A Christmas Quiz

Here's a seasonal quiz for the Christmas fans.

Test your knowledge of Christmas traditions, songs, food and movies:

http://flashbynight.com/christmasquiz/

New look for Collapse the Box

The game Collapse the Box has been given a new look and works on mobile devices. In fact, it's well-suited to playing on a smartphone.

URL: www.flashbynight.com/collapsethebox



Screenshots:

Update: Fixed some performance issues on Android tablets. It's still a little slow on iOS and some Android devices. Fixes will come soon.

Halloween Horror Quiz

Special for the month of October, it's the Halloween Horror Quiz!

How many can you get right out of 20 questions!

URL: http://flashbynight.com/halloweenquiz/

The Halloween Horror Quiz works on your phone, too.

Coil - a snakey game

You like games where you play a snake that can grow in length, like in the old Snafu game?

I've developed a liking for this one:

http://www.nitrome.com/games/coil/?game=coil#.VBzz0ZSSzIi

Slave Training

As a 'PR Initiative' for the No Agenda podcast, I put together a 'Slave Training Module':

http://www.flashbynight.com/slavetraining/

The No Agenda Podcast:

http://www.noagendashow.com/

Need more space?

Sharing some Space Art today because... well, just because:

http://wallpaperest.com/funny-illustration-art-minimalistic-wallpaper-78085

http://www.superbwallpapers.com/funny/cat-astronauts-14332/

http://galleryhip.com/jeremy-geddes-wallpaper.html

http://www.iainclaridge.co.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/morespace.jpg

Tools for Web Designers

I'm putting together a lit of tools that are useful for budding web designers. Basically, these are the tools that I often use. The original page is here: http://flashbynight.com/tools/

Validation and Testing

1 Validate your html code and check for errors:

http://validator.w3.org/

2 Validate your CSS and check for errors:

http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/

3 Test a site on different screen resolutions

http://quirktools.com/screenfly/

Colors and images

4 Explore color palettes

http://www.colourlovers.com/

5 A list of colors suitable for a 'flat' color scheme

http://www.flatuicolorpicker.com/

6 Background patterns

https://www.toptal.com/designers/subtlepatterns/

7 Explore new fonts

http://www.dafont.com/

8 Google fonts

https://www.google.com/fonts

9 Great collection of free stock images

http://www.freeimages.com/

Obfuscation and Minification

10 Obfuscate your Javascript

http://javascriptobfuscator.com/

11 Minify your Javascript

http://jscompress.com/

Mesh - A Word Game

Mesh is a new word game on Flash By Night.

In this game, you take letters from two words to create a new word. The longer the word, the more letters you have in the next round. How high can you score?

Mesh works on desktops/laptops as well as mobile devices

URL: www.flashbynight.com/mesh

Screenshots:

Artificial Intelligence

I really enjoyed TWIT's Triangulation podcast #152 entitled: AI - Our Final Invention. (http://twit.tv/show/triangulation/152)

Author James Barrat talked about whether emerging AI technologies may someday threaten humankind and what we could do about it.

I still have arguments with friends over whether computers will one day be 'smarter' than humans, but I think that anyone who has seriously studied the issue takes this for granted.

According to Barrat's sources, AI could match human intelligence by around 2030 and a Superintelligent AI could emerge by around 2040 that would be much more intelligent than us meatsacks.

And the pace could quicken as countries rush to be the first one to produce a superintelligent AI, much like the space race or the race to build the atom bomb. It could be built in America, China, Russia or many other places.

Just don't give it the ability to replicate.

Touch Punch

I'd like to mention Touch Punch, a js library that you can use to add drag-and-drop functionality to mobile devices.

If you are using jQuery and jQueryUI, just add Touch Punch and it works like a charm.

The URL to get it is: http://touchpunch.furf.com/

I used it here: http://whaddayaknowabout.com/criticalthinking/premiseandconclusion/

CHOPPED word game can now be played on mobile devices.

The word game CHOPPED can now be played on mobile devices - tablets and phones.

URL: www.flashbynight.com/chopped

Good tool for web designers

I'd like to give a shout out to subtlepatterns.com.

Like the name says, they feature subtle patterns that you can use as background images for web pages. I've been really impressed with the site so far -  a good selection and it's easy to navigate and use. And it's free!

HTML5 Slideshow Tutorial

I've just posted another tutorial for budding HTML5 programmers.

This tutorial shows you how to create a slideshow interface for a webpage. You will learn HTML5 basics along the way (javascript/css/jquery). It's good for beginners and will probably take 1-2 hours to work through and understand.

The tutorial is here: http://flashbynight.com/tutes/slideshow/

A sample of what you will build is here: http://flashbynight.com/tutes/slideshow/example

Anarchist thought of 1882

I love leafing through historical docs and digging up their strange ideas.

In this 1882 edition of an anarchist newsletter, the Democratic Party is told off for supporting the woman's right to vote. Anarchists opposing the woman's vote? Strange but true:

"Time brings queer changes. The Democratic party, heretofore supposed to be the bitterest foe of woman suffrage, has embodied it in its platform in Massachusetts, and even declared unequivocally in favor of woman's equality with man in the broadest sense. If the Democratic party ever gives woman the ballot, it will be the most unselfish deed ever done by a political organization, for it will amount to nothing less than suicide. Immediately woman gets the right to vote, she will use it to thwart and overturn every principle that a follower of Jefferson is supposed to believe in. She will vote for prohibition against free rum, for protection against free trade, for a State religion against free thought, for Comstockism against a free press, for indissoluble marriage against free love, and for greenbackism against free money; in short, she will do nearly everything that is outrageous and tyrannical and absurd. For, even to a greater extent than the men, she believes that all wrongs can be set right by statute. It will be a cold day for Liberty when woman takes the reins of power."

Liberty, October 14, 1882

https://archive.org/stream/LibertynotTheDaughterButTheMotherOfOrder./Liberty1#page/n7/mode/2up

Muthaship Source Code

Looking for some source code for a flash game?

I'm making the source code available for the game Muthaship.

Click here.

Muthaship

In the mood for an old-school space invasion game?

The aim of the game in Muthaship is to invade and subdue inferior alien planets with your UFO. Just shoot everything that moves!

There are twenty levels. Levels ten and twenty are boss levels.

URL: http://flashbynight.com/muthaship

HTML5 Tutorial: Create a Ticking Clock Timer

I have had a good response to my tutorials lately, so I though I would post one more.

This tutorial shows how to create a ticking clock timer using HTML5/Javascript/CSS. Sounds difficult? It'll take less than an hour to work through the tutorial, source files are provided.

Click here for the Timer Tutorial.

Click here for an index of all tutorials.

Updates

Update#1: The Smart or Stoopid Quiz has a new look and now works on mobile

URL: www.flashbynight.com/test


Update#2: The game Viroos now has an alternative color scheme to make it easier to play for people who are color-blind or partially color-blind

URL: www.flashbynight.com/viroos

Flat UI Color Schemes

I happened upon a nice little web app for choosing suitable colors for a 'flat design':

http://flatuicolors.com/

For sure I will use some of these colors in an upcoming game.

And if you search on Google for 'flat UI colors', you'll find a few more similar sites. Use them for a clean, flat, modern look.

Screenshot:

Update: HTML5 Multichoice Quiz

People have been asking about my multi-choice quiz tutorial (flashbynight.com/tutes/mcqquiz/) and how to add more than three options.

I have developed a version where you can have as many options as you like. See here for an example where the first question has three options, the second has four and the third has two: http://flashbynight.com/tutes/mcqquiz/example2 All you need to do is to add options in the JSON file, which you can open in a text editor.

Download the sourcefiles here: http://flashbynight.com/tutes/mcqquiz/example2/source.zip

The Ultimate Foodie Quiz

Consider yourself a Culinary Connoisseur? Test your knowledge with the new Ultimate Foodie Quiz from flashbynight.com.

Answer 20 randomised questions and see how well you can score. Works on mobile and tablets, too.

URL:

www.flashbynight.com/foodquiz

Screenshots: 

Make Sound Effects

This got a few retweets when I posted it on Twitter, so I thought it would be worth sharing here.

BFXR is a sound creator that you can use to create blips and bleeps and so on for games.

It has a ton of settings, most of which I don't understand, but if you just generally play about with it, you can create some great sounds. It has presets for explosions, bonuses, jumps and other gamey things. Once you have your sound the way you like it, you can 'export' it and download it as a WAV.

Yes, it looks like it comes from 1995 and who knows, maybe it does, but trust me it is a great tool.

Use it online at http://www.bfxr.net/ or download the standalone version.

New Look for 2014

It's 2014 and time for a new look.

The new layout of FlashByNight is cream and charcoal with red buttons. You can now sidescroll and tab through the growing list of games for easier access.

The site is built using responsive design with dynamic loading, e.g. it will fit any size screen and if you log in with a phone or tablet, it will only show games that work on those formats.

HTML5 Quiz with Sounds

I recently posted some tutorials and source files for a multiple choice quiz and a picture version.

One of my site users asked for a version with audio - click on a sound and recognise it.

So I thought I would post the result for anyone to use if they like -

Source files here:http://flashbynight.com/tutes/mcqquiz/soundversion/source.zip

Online sample here: http://flashbynight.com/tutes/mcqquiz/soundversion/

More HTML5 Tutorials

Let's start off the New Year with a couple of new tutorials.

1 Create a Mobile-Friendly Multiple Choice Quiz in HTML5

This tutorial should be slightly easier than the other HTML5 multiple choice tutorial that I posted, since it doesn't use the canvas element.

The tutorial is here: http://flashbynight.com/tutes/mcqquiz/

And the goal is to produce this: 

Working example here: http://www.flashbynight.com/tutes/mcqquiz/example/




2 Create a Mobile-Friendly Picture Quiz in HTML5 

Most of the code is the same as tutorial number 1, but the objective is to create a picture quiz.

The tutorial is here: http://flashbynight.com/tutes/pixquiz/

And the goal is to produce this:

Working example here: http://www.flashbynight.com/tutes/pixquiz/example/


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Too lazy to follow the tutorials? No problem, the source code is available at the beginning of each tutorial. Grab it and use it for your own projects. Enjoy.