It’s ugly but it works – Finally a new client!

After a long time of promising a new client, it has finally arrived. This time made with HTML5 instead of that old monster called Adobe Flash.

The main reason for why this happened now is that after a recent server switch, the old Flash client was no longer able to connect to Multiplayer.

If you used the old client, then some differences you will notice in the new client are:

  • It is currently only possible to login with a random guest name. Some other login options should be added within a few weeks.
  • Chat feature does not exist in lobby or within games. It might come back, maybe not. I’d recommend using other applications to chat instead for now.
  • It doesn’t look very nice. This is being worked on and it will be improved continuously.
  • Expander Rule is always on, this is because only multiplayer is available. If you notice the board being reset or if it looks like the board is being reset at the start of the game, that is the “expander rule”. It makes the game more fair as it avoids unlucky beginnings.
  • There might be bugs. Bugs will be fixed and new version will be deployed continuously.
  • It does not have any local play. If you want Local Play, there are plans to make that in the future but it needs to be integrated into the existing statistics first.
  • It does not have an editor. If you want an editor then you will just have to ask me about it and maybe I will make a new one in the future.
  • It does not have a list of replays. If you want to see replays you can go to http://stats.minesweeperflags.net (which also need to be updated since the server change).

Some differences that you might not notice right now are:

  • The code is better
  • It is much easier to deploy a new version of the client (Thank you, Jenkins!)
  • It is even very easy to deploy multiple versions of the client to test various things at the same time (each development branch gets its own deployment place)
  • It will make it easier to make a new version of the Android client, and even a client for iOS in the future!