The Wahoo Project

The Wahoo project is a web version of the simple board game Wahoo. Initially the game was created using Flash but maintaining compatibility with various versions of Flash became an ongoing problem. When Apple announced its mobile devices would not support Flash the decision was made to convert the game using jQuery, javascript and HTML5.

A new beta version of wahoo has just been released. This version is fully responsive, designed so that it is easily playable on mobile devices and small screens. In the previous version, the visual concept of the game was based on a static 3D view. The board was first created in 3D and then rendered at the prefered viewing angle. Board positions were then mapped onto the corresponding 2D image to allow board positions to be rendered to the user and also convert input from the user. The 3D concept made the game difficult to play on small devices due to the inefficient use of space. The new version uses a simpler 2D design which allows a much more efficient use of space on small devices. The jQuery library was invaluable for processing user interaction, manipulating the board and creating some basic animation.

The ability to “play against the computer” was added after the visual game logic and user interaction. In actuality, the computer player opposite the human player is the human player’s partner while the left and right computer players are partners who comprise the opposing team. The first iteration of the game simply allowed playing through an entire game with all players as humans. Creating the artificial intelligence or game engine that tries to choose the best move from a number of options was really an entirely different branch of the project; still open to improvement and experimentation with different algorithms.

Visit the Wahoo Website