Developer's Blog

I usually don’t write reviews, but this website deserves all the attention a Flex developer has. I have to say that I’m not writing this because of an agreement with the authors or that my analysis is exact in any manner. Most of guesses I’m doing here can only be confirmed by the authors – if they feel like doing so.

Now, the motivation of writing comes from the calculus I’ve made trying to rate this product on a scale from 1 to 10 – which in this case is very very close to ten. My best guess is that excellency comes in three flavors : user experience on the final product, applied cutting edge technologies and clarity of written code – which should assure both the scalability of the product while bug fixing / adding features would be quite easy. This website has it all!

OMGPOP.COM – formerly known as I’minlikewithyou or IILWY  – is build with Flex! You wouldn’t guess it on your first sight, mostly because of the slick graphics the website have. Even better, under the hood relies on Cairngorm, in a clear and beautiful manner which should encourage you to use Cairngorm – obviously, after playing with the website to make an idea about how helpful that was for the coders.

More than two hundred Commands are registered by the Controllers only in the core (no, I wasn’t looking for exploits – I’m not that kind of person). It has multiple Controllers, each of them having a clear role inside the application. Since I’ve mentioned the word “core”, you have already guessed that it is a modular application.

Now, about the server side, after doing a bit of research (google-ing after some author’s name) I’m guessing that is a Jabber server (the longest-running XMPP service on the Internet). From their website you can deduct that they are using Ruby on Rails for voice chat (by the way – if you’re looking for a job check them out), but I haven’t had access to analyze that.

Just a word about the components of the user interface : they are not based on the Flex UIComponent – the solution is based on extending Sprite and create a custom UIComponent like. Reason? My guess is it would have made the website too slow for it’s purpose.

In the end, I recommend to you to play at least one of their games : Balloono , Ballracer , Blockles , Dinglepop , Draw My Thing , Gemmers , Hit Machine , Hover Kart , Jigsawce , Letterblox , Putt Putt Penguin and drop me a line here about what you think. I’m convinced that you – as a developer – will acknowledge the power which lies within design patterns by taking a good look at OMGPOP and try to detect how they solved different problems.

Great job OMGPOP creators !

P.S. I’ve found somewhere on the web, that the creator of Balloono (a game which eats up time like there’s no tomorrow) is a well known author of book Actionscript 3 Bible.

I’ve finished this game in 3 days, making an AIR application, so I can apply to AIR Derby. You can download it from here. I really hope you like it!

Game’s ideea:

This strategy game will make you think and concentrate for hours if you accept the challenge!
The game field is a square divided into customizable number of cells on which 3 balls of different colors appear every time you make a move. Points are given every time you manage to remove some balls from the field. Only horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines consisting of a number (minimum 5 but also customizable) and more balls of the same color can be removed from the game field. You can create such lines by moving the balls around the field. A ball can move along vertical and horizontal (but not diagonal!) lines if no other balls stay between its initial and destination cells. Jumps over other balls are not allowed. In one move you can transfer only one ball regardless to the length of its path.
After your turn, three more balls are dropped onto the field (their colors and location are random). Thus, every next move is going to be more and more difficult for you! But if the result of your move has made a line disappear, the next portion of balls will not appear immediately. More balls means a greater bonus, also the time spent to build a line counts for great bonuses!

Based on a puzzle game from 1992, by Olga Demina (Russia).

Dedicated to the one I love: Adina.