Hi!
As I mentioned in a comment yesterday I have updated my backgammon server with a rather large update and renamed it 'Backgammon Studio 2.0'. I wanted to delay announcing it in order to fix the initial bugs that were bound have entered with this large update (bearoff to the right, missing duel chat, start challenge from champions page, and possibly a couple of other issues were reported and fixed.).
The biggest change is the support for mobile devices (the verdict is still out on how well it works but I am happy with how it performs on my iPhone) with a board which resizes depending on the size of the screen/window. If this turns out to not work well for some (Martin had some problems) I'll reintroduce the fixed sized board as an alternative.
On my iphone it now looks like this:
I decided to hide the score information in order to have more space for the board and the information panel. Now you have to scroll up to see this information but perhaps I can change it to have a button to open an information dialog instead. And I see I have to do something about the size of the pipcount text. And with the large image here I also notice that the bearoff for black is a little bit too large.
On my ipad (installed as an app) it looks like this:
I see that the 'Crawford' text is overlapping the next title. I'll fix that later. Apart from that I don't think it looks too bad.
The site should also feel faster as I have also made Backgammon Studio work better as an app. You can add it to your homescreen on your mobile device by using the system browser and use the 'Add to homescreen' option. This will allow Backgammon Studio to use the full screen area without the browser interface.
I have also added a few new challenges which are variations on the a few of the old ones: 'Timed perfect streak':
Bar brawl 2!
Hitman 2!
Payback 2!
Bearoff bingo 2!
You have the same type of positions to answer correctly but now you only get 10 seconds to come up with the correct answer! If you thought the original ones were hard. These are harder! :-)
Now you can also enable the Showtime! chat even if you're playing some other challenge:
This will allow you to check when someone logs in which is a perfect opportunity to challenge this player to a duel! :-)
There is also a new board configuration bonanza available! You can configure the individual board elements to your liking:
I also tried to help users which use Backgammon Studio with a small screen where using the traditional menu system is using up too much screen space and then automatically change it to what the server (ie me) thinks is the best menu option. This was probably not a good idea as it could be a bit confusing to have everything change. You may have ended up with something like this:
Where the 3 horizontal stripes indicate a menu which can be opened (this is common on many web sites). I have disabled this so you have to change this manually yourself. In 'my actions'/'my settings'/'user settings' you can select the menu display method which fits your screen best:
I'll add some 'Tip of the day: Did you know you can change the menu display method?' dialog later...
In other news. Norway is still the top dog in number of users but US is narrowing the lead rather worryingly! :-)
I am sure there is a bug or two still in there but don't be too hard on me and remember how much you have to pay for this product! :-) And if you report the problem (email me a screenshot is very helpful!) odds are good I will fix it.
http://www.backgammonstudio.com
Give it a try!
Best regards,
TP