Stephen D
United States
San Francisco
California
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We at Bravado Waffle Studios are making a new Go app for iPhone and iPad (and Android and the Kindle Fire afterwards) and we need your help and input! We really want your help in creating this app to make it the ultimate Go app created for and by the Go community.
One of our goals is to really show off the beauty of Go and make just experiencing the game as much fun as it is to play it. We have an artist that has worked with Marvel and DC and as a concept artist on major motion pictures, we have a composer who is currently making a wonderful soundtrack and realistic sound effects, and we have a developer who is passionate about the game.
Here’s a few features we are adding:
• Free to Play in a similar style as Words with Friends. This way nobody will ever have to search for a Go opponent again.
• Online asynchronous turn based game play via GameCenter.
• ELO rankings on GameCenter leaderboards
• 3 different board sizes to pick from (9x9, 13x13, 19x19)
• Multiple game boards you can unlock to customize the experience
• Over 200 Go proverbs and lessons you will get to add to your collection as you play the game
• Handicapping options to level the playing field
• Ability to play ranked and unranked games
• Possibly the ability to export your games in sgf format to share and comment on.
What do you guys think? What other features would you like to see in the game? What things irritate you about current Go apps that we can fix? We really want to listen to the Go community on this project, so please share all your thoughts!
Attached are a couple early renderings of how the game could look:
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Mark Schlatter
United States
Shreveport
Louisiana
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Two quick responses:
1) I don't like images on the background of the go board --- I find it distracting.
2) Not handling .sgf formats is basically a deal breaker for me. The ability to replay games, comment on them, and submit them for review is very important for me.
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Jeff Thompson
United States
Homewood
Illinois
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To reiterate and emphasize mschlat's point #2, the ability to replay a game and insert comments. The SGF format allows for branches, this is a must. I want to be able to load Kogo's Joseki Dictionary and any other game I want to replay.
Also, can it teach me to become 1d?
Edit: Why is it that Go programs (KGS is guilty of this too) have nonsensical/lame game states displayed in their graphics? I'm referring to the top 4 screens for the games opening screen.
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Russ Williams
Poland
Wrocław
Dolny Śląsk
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Another nifty feature might be the ability to use it as a graphical front end for GnuGo and other AI programs that use the appropriate protocol (about which I know practically nothing...), so players who are so inclined can play against the AI of their choice with your GUI.
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Dave Dyer
United States
Playa Del Rey
California
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Go isn't the kind of game where you can whip out a move in an idle moment.
A real service - and a hugely challenging task - would be an app that uses the
camera to watch a live game, and constructs a game record.
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Stephen D
United States
San Francisco
California
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As far as the background goes, yes I agree. We are looking to have 3 different Goban for the full version- one very traditional Goban with traditional stones and sounds (no pattern on the board, just woodgrain), one Sumi-e Goban where the pieces and lines appear painted on a scroll, and one futuristic Goban which will be a cross between the Millennium Falcon's Holo-chess board and Tron.
Yes, we really want it to be able to handle .SGF games. Good to know others feel as strongly about it as we do. We will make sure to put exporting SGF games at the top of our list. Importing games might be a little more problematic since Apple is notoriously picky about what it allows a game to import.
I don't know if it will teach you to reach 1d, but I'll do what I can. 
Also you are correct about the nonsensical game state on the picture, don't worry, I think we'll end up picking a game state from a famous game or something in the finished product.
We are looking into adding in one of the open source Go AI's into the game as well for single player action. It's not quite as high on our priority list though since there's already a number of very good quality single player Go apps out there. I think if we do add it, it will be part of a planned update after the core game is done.
As far as an app that turns live games into a game record... that would be amazing and useful to every serious go player out there! Hugely challenging, but well worth it I think! Perhaps it will be our next project...
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Mark Schlatter
United States
Shreveport
Louisiana
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BravadoWaffle wrote: Importing games might be a little more problematic since Apple is notoriously picky about what it allows a game to import.
Maybe, but this is clearly doable. I import commented games in .sgf format into SmartGo Pro.
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Stephen D
United States
San Francisco
California
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mschlat wrote: Maybe, but this is clearly doable. I import commented games in .sgf format into SmartGo Pro.
Good point! If it can be done then we will certainly add it to the list!
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W M Shubert
United States
Portland
Oregon
KGS is the #1 web site for playing go over the internet. Visit now!
Yes, I really am that awesome.
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Tompy wrote: Edit: Why is it that Go programs (KGS is guilty of this too) have nonsensical/lame game states displayed in their graphics? I'm referring to the top 4 screens for the games opening screen. The only game state in KGS graphics is taken from a pro game. I would not call it nonsensical or lame. 
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Russ Williams
Poland
Wrocław
Dolny Śląsk
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wmshub wrote: The only game state in KGS graphics is taken from a pro game. I would not call it nonsensical or lame.
OK, but the go sequence in your avatar is definitely not taken from a pro game!
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M Whaley
United States
Omaha
Nebraska
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First, thanks for working on this! I have been wanting to play a friend with a Go app for quite some time now. I do have a question, though. My friend has an Android phone and I have an iPhone. Will your app still let me play him (once you get it published for both platforms)? I don't know many people who play this game, so my options will be really limited if that would not work.
Great idea; I hope to see this come to fruition. Please let us know on this thread if it ever gets published. I will subscribe to see your update when it eventually comes.
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W M Shubert
United States
Portland
Oregon
KGS is the #1 web site for playing go over the internet. Visit now!
Yes, I really am that awesome.
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russ wrote: OK, but the go sequence in your avatar is definitely not taken from a pro game!
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Stephen D
United States
San Francisco
California
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mwhaley25 wrote: First, thanks for working on this! I have been wanting to play a friend with a Go app for quite some time now. I do have a question, though. My friend has an Android phone and I have an iPhone. Will your app still let me play him (once you get it published for both platforms)? I don't know many people who play this game, so my options will be really limited if that would not work.
Great idea; I hope to see this come to fruition. Please let us know on this thread if it ever gets published. I will subscribe to see your update when it eventually comes.
I'm not sure about being able to play cross platform. Our first goal is to get it working with GameCenter on all iOS devices. Cross platform multiplayer would require us to have our own server and that brings on a host of issues... however it's not out of the realm of possibility!
Don't worry about finding people to play though, ideally the free price will mean there will be no shortage of players for everybody!
You can bet this will be coming out! We've got an incredibly talented team working on it as I speak!
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Martin Grider
United States
Minneapolis
Minnesota
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ddyer wrote: A real service - and a hugely challenging task - would be an app that uses the camera to watch a live game, and constructs a game record.
This is a really interesting idea. I don't see it as a particularly difficult task for a skilled programmer. (OpenCV could/should do most of the heavy lifting for you.)
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Ramon Mercado
United States
Alexandria
Virginia
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While turn base playing on GameCenter is very good, access to OGS or DGS would be better; and live play on KGS (or panda) would be best.
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Stephen D
United States
San Francisco
California
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rmercado wrote: While turn base playing on GameCenter is very good, access to OGS or DGS would be better; and live play on KGS (or panda) would be best.
Well we've got some good news for you then: As of now, Go On The Go (GOTG for short) will support both GameCenter and DGS!
We are also working on incorporating an AI into the game as well.
Additionally we are going to be including the ability to export your games in .sgf format for sure.
The community speaks, we listen!
Should have some new game art and screenshots to show to you very soon, so stay tuned!
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Stephen D
United States
San Francisco
California
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I wanted to show you guys the latest update we've got on the graphics and features for GOTG. Take a look and see what you think, we're really trying to make the art look photo-realistic and capture the beauty of playing traditional Go with high quality pieces.
•Players will drag stones from their bowls onto the boards and then submit the move when they are ready.
•Captured stones will automatically appear in the lids.
•Also chatting and options will be accessible in the top menu bar.
•When you play a stone, the bottom scroll will unroll and a Submit/Cancel option will present itself.
•When passing or resigning, there will be an "Are You Sure?" dialog box so nobody accidentally hits one of those.
Everything from the sound of the stones hitting the board to the background music is being custom done to ensure a realistic and enjoyable Go experience.
Also, we have officially figured out how to export the games as .sgf files, so you will be able to export any and all of your games for later review. So this is a huge feature we are very excited about!
All of these pictures are subject to change as we develop the game and continue to play test the graphics. What do you think of the User Interface so far?
Edit: Oh also we are currently looking into porting the game to Android as well for either a simultaneous iOS/Android release or more likely releasing the app for Android shortly after the iOS version goes live.
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It's looking really great!
The Android release is the best piece of news though!
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Jim Cote
United States
Maine
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Dragging stones is not good. Every go client in the world works by simply clicking on the space.
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It certainly looks very nice!
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Eddie F III
United States
North Catasauqua
Pennsylvania
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Cant wait to try it. Glad it supports Gamecenter on the IOS. Adding this to my list to watch out for.
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Stephen D
United States
San Francisco
California
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ekted wrote: Dragging stones is not good. Every go client in the world works by simply clicking on the space.
Dragging is optional, you can tap to place a stone as well. However, we found that once you start dragging it's hard to stop... it's just so much fun and feels so much more like a real game of Go!
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Charlie Sheppard
United States
Seattle
Washington
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I second rmercado's objection. We already have igs, dgs, kgs, wbaduk, lots of others I'm sure. I don't see the point of starting up yet another go server, esp. if its only reason for being is to provide a playing environment for a particular go client. I'd rather see a generic client that can connect to existing servers (although the existing iOS igs client is very good and the dgs client is good enough and improving).
As far as the interface is concerned, it's very pretty but it looks a lot like iGoban. I really like iGoban for following along kifu from books because I like to be able to move stones arbitrarily. What I'd really like, both for following kifu and for recording face-to-face games, is an interface like iGoban but that also records moves (iGoban does not record moves, it's simply a virtual board). In particular, I'd like to be able to go back in history to any move and reposition the stone placed on that move without, as much as possible, affecting the subsequent game record. In cases where the subsequent game record cannot be preserved maybe the app prompts the user to see whether they want to discard the subsequent game record or if they'd like to branch the game record. The biggest problem I have with recording face-to-face games is making a mistake that invalidates the rest of the game record.
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Martin Grider
United States
Minneapolis
Minnesota
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charshep wrote: (although the existing iOS igs client is very good and the dgs client is good enough and improving)
Which client are you using for IGS?
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Charlie Sheppard
United States
Seattle
Washington
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grid wrote: charshep wrote: (although the existing iOS igs client is very good and the dgs client is good enough and improving) Which client are you using for IGS?
PandaTetsuki
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