Entanglement on html5rocks.com

Curious about how we made the hexagonal tiles for Entanglement? I go into all the technical details in our case study on html5rocks.com:

This past spring (2010) I took interest in the rapidly increasing support for HTML5 and related technologies. At the time, a friend and I had been challenging each other in two-week game development competitions to hone our programming and development skills as well as bring to life the game ideas we were constantly tossing at each other. So, I naturally began incorporating HTML5 elements into my competition entries to gain a better understanding for how they worked and be able to do things that were nearly impossible using earlier HTML specs.

Of the many new features in HTML5, the increasing support for the canvas tag offered me an exciting opportunity to implement interactive art using JavaScript, which led me to try implementing a puzzle game now called Entanglement. I had already created a prototype using the back of Settlers of Catan tiles, so using this as a blueprint of sorts, there are three essential parts to fashioning the hexagonal tile on the HTML5 canvas for web play: drawing the hexagon, drawing the paths, and rotating the tile. The following goes into detail outlining how I accomplished each of these in their current form. 

And then I dive into all the HTML5 goodness. Click through to read the rest of the article if you enjoy programming or seeing how one part of Entanglement is put together.

Entanglement to be Pre-installed on Chrome 9

Derek Detweiler

Exciting news! Entanglement has been selected to be a pre-installed app on Chrome 9! Anyone who downloads and installs Chrome 9 will see Entanglement listed on their new tab page alongside a few more productive (but less tangled) apps like Gmail.

Todd Lewis

Todd and I also had a chance earlier this week to attend the revealing of the Chrome Web Store and Chrome OS in San Francisco. We were especially excited to see Entanglement demoed during the presentation as an example of running a web app offline.

Thanks to everyone who has given us great feedback in the Chrome Web Store. Your thoughtful reviews encourage and challenge us to continue making Entanglement better!

Entanglement Now in the Chrome Web Store

We have been busy further developing Entanglement to prepare for the opening of the Chrome Web Store. If you use Chrome and want to check out the latest iteration, install our app from the web store. This is a new web address and hosting service so at this time unfortunately your high scores and locally stored records will not carry over.

For the latest version we have further refined the art and audio. We also decided to add a swap tile to the Solitaire game and remove "Two Tile Tangle" since gameplay was not substantially distinct between the two. The leaderboards have also seen an upgrade with daily and weekly filters. Additionally, as an installed app from the Chrome Web Store, you no longer need an Internet connection to play!

If you don't want to install it as a web app, you can still check out the newest version by visiting http://entanglement.gopherwoodstudios.com/. Let us know what you think!