Comments on Recent Survey

My name is Derek and for those that do not know, I am the founder and developer of DKM Software (DKM Games). I stopped posting on this blog a while ago but have decided to renew it as a means of communicating new content.

Firstly, I would like to thank you all for such a huge response to the survey that I posted on the site last week. I was somewhat overwhelmed by the response and comments. As you may have gathered, my motivation for creating the site is certainly not for the money (I am fortunate to be in a position where I do not need to work for money anymore). I am doing this because I still love programming and being creative (started programming back in 1975 -  yes, on punch cards and mainframes using COBOL), and also to provide enjoyment and benefit to others. Your feedback reaffirms why I am spending all my time developing this site. (For those interested, you can read some of the nice things said here.)

Your suggestions have give me enough work for a lifetime. On a general note, there are a couple of observations. The first is one that is disconcerting and relates to advertising on the site. A number of users have made comments (even before the survey) that they are experiencing very obtrusive and plentiful ads. It is very clear to me that these ads are not coming from my site but that their PC is infected with "Adware" - a malware type of virus. I do have Google AdSense ads on the site but they are always to the side - occasionally at the bottom of a page - but never interfering with any game play. If you are experiencing any pop-up ads, ads that obscure any game play, ads that require you to watch them first, or strange commercial links embedded in the page, then this is not from DKM Games. Please see the note on the FAQ page for more info.
The second is that many features requested are actually there already. Also some new games requested are also available now, eg Freecell and Mahjong. I need to find a better way to make all features known without being obtrusive in any way. Perhaps a "tip of the day dialog" that you can switch off if you don't want it. Also, the Preferences dialog in many games is under the Edit menu option and clearly missed - I should change that.

Improvements to Existing Games

Here are a few of the requested changes I have identified as a first pass (cannot guarantee when/if I will implement all).

• Record personalized scores on relevant games to show how you are progressing relative to yourself and also relative to other users.
• Add some more archive puzzles in a couple of the games
• Sudoku: Already added a couple of options to highlight all cells with a particular number when you click on it and also to de-emphasize a number when complete (all 9 entries filled correctly). Add other very advanced strategies.
• Codewords: Have already significantly increased the dictionary size to prevent certain words repeating over puzzles. If this does not solve the problem, then I need to rework the generation algorithm. There should be very few repeats as dictionary is very large (except maybe three letter words). Also, look at maybe adding larger grids and 10 letter words.
• Word Ruffle: Numerous requests to improve the dictionary. I am aware there are common words missing - it just is a very tedious and time consuming exercise to go through all missing words (from a very large word list) and remove uncommon ones. It would be a trivial exercise to provide a full dictionary but that would make the game much worse than it is, because users would never get all the words in any of the lengths. Also, such a long list of words to find would not fit on the screen.
• Yubotu: Improve the input options and automatically convert indeterminate ship parts to actual shape when already known. Problem with clicking not registering is a Flash player issue and I think related to using custom mouse cursors. Will need to perhaps implement option not to have to use these cursors. Also, add larger fleet/grid size that was in the desktop version when it was available.
• Jigsaws: I like the idea of a mystery challenge where you do not know what the picture looks like. Also add an option to change the shape of the pieces.
• Cryptograms: Add new ones and perhaps allow users to submit their own phrases. This is the only thing holding back having many more available.

New Games

In the survey you could rate certain new features from 1 - 5. As expected, there were lots of ones and lots of fives for each. But as an average, the one that scored the highest is "Memory Games". This is an area I would like to develop and I think would be very beneficial to the current base of users to improve and exercise their brains. I will not only add games but also articles on how to improve your memory and practice exercises.

I have written a multi-user quiz where there is are live quizzes ongoing. Limited time to answer each question and the one that gets the answer first gets bonus points. The problem is that this need tens of thousands of questions to prevent same ones repeating. I have amassed a database of over 30,000 questions (from free ones that certain sites offer). Unfortunately, as expected many are too difficult or inaccurate or inappropriate. It will take a significant amount of time to check and edit these so I am reluctant to release it right now.

A couple of the other games suggested I like but cannot add due to copyright issues. The ones I have on my short list to do are:

• Hashi (or Bridges)
• Slitherlink
• Nonograms (also known as Pic-a-pix, Hanjie, Griddlers). I like these puzzles but the problem is getting all the pictures. Happy to implement if someone can provide me with appropriate pictures.
• Scrabble. I already have SpeedCross (a single user variant I made up). Would like to make this multi-user in various formats. Did ask on Forum if anyone interested but only got one yes. However, I think this is because very few read the Forum.
• Kakuro
• Card games such as Hearts and Spades. Also more solitaire games.

If you have further comments, you may post here but I will need to pre-approve them (keep the number limited). Otherwise, please use the Forum on the main site - that's what it is there for.