btoconnor

This was a major reason for creating my board game web site, BreakBase ( http://www.breakbase.com ). All I wanted to do was play a board game against my friend, and not have to worry about all of the nuances of making an account. Just share a link and play a game. Making an account is an after-thought, if you like using the service.

edit: hyperlinks, how do they work?

I think I should have made this more clear.

We track anonymous accounts through the browser session. You can play many games all with the same account, and you'll have a dashboard where you can flip between games just like registered accounts. We don't track your record, though.

However, if you close your browser (eliminating your session), your account becomes a dead end.

You couldn't just use the same URL because it will be a new session, and thus create a new account, which won't be the same account as the existing one (and thus, won't be able to make moves as the original account).

So, you'll be able to play games, but we won't be able to keep track of your games over different devices (specifically, different sessions).

Hmm, that hasn't been my experience. For a double jump, you should just be able to drop the first jump, and it should be your turn still, and you can (and are forced to) do the second jump.

Are there any more details you can provide so that I can start to debug this?

Edit: we've confirmed the bug. We're looking into a fix now. Thanks for the report.

Thanks for the feedback.

We actually have something like that semi-implemented. They're called 'recall links', and they allow people to generate unique urls per game (secret) that allow a new session to take over an existing anonymous session.

If there's enough call for it, I'll finish out the implementation and launch it asap.

Also - I wrote all the engines from scratch.

Thanks for the screenshot. I think this is a pretty rare bug that has something to do with the push layer stuff. We're looking into it to see if we can detect this a little smarter, especially as we move towards mobile experiences.

In the interim, if you see this, you should just be able to refresh and all will be good again.

Ha, Hex was top on my list for games to create. I was leaving it open for other people to suggest. Glad I've got some support :)

Yes, anonymous accounts poses many challenges to things like that. Chances are, if/when we implement random opponents, you'll have to be registered (and your opponent would have to be registered as well).

Thanks for the feedback. Not sure about being able to drop pieces on top of each other.

Also, in chess, you can only move pieces that have available moves. For instance, if your knight is pinned, you'll be unable to move it.

If this continues, please let me know!

Ideally we'll build something to play random users. It just wasn't something we build out at first.

To answer about monetization, we have loose ideas. I'm really against pop up ads and awkward experiences that most sites tend to have around this. I've toyed with ideas such as premium accounts, or something like old Pandora that used to show one, integrated ad for the entire page.

Mostly though, we're waiting to see how people use the site. It's impossible to monetize something when you don't understand how people use it.

Myself and 2 friends built BreakBase with the goal of making the seemingly simple process of playing a board game on the Internet with friends as easy as it should be. Existing sites on the web are shockingly complex to find a way to play against people you already have means of contacting.

At the time of this writing, we’ve got 5 games: Checkers, Chess, Four-in-a-Row, Reversi and WordBase.

Features:

- Each ‘room’ has a unique url - share it via email, Facebook, Twitter, Google chat, or text message, it makes no difference to us. There’s no need to coordinate navigation to the same server, just to play a game. Just share the url.

- Play anonymously- you can play on our site without registering. If you want to, you can register to keep track of your records, get alerts when it’s your turn or something else interesting happens in your games.

- Real time updates. When your opponent makes a move / chats, you’ll see it right away without refreshing.

- Come back to your game later. If you register for an account, you can resume your game from a different device. Play from your phone, desktop, tablet, whatever. If you don't register, this doesn't work - we can't keep track of your games if we don't know who you are.

- No plugins required. BreakBase works on HTML5 / Javascript. No Flash / Java needed.

- WordBase supports up to 4 players.

- Get smart notifications via email or Twitter, and via the browser. Registered accounts only.

The stack:

- Main web app built on Pylons.

- Our Comet/push layer is built using Node.js, as the glue between ZeroMQ and Socket.io.

- We use MongoDB because it’s web scale.

The future: These are being actively worked on, and will be released in the near future:

- Planning more games. Currently considering Backgammon, War strategy games, or card games. Open (and eager) to suggestions

- Challenges. Challenge someone to a game directly from their profile.

- Mobile support. As of right now, you can make moves on Android / iOS devices by just going to breakbase.com in the browser, but we’d obviously like to provide a tailored experience for smaller screens.

What would it take to get you to use this on a regular basis?