Score!

As some of you may have noticed, a few weeks ago I temporarily removed the high scores area from the game page. Unfortunately, it was increasing page load times so it had to go while I figured out an alternative way to deliver high score information.

With that said, I’m happy to announce that I’ve found such an alternative! High scores are finally back in the game page. Currently they update twice per day, but we’ll work on getting that back to real-time very soon.

So get out there and play your way to the front of the pack!

Optimizing

Disclaimer: This post contains information from the nerdy programming side of the Knoword universe. Proceed with caution.

So today, I spent my morning doing a little code optimization. Particularly in the area of word list generation and randomization. Previously, the randomization and compilation of word lists were performed by the server on the fly. I realized that this method has very low scalability, as the particular randomization function I was using is not very kind to the server’s resources. As you can imagine, many simultaneous calls to this randomization function could cause some performance issues.

Now word lists are saved as JSON objects in the database, so there is virtually no extra resource usage involved in grabbing the list and sending it to the user’s computer. Once there, the randomization is performed client-side, thus eliminating any needless resource usage on the server’s part.

I’m very excited about this update, as it lends itself perfectly to Knoword’s ability to cope with high traffic and provide a consistant gaming experience to everyone that visits the site.

The next update we make will be a huge one in terms of gameplay and strategy. It will be experimental to start out, but I’m thrilled to see how it will be received and used. I may post a few more hints

Words words words

Over the last couple weeks, I’ve been hard at work expanding our word bank. Two weekends ago, I managed to compile a list of 1400 new words to add to our existing 1400.

After reviewing the words and attempting to categorize them as either “Normal” or “Hard”, I realized that this dichotomy wasn’t going to cut it any more. We would need to expand our difficulty range to accomodate for easy, medium, and hard words. So I did just that. While I was at it, I took all of the preexisting words and recategorized them too. So with that, I had 2800 words split into three categories that make a lot more sense than the old two.

That’s great and everything, however the biggest chunk of this task was yet to be completed. You see, every word needs a definition to accompany it, and since our definitions follow a specific format and a standard for integrity and understandability, they need to be composed and edited manually—all 1400 of them.

I spent many days and nights plugging away at my list, until just a couple of nights ago, when the list was narrowed down to a mere 280 definitions remaining. After a long night at the Vancouver Public Library however, my define-grind was complete!

So after a little site maintenance and reconfiguration, the new words went live tonight. I hope you try them out and enjoy the new words and more suitable categories as much as I do!

In with the new

We’re very excited about the great new features introduced in the new version of Knoword, and I’m going to talk a bit about some of them here.

The real focus of the website is (obviously) the game, so we’ve made some major improvements to its overall speed and playability. There is no longer any loading time between words, and as a result, you’ll notice your next definition being presented instantaneously after you answer or skip a word. This was a much-needed improvement, as some of us know how much it sucks to get hit with a long load with seconds remaining in an intense game.

In addition, we’ve expanded the game’s interface to fill up your entire window. Less wasted space = more room for definitions and stats.

After finishing a game, you’ll now get a breakdown of your game’s stats, as well as revealing (only if you want) the last word you were working on before the game ended. You are also now able to tweet your score or post it to Facebook to let your friends and fans know how you fared and challenge them to beat your score.

Lastly, we’ve added the ability to automatically skip the “Start game” dialog box to members when they’re logged in. This feature was requested a number of times, and we thought it would be a good idea too.

Apart from some overall interface improvements and graphic refinements, that does it for all of the revisions and updates made to the site in the most recent version. We hope you enjoy it, and please let us know if there is anything else we can do to make your experience better.

Out with the old

We’ve changed a few things around on Knoword recently. You may have noticed a slick(er) new interface, shiny coloured buttons and faster load times, but there was a few important retractions from the old version that I thought I should mention here.

First of all, we’ve removed badges for the time being. We still believe players should be rewarded for their performance in games of Knoword, but we’re going to go about it in a different way. We’ll be introducing achievements later this summer, which will effectively take the place of badges. Per-game achievements will be awarded, but not recorded. These include word streaks, game-savers (correctly answered words with only seconds remaining), and speed-based rewards. Other achievements, such as word and game milestones (such as 200 words answered) will be announced in-game, as well as displayed on your profile page for the world to see. We hope achievements will amount to a lighter load on our servers as well as a more logical reward system for our players.

Secondly, we’ve unified our word lists in two ways. We’ve consolidated all of our normal and hard words from all seasons into two giant lists of normal and hard difficulties, respectively. We’ve also done away with separate languages. Now, the game will accept both British/Canadian and American spelling variations for all words. No need to select your language anymore. You can start playing and rest assured that we will understand you.

Last but certainly not least, we’ve removed the possibility of word repetition within any single game. Now when you play, you will get a full set of randomized words to play through. Once you answer or skip a word, it’s off the list for the rest of that game. We hope this addresses some issues faced by players of the original game and creates a more enjoyable experience for everybody moving forward.

That’s all for now. Next week, I’ll be talking about some of the new additions made to the game in the most recent update. Until then, take care and keep expanding that vocabulary!

Bringing back the blog

Knoword news returns!

With the recent update to the Knoword website, you may have noticed the absence of the “News and updates” section on our home page. However, I’ve decided to open the news back up under it’s own site.

I’ll be posting information regarding some of the recent updates we’ve made, as well as ones that are still to come.

A little update, a little late

After a ~5 month hiatus, I’m back to spread the Knoword news once again! Things have been very busy and several exciting developments have happened since the last update.

This may, we released the Knoword iPhone app, bringing the fun and excitement of Knoword, into your palms of your hands! It’s seen some great success, breaking into the top 10 educational games on iTunes on several occasions and recieving great reviews from our awesome fans. Along with this release, we added an extra 500 words to our lists to spice the game up a bit.

Working on the iPhone app was a lot of fun, and I owe a great big thank-you to our iOS developer Bret, who helped out massively during this process. Following our success on the iPhone platform, we decided to go down the next logical path. Now in development is the much-anticipated Knoword Android app! Developed in part by my friend and avid programmer, Dave, Knoword for Android will be released this fall along with a brand new wordlist for your enjoyment!

Stay tuned for more Knoword updates!

Refreshing

Season 2.5 is live! We’ve bolstered our word lists with 1000 total new words added, every single one of them suggested by our members. We hope this makes the playing experience even more enjoyable for everyone.

In addition, we’ve changed over to the reCaptcha system, since a lot of our players were having a hard time signing up with the old more “secure” (and admittedly more impossible to figure out) captcha. We hope this eases the sign up process for future members, and we look forward to welcoming you to the famliy!