cbMachinations

Natural language hints

cbutner — Sat, 04 Dec 2010 09:56:21 +0000

There can be many combinations of casino rules if you consider things like the number of decks, splitting/doubling, surrender, etc. This means there can be a huge number of different basic strategy “grids”, so I decided to dynamically generate natural language hints at runtime based on the current grid. I think it will be a little tricky to localize, but I won’t worry about that for now ^^.

Actually, I didn’t explain the point of this: I find that remembering a set of sentence-based rules is easier than memorizing a whole grid at once. You can compare the two:
Sentences: http://casinogambling.about.com/od/blackjack/a/bjbasic.htm
Grid: http://casinogambling.about.com/library/blbjmstrat.htm
For example: “If you have 13- 16: Stand if the dealer has2 thru 6 [sic], otherwise hit.”

So, this way I show a nice list of rules for any set of rules the user chooses, and can also show hints in the middle of practice. Here’s a shot of what I have at the moment. The “Thanks” button may be a little obnoxious… not sure…

Starting to come together

cbutner — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 06:33:40 +0000

I was forced to play co-op Titan’s Quest on Sunday, so I’m targeting next Sunday instead. There are a lot of odds and ends to work out even when the main parts are finished and I still have a bit to learn about Silverlight animation. Hopefully this will be more realistic.

Basic strategy grids are now implemented “under the hood”, so the app can keep track of correct plays for a given set of casino rules (just one set at the moment). I’ve also put in splitting (one of the hands just gets thrown away).

Delayed but working

cbutner — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 04:43:03 +0000

After some sleeping/traffic/moving/eating delays I’ve got the core game working. Now I need to work on the basic strategy matrix and hooking up the game/strategy/settings/stats.

Here are some resources I found while battling Silverlight 3:

Cards/Graphics/Sounds (just used Hand/CardPacket/TraditionalCard)
http://create.msdn.com/en-US/education/catalog/sample/blackjack

Horizontal scrollbars
http://forums.silverlight.net/forums/p/133303/297608.aspx

WrapPanel on WP7
http://blogs.silverlight.net/blogs/justinangel/archive/2008/11/05/silverlight-toolkit-wrappanel.aspx
http://www.codebadger.com/blog/post/2010/03/20/Using-the-WrapPanel-from-the-Silverlight-Toolkit-on-Windows-Phone-7.aspx
http://silverlight.codeplex.com/releases/view/55034 (C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows Phone\v7.0\Toolkit\Nov10\Bin)

Bubbling Events in UserControl-s
http://geekswithblogs.net/lbugnion/archive/2008/04/26/silverlight-user-controls-with-events.aspx

Blackjack basic strategy app

cbutner — Sat, 27 Nov 2010 07:10:37 +0000

I’ve done some design for a blackjack basic strategy app, got some graphics/sounds, implemented half of the game itself and started re-learning Silverlight. I should put up an early screen to look back at. The plan is to be finished in 2 days!

Hey world…

cbutner — Sat, 27 Nov 2010 05:01:59 +0000

My first real domain! (but only a URL redirect for now…)

I’ve decided to get serious about finishing some apps – probably Windows Phone 7 to begin with. That’s about it for now ^^.