The Game of nDm

What's Coming Next

Ideas

Known Bugs

• A more complete Help file.
  
  
• Add a better scoring system, and a ranking system.
  
  
• Add communication capability and client-server model to allow remote players.
  
  
• Adjust the window width to display the window title in full.
  
  
• Use an install file instead of just a zip file.
  
  
• The second stage of the AI will add a learning capability and will take a lot longer to develop, but will ultimately be the key to making this game interesting. This will also use varying levels of "cleverness", but here the "cleverness" will be implemented by adjusting the ability of the AI to look ahead. Depending on the parameters used, there might be a larger range of levels for heuristic* AI players.
  This will also necessitate the addition of a module to handle data files.
  * Heuristic means an algorithm which has the ability to learn.
  
  
• Add "email" players, where a query box appears for each turn asking for the coordinates. Later, this might be directly tied to email.
  
  
• Add ability to change colours, sounds and size settings. Extend config to save and restore these. Possibly combine these into skins.
  
  
• Add game and match recording capability. Add game record reloading and replaying. Add save and continue options.
  
  
• Allow users to create their own AI players, and create a DLL interface to use them.
  
  
• Write a "training" program for AI players.

• Allow the choice of special pieces to be block, wild or random - where the special pieces occur every third turn as now, but could be either type chosen at random.
  
  
• More interesting visual effects - like removing a piece is displayed by the piece exploding or shrinking to nothing.
  
  
• Allow winning lines to be shorter than the grid width - like existing "Connect-4"© or "Four In A Row"© games.

• Occasionally it seems to lose track of where moves have already been played, and once that starts in a game it allows moves to be played on top of other moves and doesn't know when the game has finished correctly.
  
  
• On Windows 98 (and presumably Windows 95 and Windows ME also) the cursor does not change into the next move piece while playing a game.
  
  
• The display blinks or flashes as it is changing - this may happen more on a slower machine and less or not noticeably on a faster machine.
  
  
• FIXED IN 0.5.1.18 :
  There is a timing issue when the playing area is extended - when playing the computer against itself the window is not resized until several moves after the playing area resizes. If the game ends within that number of moves (for me it was six moves) then the window is not resized.
  
  
• FIXED IN 0.6.0.20 :
  When a paused game is closed, the program crashes.
  
  
• FIXED IN 0.6.1.22 : (hopefully)
  The two setup windows do not display correctly on a Windows XP system. This is a known problem with Windows XP.

What's Coming Next

Ideas

Known Bugs