How well do you know your geography? I really suck at it, but I'm getting better by playing these two web browser games:

These SVG games work in modern browsers like Opera 9+ and Firefox 1.5+ and were written by orinoco and published on his Opera blog. I gave him some pointers to get them working in IE+ASV (I updated my guide with these tips too).

He really did some fantastic work - he started with a blank world map on WikiMedia Commons drawn in Inkscape which had all geography stuffed into a single path element and then he broke them out so that each country was its own path, then manually identified them all! It's not an easy task, but it was made easier because the graphics format was an open, well-documented standard in plain text. I hope he continues to experiment with SVG.

Can someone test them in Konqueror and Safari nightlies?


§331 · January 19, 2007 · Games, Opera, Software, SVG, Technology, Web · 4 comments ·


I was talking with a friend who is still trying to convince me that playing World Of Warcraft is a good lifestyle choice (as opposed to, say "dedicated husband, father, software developer, blogger"). Kidding aside, spare time is really my only stumbling block here, it's not as if I have something against heavy gaming in general (though I do recoil from the idea of having to pay a periodic subscription fee, I'd rather spend some time on a single-purchase game like Bethesda's Oblivion that's all about "me"). Read the rest of this entry ...

§282 · September 14, 2006 · Entertainment, Games, Life · Comments Off on Games vs. Life ·


Via Arve, the Opera Web Applications blog talks of how the Opera 9 Browser has made extensions to the canvas element specifically for authoring games for the browser. Read the rest of this entry ...

§242 · March 29, 2006 · Games, GDC, Opera, RIA, Software, SVG, Technology, Web · Comments Off on Opera Extends Canvas ·


We attended the third and final Web-Based Games Round Table session hosted by Brian Robbins at the GDC this morning. It was focused on the production/design aspects as opposed to the commerce and community issues of the previous two sessions. Read the rest of this entry ...

§241 · March 24, 2006 · Firefox, Games, GDC, JavaScript, Software, SVG, Technology, Web · Comments Off on GDC Trip 2006: Part Four ·


I decided to take my SVG Solitaire game and make it into FreeCell, the game that comes with Microsoft Windows. Click here to play. Requires IE+ASV, Firefox 1.5 or Opera 9 TP2

It took roughly 30 minutes to change Solitaire into FreeCell, then over 1 hour to debug stupid/silly errors. I was pretty tired last night, but that's probably a pretty good breakdown of the software development process (X minutes to design/code, at least 2X to test). Of course it still probably has some minor bugs here and there (please let me know) and I know the layout could use some work. Very playable in IE+ASV, but dragging cards is still pretty slow in Firefox 1.5 and Opera 9 TP2.

CLICK HERE TO PLAY FREECELL

§232 · February 24, 2006 · Games, RIA, Software, SVG, Technology, Web · Comments Off on SVG Time Waster Game: FreeCell ·