Coderplay

Today ArrowKeyControl (AKC) had the 200,000th score submitted to the website; considering that I launched AKC 54 days ago, I'm pretty happy with the achievement.

AKC has 12,862 users which makes for 15.8 scores submitted per user, on average. This compares to the original KeyControl, which has 99,889 scores submitted and 16,768 users, for 5.8 scores submitted per user (average).

I'm looking forward to the next 100,000 scores for AKC; keep playing!

There have been some issues with the server last night, as a rush of people went to try and submit scores for ArrowKeyControl.

I’ve (hopefully) fixed the problems by installing nginx (which I’ll be blogging about more later), and everything should be working nicely now. I’ll be keeping an eye on the server; if you see anything amiss, just drop me a comment.

I’ve created a new game for the Apple Dashboard called ArowKeyControl. In this game, you are shown an arrow; you have to press the corresponding arrow key on your keyboard. Get it right, and you go again, except you have to be faster. Get it wrong, or hit the right key too slowly, and it’s game over. My previous game for the Apple Dashboard has been played over 90,000 times, and ArrowKeyControl is even more fast-paced and intense.

You can grab the game from http://akc.bloople.net; the site still needs a few finishing touches, but everything should work ok. Let me know what you like / hate about the game in the comments.

KeyControl is a Widget game that tests your typing ability and reaction time. The quicker you react to changes on the screen, the more you score. And as you play, the game gets harder – you have to react faster and faster to beat the computer. Your scores are automatically submited to this web site, so you can compare scores with other players. Warning: KeyControl is addictive!

Now available as a Yahoo Widget, Apple Dashboard Widget or to play in the browser. KeyControl has recorded approximately 90,000 scores and was reviewed in the German version of Mac Life Magazine in 2009.

The supporting web site is written in Ruby on Camping and provides for internet scoring and customisable profile page for each member.

KeyControl is now open source. You can grab the code to the widget itself at http://github.com/bloopletech/keycontrol/tree.

And you can get the code to the website as part of http://github.com/bloopletech/camping_apps/tree (it’s kc.rb and kc/)

Feel free to contribute and help improve KeyControl!