Qard
Unlike my fellow coworkers from business and project departments, my December is usually less busy, than “classic” months, so I can work on stuff I didn't have time the whole year, like lowering technical debt, testing new ideas, concepts or languages, or starting new side projects.
[2015/01#mravenci-as-qetrix-webapp Few Christmases ago] I recreated a card game “Mravenci” (Ants) for iOS and Android, while testing embedded QetriX WebApp. It worked really well and the game is still quite popular, despite I don't support it any more (because I don't release on Google Play and Apple Store very often, so it's always a hassle – install the current version of IDE, fix what's broken in the current language version, update store pages...).
Mravenci (Ants)
It wasn't my first mobile release of Mravenci, the first one was back in 2008 (of course during Christmas :-) for Windows Mobile on .NET Compact Framework, so you could play it on PC with .NET Framework as well – even to this day. I obtained a permission from the original author to use the graphics and sounds and he even kindly wrote how to extract it from his game.
For the WM game I created a platform “Logicard”, that uses cards definitions in a XML file, so you could customize them to your liking or create a completely new game with similar mechanics.
And this brings me to Qard. The idea of a game platform sprouted once again in my mind, but this time not only for a card game, but rather any sprite or tile based game running in a web browser, using DOM or Canvas.
Qard Logo: Tile-based “Q”
Browsers these days are incredibly powerful, with amazing set of APIs, such as support for game controllers or WebGL. I decided to create a modular engine to include just what the game needs and nothing more.
There are some great web-game platforms, but you probably already know I like to create such platforms myself and in my way. Also Qard will support QetriX style of coding and components, wherever it would be feasible.