescript. This separation has meant that we generally pass everything the AI needs to make a decision each time the AI has to play.

Yacht didn’t have an AI at all, so to adapt it to the new system required me to write a computer player for it.

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Trip to Boston

We went to Boston to demonstrate our touch table games at the Mesa Mundi booth at PAX. We allowed a couple extra days so that we could do some sight seeing around the city. The highlight of the trip was PAX. PAX would have been pretty cool even if we weren’t vendors, but we got a lot of joy and satisfaction from watching people enjoying our games.

You can see all the photos here and I have a separate post for our PAX experience.

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PAX East

We went to PAX East to represent Machine Code Games at the Mesa Mundi booth. PAX East is held each year at the Boston convention center and draws some 90,000 people.

Machine code games was assigned one of the touch tables at the booth and we ran demos of our software. The booth was very busy and people were playing our games almost all the time. We were very happy with the reactions that we got from people. They seemed to really like the games and were always impressed with the touch hardware. You can see more pictures of the booth during PAX here.

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Simultaneous Pickomino

After completing the AI for Pickomino I wanted to play against it and watch it in action. So I decided to create a version of the game for our touch table. I wont be trying to sell this game since I don’t have the rights from the creator of the board game. So it will just be for our own use.

The game came together pretty quickly. I spent a day or so learning Photoshop and creating graphics. Another couple of days building the game logic and integrating the C++ AI. Another day adding “simultaneous” mode. And a final day to add animations and work out bugs. Here is a screenshot of the final product.

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Pickomino AI

Pickomino is a dice game where each player takes turn rolling eight, six sided, dice. The player tries to build up a high enough total of dice to capture one of the available tiles from the board or from another player. To build up a die total, the player picks a set of dice all showing the same number to save. The player then re-rolls the remaining dice. Each number can only be saved once. If you can’t pick a new number after a roll, or don’t build up enough points to claim a tile, you scratch and have to return a tile. Full rules are here(PDF).

After playing the game a few times, I began to wonder if this game could be “solved” by a computer. Would it be possible to consider all the possible sets to save and all the possible rolls that would result for all the rounds in one player’s turn to determine their best choice.

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PAX East

We are headed to PAX East in Boston to join Mesa Mundi’s booth and demonstrate some of MCG’s touch table software. Mesa Mundi is going to have several touch tables setup and our software will be running on one of them.

We are planning to show off the new mini-games, which are on sale now at Mesa Mundi’s site, along with Hansa Teutonica and a new game in development where players can control the action with a web browser on their phone.

D20Pro will also be on hand at Mesa Mundi’s booth to show off their role playing system. It should be an exciting weekend where we can see how people react to the touch tables and our games. Mesa Mundi has a short write up about PAX here.

Fair Dice Roller

I have finished an HTML/javascript version of the fair dice roller. The fair die roller makes a die or dice less random by tweaking the probability of each roll so that the rolls come up in the correct ratios sooner. Check it out here. Or look here for a lot more detail about what this app does.

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Review – HabitRPG

I have been using a website called HabitRPG for a couple of weeks now. It is a motivational tool and habit/todo tracking system that treats your goals like a role playing game. While there are countless ways to track todo items and several websites for tracking habits or other goals, there are very few that make it into a game. As a fan of role playing games, this gamification is an effective motivator for me.

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Violin Recital II

Tonight was my second violin recital. I started taking lessons in September of 2009 and have been playing for three and a half years. I have kept track of my practice time and am almost to 2300 hours.

This recital was much like the first. It was informal and everyone played together to warm up and then each person played one piece. This time, the teacher played with most of the students.

I was less nervous than I was at the first recital, but I still had a harder time playing accurately than I do in practice. Being nervous doesn’t help, and I am not used to playing with accompaniment.

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Home Inventory

We have just finished a whole house cleaning and inventory. The home inventory is something that we have done every five years where we catalog and photograph everything that we own. This activity probably sounds pretty crazy to a lot of people. It is a huge chore and consumes lots of time.

The inventory was useful when we were robbed, but that is not the main reason that we do it. It has also been fun to look back at some of the old photos of our stuff. Even if you never do a home inventory, I would recommend taking pictures of the rooms in your house.

The main reason to do the inventory is to know how much stuff you have. The home inventory is one of the nine steps in Your Money or Your Life. The point of the step is to look at the things you own with a critical eye. Which items are things that you really use and value, and which items are just a burden or clutter. Reading the book is what triggered our first home inventory in 2004. Continue reading “Home Inventory”