Release 1.5: Achievements

Published on 2020-02-15 by Stuart Spence

So I'm told (by many of you) that achievements are a critical element of mobile games. Well here we go! I thought I'd get started with these two:

  • using at most two seconds every turn to win.
  • using at most three minutes to win.

The stars on the badge indicate …

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Release 1.4: Share Your Designs!

Published on 2020-01-30 by Stuart Spence

I'm extremely excited to share this new version!

You can now share your creations online. Sharing creates your own web page on the ChessCraft website like this one. Your friends can then use the share code to play your custom boards and custom pieces. Or, backup your favourites online before …

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Release 1.3: Premoves, Visual Themes, Eleven Languages

Published on 2019-09-20 by Stuart Spence

The new version of ChessCraft is here! What's new, you ask?

  • Premoves
  • Choose a visual theme: minimalist, or wood.
  • Say au revoir to English! Play ChessCraft in one of eleven languages. That was something.
  • Computer complexity and human complexity tips.
  • Kangaroos.
  • Bug fixes and UI improvements. Thanks for all the …

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Release 1.2: Human versus Human, Archers, Thumbnails

Published on 2019-07-19 by Stuart Spence

This wonderful update includes a new human versus human mode, ranged attack pieces (which attack without moving), and board preview thumbnails. I also removed restrictions on naming boards and pieces. Finally, many UI tweaks and some bug fixes.

Thank you all for your patience on this new version. I've had …

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Centennial? Centeninstallial?

Published on 2019-05-18 by Stuart Spence

100 installs banner

Today ChessCraft passed 100 active installs! That is, 100 people decided to install ChessCraft and (most importantly) did not decide to uninstall it. So that's quite nice. This makes ChessCraft the most popular game I've ever made. Except if we count Starcraft 1 and Warcraft 3 multiplayer maps I made …

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ChessCraft in Universities?

Published on 2019-03-29 by Stuart Spence

There is a possibility that ChessCraft will be used to teach artificial intelligence in a university course! My commandline interface already supports round robin tournaments, and a professor expressed some interest today. It occurred to me that if I prepare a package, lots of AI professors could use it. And …

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Your Perfect Code Might Be Terrible for Teaching

Published on 2017-07-01 by Stuart Spence

When I post tutorial videos people often make suggestions on how to improve my computer code. Thank you for your code suggestions! However, we may have a problem.

I often find that code suggestions are not teaching suggestions. Almost all computer programmers are not experienced educators, so this is understandable …

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Movie Review: Hidden Figures

Published on 2017-02-21 by Stuart Spence

Hidden Figures is a 2016 movie about the 1960s space race, the early days of computation, and segregation. It's an uplifting movie - described by some as "cheesy". However the cheese serves to distinguish it from other films in its genre which are typically very dark and gritty. It's an underdog …

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