I guess I got lucky

mahhhh..I want to play tooo

I so hope that they keep the friday dead line. I have tons of time at and after christmas. It would be ... perfect

So do we But its uncertain. Tomorrow im re-deploying the application to the remote server. Polly has to finish a few details on the nwe design, and im waiting for some changes in the rating system. Its doable but i might push the alpha for the next week.

Glad you are excited, so are we .

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Founder of Kaya.gs

From many years of experience in game development, I've learned one valuable lesson, don't be afraid to test too early. Keep it small, keep it secret, but do it, as early as you can. You are the absolute worst testers of your own product! And the longer you wait the more time you waste when you have to change things late in the game.

I think these guys says it best:
http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/playtesting

Just my 2 cents. And please let me try it out

That video is so good i put it on my FB and shared it to my brother, who is a renowned game designer. I agree 100%, thats why i let the guys in this past week. Only seeing what they had to go through to start to play filled my development backlog .
Fortunately my challenge is much smaller compared to normal game design, as the game is finished already and i have to focus more on the experience of navigating the site, and the technical performance of things running smoothly and confidently.

Precisely because we want to have something up asap, while still providing a complete experience, is that we stripped away lots of things that are "almost done". This alpha will be totally functional for playing and a few more things, and we are gradually reinserting all the other features that are almost finished, like the server countdown/clock, problem solving, video embeds, deferred go, etc.

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Founder of Kaya.gs

Sounds great, yeah I know about the feeling of watching others try your game. It always fills up the todo list. Hehe.

Keep up the good work and let us know when we can try it out.

The closed alpha is up now. It's for people who got founder accounts. See the blog for login instructions.

Will one-color go be an option? I love playing it, but it's hard to get games.

Just finished my first game on the alpha ... it works !!!

A few impressions:
- I started out as a 7d - this feels nice!!
- sound for stones still missing ... gives you kind of a remote feeling
- screen size could be used better ... on my 17'', 1600 x 900 screen, there is lots of space that could be used.

I am curious to see how this evolves further. Great achievement so far!

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Stay out of my territory! (W. White, aka Heisenberg)

I tried this server out. It is pretty cool. The 7d ranking is just temporary, I think, and is kind of funny. I think there is still work to do in variation display. I also feel that the user profiles can be beefed up a bit. What is there, though, I liked so far.

I played one game so far, and misclicked twice. I was using an iPad, though. I felt it would be useful on the iPad if some visual indicator were present where you were about to play prior to lifting your finger to play the move. I did realize, though, that I can double tap and zoom in on the board, which somewhat helps with misclicks.

I can tell the server is in its early stages, but I'm actually surprised at how well things work so far.

I look forward to the future of kaya.gs!

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be immersed

I'm too lazy to sift through this thread, but is 7d the highest rank you can achieve? If so, I like it. I like it a lot.

No, you can be 9d. It's just everyone starts at 7d.

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be immersed

Thanks to the somewhat anger-inducing complexities of the Japanese banking system (from a foreigner's point of view), I had to go through something of a performance to pay for my Founder Account, but I am glad I did.

Obviously, the server is in its infancy, but it already has a clean and distinctive feel to it. As features come on-stream, it will offer a serious alternative to KGS and IGS, and the rest. I think Gabriel and Patricio should be applauded for making such efforts to listen to and cater to the needs and wishes of the users.

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Learn the "tea-stealing" tesuji! Cho Chikun demonstrates here:

Looks like the alpha server is down at the moment.

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be immersed

I have a suggestion for a feature.

I'd like the players to have the option of making comments to the audience that the opponent can't see.

They have a "feedback" button on the site that goes to: http://kaya.uservoice.com/forums/130479 ... s-for-kaya

I'd recommend adding your suggestion there.

There is an entire feature described in the feedback section talking about this, which comes from this very forum because of the malkovich games.

Up vote it

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Founder of Kaya.gs

Something here does not fill me with confidence about security/privacy handling for Kaya.

"To log-in to alpha, your password will be the same as your nickname. I cannot provide a more secure option because i dont have your emails in an organized and reliable fashion."



Let's for the moment ignore why the e-mails are not organized and reliable, but look at the potential issues with having passwords be the same as usernames.

My immediate reaction after I read that was "the alpha server must be private?" Perhaps the address would be sent via e-mail or something. (Alternatively, can e-mail the fact that the passwords will be the same as usernames). It still wouldn't be secure, but a lot better than making everything public (I definitely wouldn't find out, at least).

http://kaya.gs/kayags/project.php

Turns out that the alpha server is available from the front page

It's a good thing that we don't know the usernames of the founder accounts, the-

Wait...

http://kaya.gs/kayags/board_of_fame.php



Oh well, at least it's just the alpha test, nothing important in there at all, right?

Actually, it turns out that the e-mail as well as the option for changing it is visible.

This makes me very hesitant about whether I would provide ANY private (especially financial) information to Kaya in the future.

If security is truly your concern, i can gadly inform you that this is the safest procedure i can do that allows founders to access the server without having to authenticate every single email by hand, which would take me hours and hence days of work.

If you want to know why i don't have the emails, its simple because most users dont use the paypal email as their regular account sign-up email. So i'm gathering from each time founders ask for a nickname, or they put it themselves on the server.

You do well to distrust giving finantial information, because no site should ever ask or save those kind of things on their own. You may have made a grave mistake if you ever handed such information to a non-banking institution for their keeping.

I noted that people could get other peoples emails by the procedure u note here and i have taken action on preventing it until we can safely make people register their accounts without curious users such as yourself able to pass as them. You can check it yourself if you wish.


I hope this addresses your concerns and so of the people reading this post.

Regards.

EDIT: Before this post has any time to raise seriouos concerns, i have implemented passwords and sent it to founders emails. Those founders who didnt get the email (check your spam folder, unfortunately) should email me.
The latest at the blog.

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Founder of Kaya.gs

I checked last night and indeed e-mails were not visible anymore, and today the alpha passwords seem to no longer be the account names. Congratulations on the quick response.

However, several other things are rather worrisome, and I would like explanations.

You posted this in the K.gs chat last night:




Let's for the moment ignore why you need to gather all the e-mails "one by one", but instead examine the mindset your comments reveal.

So, it appears that you knew that non-supporters can log in and yet took no precautions, which speaks well of your ability but rather poorly of your basic grasp of security. I have no experience in such things, but even I immediately saw the glaring issue when I read that blog entry.

Originally, I had planned to make a short post to ask you to explain your word choice, but I received a private message earlier today:




I did consider submitting a feedback regarding it, but I suspected that I would simply be asked to remain silent.

It's rather weird to say that I made this issue public when everything required was already widely-accessible. Do you seriously not see that what you have decided to do was not a great idea? You have willingly left private information of your users open to the public on purpose.

The biggest security concern really isn't me.

It's you.