News

Turning down the AI

Players now have the option of playing 3 difficulty settings in solo games. These modes provide gradually harder computer opponents. We also finally have match play and the doubling cube complete and this feature is now entering a play testing phase for select user accounts.

Connections interrupted

I have improved the look and behaviour of the game when the connection to the server is lost. Also traced down the reason for the occasional dropping of connections when it shouldn't.

Bugfix release

Some bugs were introduced such as some games not ending correctly when they should, being unable to move after a roll and the two player in game chat not working. These have been rectified with this patch.

Content and styling updates

I have made some improvements to the styling and added some content under a new Learn menu item where I explain the basics of playing the game. I will be expanding this over time with more articles and content so people can improve their game. I have also added the ability to keep the moves history sidebar open while playing the game and still be able to see the whole board.

There is now a new button in the top right of the side panel when the panel is open. Pressing this toggles the board view from overlay and side-by-side. The use really depends on your device and screen size. On mobile devices the overlay view works best. But on a large desktop screen side by side is preferable.

Reconnection issues fixed

A couple of aesthetic improvements have been made, including a new robotic avatar for the computer player. There was some issues with reconnection to the server after a client was disconnected where some buttons would cease to function until a browser reload was performed. There was a sneaky trick where a user could re-roll their first roll by reloading quickly. There was a bug where one of the clocks at the end of a two player timed game would show 0:00, even when there was time left. The fixing of the site under Apple devices led to a regression for fullscreen support on non-Apple devices. These have all now been fixed.

An apple a day keeps the doctor away

This release has been focused on improving compatibility across a wide range of devices and browsers. Most excitingly it bring Apple iPhone and iPad support. Now your backgammon buddies who have Apple devices will no longer be left out! Other support improvements include Windows support for the Edge browser, and even IE itself... do people still use that?

Woah, oh, oh. For the longest time...

After a tremendous break, we're back with a new release! Miracles will never cease, it seems. This release has lots of little changes and fixes. Sound levels can be set for those sneaky games where you don't want to be heard. There are a bunch of UI tweaks and improvements, too.

Most excitingly though, the same account can now be shared across devices. Assign and confirm an email address for your profile. Then assign a password. Now you can log into your account from another device. Carry your desktop games with you as you hit the road!

Even bigger improvements are on the way soon.

Finalised the domain name

After lot's of brainstorming the new domain has been decided. From this point forward we are Backgammon Buddy.

Big Bunch of Bear-off Bug fixes

Kevin sent me a message about a bug he had discovered in the game while playing a two player game with a friend. Investigating the game I discovered the bug. But not just this bug he discovered, but a whole bunch of bugs. A colony of bugs, perhaps? So this release fixes all these and should result in the actual backgammon rules being followed when bearing off in games. Following the rules. Now that's a good idea!

New Scalable Main Board Image

Avid Backgammon player Ashley Dean has applied his graphical skills to produce a better looking scalable board image more suited to high resolution displays. Work has also begun on an "autoroll" feature and multiple device support for a single account, so keep an eye out for those to appear very soon. Some games from the past that had crashed the AI server have also been continued, so if you had some "stuck" one player games in your game history, the CPU should finally have made its move! A small bug was also fixed where after a player won a two player game on time, the Elo score was incorrectly reported (but correct on the server).

Look Mum! The board is no longer upside down!

This release makes sure the board is always presented to you in the same way, with your home board at the bottom, bearing off to the right. The top scores now features you profile photo and flag. And a bug was fixed that could break your profile photos, stall your games with the CPU, and break your move history on old games! A good one to squash!

Move database transfer optimisation

This release greatly improves the transfer of historical moves for games. Prior releases would pass the entire games history from the server to the client for every single move! This doesn't scale well and is not great on mobiles and the bandwidth challenged. The new release only transmits the minimal set of move data between server and client as needed.

Gammon.io release

The great domain rename is complete! Lots of bugs have been fixed as well!

Move History Database

The UI interface to the in-game move database is now functional and so we are releasing it for testing. Amazing new feature includes:

We discovered a bug during this work that means you may find some of your old historical games in the database contain incorrect or impossible moves! These bugs have all been fixed now and the games are recorded as correctly as they play.

Game Timer Release

The game now sports a game timer and a new popup to allow players to negotiate the parameters for their game. Awesome new features include:

Single Player Game Released

After much hard work on both the server and the client we have successfully bolted the GNU Backgammon AI onto the game. The game state and board position are sent to a server running GNU Backgammon. Then the position is evaluated and the results of the evaluation and the top rated moves are sent back to the game web server where they are used to update the game state and be returned to the client. At this stage only a single-ply evaluation is done to limit load on the server. Eventually we would like to see the AI parameters be customised by the player.