Battle for Wesnoth is open source strategy game for windows/Mac/Linux. Now somebody have ported the whole game to iPhone/iPod touch.

All the maps, units and rules are the same. If you have played the battle for wesnoth on your computer, you will learn iPhone version without any problems.

Major changes to pc version is only the controls (obviously) and framerate. Controls are good and hitting small buttons is pretty accurate. I haven’t got any major problems controlling the game. At first it may feel bit difficult.

As the iPhone isn’t as fast as the computer, it feels bit slow some times in terms of framerate. On large maps the scrolling can be pain because of this. (but the “next unit” action helps here) The load times are long for iPhone game. It takes about 1-2 minutes to get to the game… So its not for quick game.

There is also multiplayer game included, but I haven’t looked into it yet. The game also supports Openfeint platform. Openfeint is same kind of gaming community like Plus+, but it offers much better way to communicate with friends/other people. Openfeint has also achievements juts like Plus+.

The prize (4e) is bit high for a port from a free game, but if you like Battle for Wesnoth on computer, buy it. If you haven’t, check the pc version first, as it is free.

Movement in this game is awesome. Controls are simple, but also very powerful. In couple if minutes, all of the tricks are easy to make when needed. Climbing, sliding, jumping… Everything is just so smooth…

Graphics are very unique. Lots of bright colors and bloom. In my opinion, this game has one of the best graphics details. It’s not technically great, but it just looks great. I like some small details like red paint on white floor, etc. And lots of bloom!

Level design has to be good in this kind of game, and it is. There were only couple of times when I got stuck and mostly it was because of the overpowered enemies, not because of the level design. But sometimes this game feels way too easy…

At technical side of the game, I got some problems. First is lack of support for normal resolutions, so I had those annoying black boxes on my screen… Second problem is Physx problems on my Ati card…

It was short, but a great game. I recommend to try it. (I got it for 3e from Steam holiday sales so the length wasn’t problem for me )

Today I have released my first map to Episode 2. It is also my first custom map to 3d games. (I have done couple maps to LieroX, etc)

As this is my first map, it is not perfect. But in my opinion, for first map it isn’t bad. I have couple of things that I would have done better. Example the orange dev material at start. But I have succeed in couple of things in my opinion well. Enemies are balanced, and there isn’t too never too much of them. And there is still challenge. I also really like how the lights works. Example the cave entrance at first room looks nice.

Most of the people won’t download the map anyway, so I uploaded a video so they can watch it. Please note that the video is one huge spoiler for this level. Watch it only if you don’t want to play the level.

Video with sound at wegame.

If somebody has any comments, please post them so I can make better maps.

Download the map/source files from my project page.

Update (8.3.2010): Added health packages to level and fixed the “wrong name” issue that caused random crashes. Redownload the file.

I have recently started new php project. It is my own php engine/framework.

I have tried couple frameworks and all of them have been pretty nice. I especially like cakephp.

But the problem with these sometimes is that they force too much where what code should be placed. Example the Model View Controller stuff. The idea is great idea and I have nothing againgst it, on some small project cakephp/any most of the frameworks are way too massive. (in my opinion of course)

But if I code from scratch and place all if my code where it feels good to place it… Usually something is somehow in wrong place. This is when I get the idea for my own framework.

Napalm engine framework (or NeF in short) is a php framework that doesn’t make creating code any faster. It just helps to keep code where it should be. It should help managing code base on small/medium project.

This framework also won’t force user to place some code on some place. It only offers way to manage code in standart way. If user doesn’t want to use all of the elements, rest of the system won’t break.

NeF will also be simple to learn, because there isn’t any kind of complex API.

The idea of application workflow is following:

Actions are things that gets users input, does querys to database, handle data, etc.

Render segment is in 2 parts:

• View is a HTML document with php links to blocks
• Blocks is a piece on a view. Example a content area/navigation.

Then there is 4 different helpers. Helpers are small code snippets that should be executed, but really aren’t part of actions/views

• Pre-action helpers – stuff that is executed before actions
• Pre-render helpers – before render
• Post-render helpers – and after render
• Normal helpers – can be used anywhere in code, called by specific function.

And if I will ever get this done, I will publish this under open source license.

TF2Lobby is website that helps random people to get to the competitive side of the tf2. It is much like gathers, but it doesn’t require IRC client.

After creating an account and logging in, you can join to lobby, talk at the main chat, see who is online and create new lobbies. After joining lobby, you choose side and which class you want to play and when the lobby is full 6v6 and everybody is ready, the match starts. TF2 is launched via the steam link that will automatically connect to the server and use the password. When the teams are ready at the server, its time to play.

The system is nice and works well. There is couple of servers dedicated for tf2lobby and the system how they work is very similar to l4d2 matchmaking system. Server that are dedicated for tf2lobby are running without admins 24/7. When a lobby is starting a game, the tf2lobby sends couple rcon commands to the server setting it up, then sends the password to the users who can connect. System always checks if there is players already on the server, so active games are not stopped if there is new game starting.

It is also possible to use own server with this system by giving server ip and rcon password. Tf2lobby will remotely setup the server via the rcon.

Currently the system has some kind of karma system. You gain karma by playing games or by getting rated by other users. You lose karma by leaving from game. The system looks nice, but so far there isn’t any way to see somebody’s karma. But I think that in future players that leaves in middle of match aren’t problem. There is also nice system that asks new player to join the game if somebody leaves before the match has been finished.

TF2Lobby also needs more EU servers. But there is usually somebody with their own EU server.