Nomignolov

Italian Intro (FdA). Blog vs Wiki.

2008-11-24T01:48:00.002+01:00

Finally Nomignolov has an introduction that at least was updated this year!

Actually, the introduction was originally written in Italian, and the one I published is just freely translated into English. That introduction was a short article I wrote for the Italian web-zine "Il Fogliaccio degli Astratti", issue 48. Even if you don't know Italian, you can check it just out of curiosity. Luca Cerrato is doing a really nice job writing about abstract games!

Clearly I also posted the introduction on the new site for Nomignolov, as I will do for future things that will appear on this blog. I don't plan to duplicate things too much, but as for now both the blog must be complete and the wiki must grow...

Introduction

2008-11-24T01:41:00.002+01:00

Nomignolov is a free and universal software for abstract strategy games, puzzles, solitaires, games with random elements, and even cellular automata. It runs on Windows XP, 2000, Vista, and I plan to release a Linux version of it, if someone asks for it.

To this day, Nomignolov comes with some abstract games (Tablut, Wari, Hex, Entropy, Dao, …) and puzzles (8 queens on a chessboard, the Knight's Tour, 14-15 puzzle, …). Around 20 games in total.

And then there's Cibilimny, a little addictive game with high score. You play on a hexagonal board, moving around marbles of 7 different colours. On each turn, three new marbles are fired on the board by three spinning cannons. To prevent blockage, and so losing the game, you must put together 6 or more marbles of the same colour. This way you score some points and you gain time: the group just formed disappears, and you can move an extra marble before the next cannon shot. How many points will you make?

In all these games, one or more players use the mouse to play. Nomignolov allows remote games with internet, using your IP address.

The program can move at random, which can be useful at times. Or it can run a simple minimax algorithm, so it has some Artificial Intelligence (no claims for strength here).

Now, if you are interested, I heartily recommend to download the last release of the program, Version 1.3 "Cidrolin", and try it out!

And now that the general public has gone downloading the program, I can reveal the most exciting fact about it: Nomignolov can be extended! This means that, with a simple text editor such as Note Pad, you can add a new game to it!

A deep breath now!

For each game, like the aforementioned ones, there exists a script file in the programming language Lua that "explains" to the program everything about the game.

In the script there is the description about the board and pieces. And of course the rules, that is: a function that lists all possible moves for the players, a function that updates the board after a move is done, a function that checks if the game is won by someone, a function that tells how well players are doing (evaluation).

Along with the program, it comes a little pdf manual which tells you how to write a script. And you can look at the scripts for the other games and use them as references.

If you would like to write a script, but get stuck somewhere, you can write me. I'll be glad to help anyone. Moreover, you can send me your creation, and I will include it in future releases of the program.

Nomignolov is just a hobby for me. I worked alone on it, on and off, for nearly 3 years. Some graphics (pieces, fonts) was done by my sister Marisa.

I welcome any collaboration to the project. You can help in a number of ways: translate the site and the manual, advertise the software, work on the graphics, giving me ideas, comments, etc.

Nomignolov is what we make of it, so it could become really big!

Examples of moves for Tourrosa (and wiki site)

2008-11-16T00:34:00.003+01:00

The rules for Tourrosa in the previous post are deliberately bare. I just wanted to state the rules, but indeed it is quite difficult to grasp a game without actually play it or see it played. For this reason I drew some examples of the action going on in a Tourrosa board.

Look at the examples or download the pdf (1 Mb and not so explanatory as the web page).

I had some fun making the images using Inkscape which is a freeware for vector graphics (they can't be that bad for a first experiment!).

Following the excellent suggestion by Marcos (thanks!), I started the site nomignolov.wikidot.com, which seems a better place for Nomignolov. As for now it is empty, having just the rules for Tourrosa, and the examples. I think I'll use this blog to announce things that I'll put or update there, or something of that kind! This will be a lot simpler that refer to older posts...

Original game - Tourrosa

2008-11-15T01:21:00.002+01:00

the Rose

The game is played on the following 48-cell board that we will call the Rose. For the gameplay, it's very relevant to note that the Rose has three "layers": 12 cells form a hexagonal shape, and cut the board into an inner layer of 12 cells and an outer layer of 24 cells. Players start with three stacks of four pieces placed at the corner of the hexagon (starting points marked as black circles and black squares in the illustration). In the rules, a "stack" can be just one piece.

the turn

Choose one of your stacks and a direction. That's all, but you still need to know how to move the stack!

the movement

Direction --- You cannot change the chosen direction during your turn. A direction is drawn by the solid lines of the board (so the hexagon is not part of the board: it's there just for reference!). When you arrive at a new cell you continue your tour without turning right/left. When you arrive at one of the cells in the hexagon, you change layer from the inner to the outer one and vice versa.

Jump --- You can jump over an opponent's stack, and remove it from the game, if: (1) the cell behind the opponent's stack (following your direction) is empty and (2) the jumping stack has the same number of pieces, or more, of the jumped one.

The action for a turn is divided into three parts:

Start by sowing or by stacking: you have two options for the first part of your turn. Sowing: take all the pieces in the starting cell and distribute one of them on each cell in your direction. The pieces may be put on top of cells containing your own stack. You must jump all the opponent's stacks you happen to encounter, following the rules for the jump. If the jump is not possible, you stop the sowing in the cell next to the blocking stack and your turn is over. Stacking: from the starting cell, collect the piece on top of each stack you encounter. You stop when the cell is empty or it belongs to your opponent.
Sliding: take the last sown piece or the stack formed in the first part of your turn. Move this stack following your direction, and continue for all the empty cells you meet. As in the sowing, you must jump all the opponent's stacks you happen to encounter. If the jump is not possible, you stop the sliding in the cell next to the blocking stack and your turn is over.
Stacking: when during the sliding you meet one stack of yours, you pile the two and your turn is over.

the goal

You win the game by capturing all the enemy pieces.

more info

Tourrosa was designed on August 2008 by Jean and Marisa Morales. Have fun sliding pieces! These rules are from nomignolov.blogspot.com. The illustration was made with the free Java program Z.u.L.

Rules of Tourrosa in English.
Regole di Tourrosa in italiano.

Confusing blog

2008-11-08T23:15:00.001+01:00

This is the house of Nomignolov software, my free hobby program for abstract strategy games. You can try it simply by downloading and unpacking the zip file from the menu on the right.

Poor Nomignolov has a blog instead of a real site! It won't have a real site anytime soon, and in the meanwhile the blog is just confusing! A blog is meant to be updated regularly, while a site for a software needs not.

Well, to be true, Nomignolov is now in stand-by. Indeed, I think I've met my realistic goals of a playable and expandable program for abstract games. The lack of time and of feedback made me pausing the project for the time being, but I'd love to polish it up, to make it more user friendly... and indeed to add new games!

What can I do about the blog? Well, at least I could try to reorganize its content that is now watered down old posts... It lacks a decent and updated introduction! The current one is ancient! I need to do the cleaning!

Screenshots of Version 1.3

2008-03-24T13:17:00.003+01:00

The last screen shots where from Version 1, and they can still be found here. In this post, however, you can find screen shots from the last Version 1.3 "Cidrolin", which you can download from here, or by the button on the right menu.

Let's begin with the splash screen, which is nearly unchanged (can you find the difference?):

This is the main menu, from where you can select the game. Note the huge and ever-increasing list of possibilities!

If you select a game, let's say Tablut, Nomignolov lets you select which players are going to play the next match.

Wari is an old game. Nomignolov is quite strong at it!

This is Hex. It's a difficult game, and Nomignolov is clueless about it. Anyway you can play against someone else.

And here is a screen shot from a Cibilimny game. It's an addictive old style game where you have to put together 6 or more pieces of the same color, making them disappear and earning points. Each turn, three more pieces are fired on the board by rotating cannons, trying to clog you to lose the game. Try it!

That's all! Download the program and let me know!

Nomv 1.3 "Cidrolin"

2008-02-11T23:22:00.001+01:00

This post is to announce the release of Nomignolov 1.3 Cidrolin!!!

As usual, it is impossible to list all the details that changed from version 1.2. The big new features are the handling of variants and of repetitions.

The general definition of variants allows scripts to have many levels, or different movements, or different winning conditions, etc.

By repeating a game between more algorithms, one can use Nomignolov to rank them.

Nomignolov 1.3 comes with a lot of new scripts:

A pair of scripts to edit and to play to Sliding block puzzles;
FootSteps and Intervalo, two beautiful bidding games with lot of algorithms;
Dominono, simple but beautiful game;
The addicting puzzle game Cibilimny, with score saving! Can you beat my 832 points?

The included manual in pdf is updated, so you can add your own games and puzzles!

Chess pieces

2008-02-05T21:50:00.001+01:00

Contents!

Here you can download a brief article I wrote about how to list all the moves in a script for a chess-like game. As an example, I present the function for Tablut rewritten.

Studying the structure of a general chess-like game, I introduced a new API function in Nomignolov: get_cells_type(type), that returns all the positions held by a type of pieces. If you dare, you can download here a temporary version of the program. If not, the last stable release is still Version 1.2 Benbow.

If you are interested in adding a script for Nomignolov, you can read the manual you can find in the zip. And I'm always ready to answer any questions, to make suggestions and to give my blessing to each Nomignolov related activity :-)

Objectives for Nomignolov project

2008-01-29T18:57:00.000+01:00

While browsing among books in a second-hand market, I stumbled upon a quite unusual book: Atlas of Management Thinking by Edward De Bono. This was a very uncommon and fortunate event for many reasons (e.g. second-hand markets in Turin have mostly Italian books, etc) but this is not relevant here.

De Bono claims that this was (1981) the first book written for the right side of the brain, aka the part that deals with images. In fact, the book shows visually a lot (200) of concepts regarding basic thinking, risks, failures, opportunities, objectives, etc.

Having read the book, I thought that maybe I could write some objectives for Nomignolov in the same way. Now I try to comment the results. I won't explain here how I intend to reach these objectives. Anyway, these are mid-term objectives (maybe 1 or 2 years?).

Nomignolov

This is the image of the program, from where the mascot derived :-) The program is composed by three parts (bottom to top): logic, gui and scripts.

The supporting and shaded square is the logic of the program. It is the most important part of Nomignolov. The logic means how the program behaves, how it takes and deals with games, what it thinks a board is, the algorithm minimax, etc. It's the core of the program.

The white rectangle is the GUI, that is what the user sees when he plays. It's the most exposed thing of the program, but could change (i.e. the logic could support another GUI). The image shows another very important concept: the GUI is completely independent from the logic. This will be evident when I'll release the source code of the GUI, that could be reused for another program.

The multitude of squares (here: two), detached from the program, are the scripts describing games, puzzles, etc. All that Nomignolov will do depends on these scripts.

Objective 1: other people writing scripts.

Given the description of Nomignolov, objectives are indeed easy to understand. Given that the dashed circle represents an undefined group of people, the first object is to see scripts written by others.

Objective 2: gain popularity.

The arrow points to a more defined group of people that knows about Nomignolov. The circle is a solid line, meaning that the people actually use the program, instead of just being aware of its existence. The arrow points to them from the GUI of the program, because it is the "face" the users see.

Objective 3: spread the program.

In this picture, more and more people are aware of the program. The circle remains dashed, but this objective is not in contrast with the previous one. It stresses another aspect of the people that are influenced by the program in a general way. I think that enlarging a solid circle is a lot more difficult.

Objective 4: others developing part of the program.

As already said, I plan to release the source code of the GUI. This objective means that part of the visible program is modified by other people. Note that here, as in objective 1, the arrow points from the people to the program.

Objective 5: work on AI and experimenting in a general way.

After all I've said, the meaning of this image is straightforward. Note that, for the time being, I don't plan to release the source of the program. So in the picture there are no circles.

Objective 6: build a community of Nomignolov users.

Here the circle is a double solid line. This means that the people are in contact with one another. In objective 2, the group has a solid interest in Nomignolov, but here the interest is shared among members of the group. What does it mean in practice is far from sure. The community could emerge spontaneously, but the drawing suggests that Nomignolov has an active part on it. The community could be a newsgroup, a forum, a site dedicated, etc.

The origin of the mascot

2008-01-24T23:04:00.000+01:00

I present here the pictures that were ancestors of the mascot of Nomignolov you saw in the previous post.

Next time I'll explain the meaning of the pictures! I can't help diluting the contents of the blog... Anyway the pictures come from a used page, so you can't say Nomignolov is not environment-friendly!

Moustache

2008-01-18T18:30:00.001+01:00

This post is just to say that I'm working on Nomignolov 1.3, which will come before spring!

Also, I'm working on more articles!!

And finally, the picture is not pure nonsense, and it has more to do with Nomignolov than you expect, as I'll explain in future posts!!!

Cibilimny and Nomignolov

2008-01-09T00:09:00.001+01:00

Hello to all and Happy New Year!!!

I wrote a short article about Cibilimny. It is a simple puzzle game which is fun to play. I wrote the Lua script for Nomignolov, which will come with the next version of the program.

Of course you can't wait till the next version, so I uploaded a test release which you can try here. Warning: this is intended only to try Cibilimny! I have to work more on the program! You can download Nomignolov's last version 1.2 "Benbow"from the button at the right.

All the info about Cibilimny, including the game rules, could be found in this article. And for your pleasure, I append here two screenshots of the game.

I hope you like this game. After all it's just a test: my mother and my sister will test it a lot more before the next version of Nomignolov :-) And anyway, it's free!

I have some more Nomignolov related ideas to try in the next months, and I plan to release Version 1.3 as well. What can I add? It's easy: try it! play with it! explore it! write scripts! collaborate! spread the word about Nomignolov! ... I accept suggestions and contributions of any kind.

Nomv 1.2.0.7

2007-12-18T19:51:00.000+01:00

In recent posts I wrote about some experiments I made with Nomignolov. In particular, I implemented two simultaneous games (Intervalo and FootSteps) and even a small utility (an editor for Sliding Block Puzzles).

I am writing Nomignolov version 1.3, but it won't be ready too soon. I wished to post an intermediate version that you can download here. This beta version has a simple variants management. I disabled a new button for repeated games, which will be enabled next time (it's already functional, but quite wild). And it runs fullscreen (in version 1.3 this will be an option). And of course it has the scripts mentioned above.

Download it if you dare. Anyway, the current stable version is still available here.

Sliding block puzzles

2007-12-11T20:39:00.001+01:00

Here you can download a short document where I explained how it is possible to add puzzles to Nomignolov (and this is not news) and also little utilities!

In fact here is a Lua script that let you edit Sliding block puzzles and save them in little txt files. And this other script reads such files and let you slide pieces, in the traditional Nomignolov graphics (the image represents the famous Forget-me-not puzzle):

How it is possible to have a single script and to manage a lot of different puzzles with it? I added in the script a vector with the variants. In this case the variants are the txt filenames, but in general this vector could list different game's mode.

The editor should run in Nomignolov version 1.2 Benbow, while the puzzle needs the get_variant() function. Anyway, I plan to release an unofficial release packed with these goods in a week or so. In the meanwhile, happy reading Sliding block puzzles and Nomignolov!

FootSteps and Nomignolov

2007-11-24T16:12:00.000+01:00

Well, well, well, it's raining contents! Here you can download a document I wrote about the tournament of FootSteps at BEER, the rule of the game, and how I used Nomignolov to help me find the best algorithm between the lot I thought of.

Here you can download document about Intervalo, the previous tournament, updated with the results.

This time I included some combinatorial counts about FootSteps, which you can easily skip if you are not interested, or you can enjoy if you are!

The algorithm I sent, Random Fractor, came 3rd in a tournament of 9! What a glory :-)

FootSteps and Nomignolov (and this blog)

2007-11-10T12:37:00.000+01:00

On the 18th of November another call for algorithms at Bits En El Ring (site in Spanish) will be over. This time the tournament will be about FootSteps, a little bidding game. You can play FootSteps online at vygames.

Like for the previous tournament of Intervalo, I used Nomignolov to test some algorithms and to help me decided which one was the best. And like the other time, I wrote an article with the whole story, hoping that someone will find it inspiring to use my program for misc abstract games activities! Unfortunately, but for obvious reasons, I can't publish it here before the deadline!!! :-)

I have not a lot of success in selecting a strong algorithms for BEER, but indeed I have a lot of fun!

Recently I added a counter in this blog from StatCounter. I started making some advs to my project (forum Lua, usenet rec.games.abstract, SDL site)...

I think that the current version, 1.2 "Benbow", is "complete": the goal stated in the blog's title (...provides a user interface to play at any abstract strategy game described...) is reached. Nomignolov has a lot of features, and is potentially a very interesting project.

I don't have a todo-list for version 1.3 (codename is secret!), but I have a lot of ideas. Anyway it seams to me quite pointless to add features that no-one will ever use... So, for the time being, I'll use Nomignolov instead of develop it. The resulting stories of my experiences will be summarized here and presented in the form of pdf files. Inevitably, I fear I'll include some boring mathematical details, but that I find interesting, and some Lua code.

If you have a comment on how this project could be handled, write it here or to me. And remember that collaborations (see this old but actual post) are always wellcome! My mail at yahoo.com is "JeanM_M".

Intervalo and Nomignolov

2007-10-11T19:45:00.000+02:00

Contents!

I wrote the details of how Nomignolov was used to select the best algorithm for the Intervalo tournament. You can download the pdf here.

You can download the files Intervalo.lua and Intervalo_algoritmos.lua. Copy them in your Nomignolov directory and update the file GamesList.csv accordingly.

BEER

2007-10-03T19:28:00.000+02:00

Thanks to juegosdeingenio.org, I discovered bitsenelring.blogspot.com (BEER); both sites are in Spanish.

BEER runs contests of algorithms. The owner, Marcos D., describes a game, allows people to send algorithms that choose a move from any given position, and then makes the war begin. Each algorithm plays 100 games with any other algorithms, gaining 1 point for each algorithm it defeats more than 50 times.

I love the idea, and I hope one day people will compete to find the best "LUA_AI" for abstract games implemented in Nomignolov!

I decided to compete for the current game ("Intervalo"). With the help of Nomignolov. Together with my sister, we thought of 11 different algorithms, and I used Nomignolov to see which one was our strongest warrior.

It was a bit tricky, because:

players in Intervalo move simultaneusly;
the algorithms choose a move instead of evaluating a position;
Nomignolov does not support repeated games at present.

At the end I was able to select one algorithm (it was one of my sisters') and sent it.

More details later, but the big news is that Nomignolov started doing what it was designed for: study abstract games and collect data (still, someone may use it to play...).

Nomv 1.2 "Benbow"

2007-10-03T19:12:00.001+02:00

Mesdames et Messieurs, voilà Nomignolov 1.2 "Benbow"!

The single most interesting new feature of this version is the possibility to play via internet, with a client-server architecture! Also, Nomignolov provides a chat box, useful to exchange messages to the other player and to display information about the net game.

I made some adjustment to the graphics, adding a few controls to the GUI, and display some more graphics buttons, etc.

I couldn't resist, and I added a new game... Sicic, of course!

Sicic's skies

2007-09-16T00:28:00.001+02:00

I made a printable page with 12 squared boards (8x8). The boards are Sicic's skies, so you lack just a standard chess or checker set to play the game. The file pdf is here and here (Italian version).

I really like Sicic, even if it is a tactical and short game. I couldn't help adding it to Nomignolov. Don't worry! The next version will follow soon!

Sicic

2007-07-08T02:41:00.000+02:00

Sicic is a game for two. Each player guides a group of Astronomers, aiming at copying the opponent’s Constellation. Sicic is played on two 8 × 8 squared boards, named the Earth and the Sky. Each player has 4 pieces that move on the Earth (the Astronomers) and 4 pieces to be placed in the Sky (the Stars). The Stars are the player’s Constellation. There are three phases: the Afternoon, the Evening and the Night. One of the player will be the first to move in every phase of the game.

the game

In the Afternoon, players alternate placing one Astronomer at a time on the Earth, on an empty square. In the Evening, players alternate placing one Star at a time in the Sky, on an empty square. In the Night, each player must move one of his Astronomer every turn.
The Astronomer can move in a direct line in every direction, any number of unoccupied squares.
He must land in an unoccupied square.
The Astronomer may choose not to move, in order to “pinch” one of the opponent’s Astronomers set in a neighbouring square. The result of a pinch is that the pinched Astronomer must move in the next turn. Moreover, it is forbidden to the opponent, in the second next turn, to pinch an Astronomer that occupies the abandoned square.

winning

The winner is the first player who manages to place his Astronomers in the same way as the opponent’s Stars. Translations, reflections and rotations are allowed. Also, a player can win by pinching an Astronomer that is not able to move.

a problem

The player with black Astronomers moves, and wins in his next move (the first board is the Sky, and the second is the Earth):

more info

Sicic is latin for "stellae inerrantes caeli imitatio consequi".
Stars are fixed, so paper and pencil could be used for the Sky and the Stars. Change the number of Stars and Astronomers, the shape and size of the board, to get simple game’s variants.
Sicic was invented by Jean Manuel Morales between June and July 2007. He hopes the game is original and fun to play.

Rules of Sicic in English.
Regole di Sicic in italiano.

Nomv 1.1 "Agilulfo"

2007-03-27T00:10:00.000+02:00

Time is ripe for yet another Nomignolov version. From now on, all new versions will have a code-name, rather than a version number. You can download Nomv 1.1 "Agilulfo" here.

What's new in this version? I focused on the player experience.

Threads. Now Minimax runs on a separate thread. This mean that you can do a number of things while Nomv is thinking: you can stop it, tell it to hurry up (with the button with the exclamation mark), browse the list of moves, move the window, etc.

Lines on board. From the Lua script it's now possible to draw colorful lines on the board. This may seems a trivial feature, but just try to play Hex oblivious of what sides you should connect... I made use of simple line in Wari and Diffusion to divide the board in half.

Highlighted cells. Via the Lua code, it's now possible to "highlight" some cells. This feature comes in handy when you want to make clear what was the last click. Try compare the game 3verse with/without this feature. Cells can be de/re-highlighted thanks to the button with the nice highlighter mark.

Puzzles. I made the promise I would not add a new game until someone else* does. So I added 3 puzzles, just for fun. Nomv solves the problem of 8 queens in a board and a magic square of order 4. I made it solve the problem of the knight's tour using Warnsdorf's heuristic. It needs near one hour to solve the puzzle, but if you keep clicking the button with the exclamation mark it's faster :-)

*the pdf manual is included. Lua is a beautiful language. This is not a subliminal footnote...

Nomv 1.0.1.7

2007-02-10T04:06:00.000+01:00

This release of Nomv, with it's strange version number, just fixes some bugs from version 1.0.

I had to modify the API, in order to achieve a bit more consistency. I've updated the documentation accordingly. Now every function "some_function" in the API deals with the cells using their names (i.e. "a1", "b15"). And every function has a twin "id_some_function" which deals with cells using their number (i.e. 1, 16). I modified all the scripts, but it is worth doing, since now I feel that the API is a lot more consistent.

So, this is the latest official release! Download Nomv 1.0.1.7, unzip, play, read the documentation, write scripts, ...

Some links

2007-02-10T02:41:00.000+01:00

Nomignolov is about abstract strategy games. You can add a new game for two or more players, a puzzle just for one player, and even a cellular automaton (one player without choise).

Here are some links with information about the scripts that come with Nomignolov.
You can find a lot of material in The World of Abstract Games, by João Pedro Neto. For instance, about Dao and Entropy along with a hundreds of others!.

Of course there is always the Wikipedia, for instance with information about Conways' Soldiers, Tablut and Hex.

Information about Diffusion can be found on the site of its creator Mark Steere, along with all his others games.

You can play a lot of abstract games via e-mail just with a free subscription to Richard's Server, where you can find the rules of a lot of games. For Wari, I used the rules found there.

I don't think there's need for information about Tic tac toe or the game of the 14-15 (the 15 puzzle) by Sam Loyd. And maybe you don't know yet about 3verse, so go and discover.

Screenshots of Version 1

2007-02-09T23:23:00.000+01:00

It is time to add some new screen shots of Nomignolov. This is an update of the old post showing how Nomignolov looked like in the ancient age.

First of all, the splash screen (I'm so proud of it!!):

Then, the image of the main menu, where the list of games is shown:

When you select a game, appears a menu with hopefully useful information about the game: rules, how to move, etc. The current player(s) can be changed via the option button "Change":

And now two games. The first one is Wari.

The second is Hex. This is the outcome of a randomly generated game. I wonder whether this will be a surrogate for a heads or tails round. At least, it doesn't seem a very unfair coin...

I know you hanker after more images like these. As usual, just download Nomv!

Nomv 1.0

2006-12-07T00:02:00.000+01:00

Here it is, for your pleasure, Nomv 1.0!!!

Scripts. From version 0.8 to version 1.0 I focused on defining a standard for writing scripts to add new games. The zip contains the file Nomignolov_manual.pdf with complete information about the scripts: from the general structure to the coding details. The documentation is updated and I'm not going to make changes to the way scripts are used by Nomv. So you can finally take the manual, study it and add new games!

GUI. I've worked on the GUI, which now has a name (WON). It's nearly a stand alone library, which I will use for a simple utility program (more info to come!).

Misc. Lots of other things! I'm working on the code every time I can, and try to make things better. This version is not perfect, but I think it's enough to become 1.0. If you have any comments about my program, please let me know!

Get involved!

2006-11-29T15:51:00.000+01:00

Nomignolov 1.0 is coming in a few days! Moreover, December the first will be one year since when I started programming it, so I think it's the right time for other people to join the fun!

There are many ways in which you can help Nomv to grow. I'll list here a few, but you can be more imaginative!

Download Nomignolov and use it! Any comments and suggestions will be useful for future versions and improvements!
Write Lua scripts so to add new games! This is not so easy, because you will need to learn to program in Lua. Anyway, there are 10 scripts with Version 1.0 and a pdf document which explains in details the process of adding a new game. During the development of Nomv, I've changed the structure of the scripts many times, but from Version 1.0 I will take them as standard. Be the first to write a Lua script for a new game!
Spread the word about Nomv! The more people will play with it, the greater the chance that someone write new games.
Translate the documentation in your language, and keep it in your site with a link to Nomv. I have no time to keep the documentation updated in both Italian and English, so I chose the latter. Again, refer to Version 1.0, and let me know.
Help me with the blog! I updated a little it's appearance, but I wish to do a lot more: add surveys to see what people think about Nomv, which games they like/would like to see, what features will be fancy for the new releases, etc. And to manage/present new games submitted by fans, making links to rules, explains them briefly, etc.
Help me with the GUI. I don't plan to release the source code of Nomv right now, even if it's something I plan to do for the future. Instead, I made the GUI of Nomv nearly completely indipendent. When I'll end this, I plan to release the GUI (which is C++ and works with SDL) as a free library, so you can expand and improve it.

Show me what you can do!

Nomv 0.8

2006-10-02T22:30:00.000+02:00

A new version of Nomignolov: download it here!

More games. In this new version I added two more games: Hex and Tablut. I don't plan to add more games, but I'll focus on the code to write them. I'm starving to see scripts written by others. In version 0.9 I'll add a lot of auxiliary and API functions, so it will be a lot easier to add a new games.

Documentation. The English and the Italian documentation is updated with this version. Nomignolov_manual.pdf and Nomignolov_manuale.pdf are in the Nomv folder.

AI. Even if AI is not the main goal for this program (the main goal is to provide an interface), I played with minimax algorithm and now the program can play to a certain degree. In many games it's not strong, and in some games is too slow. I think that it plays well at Dao and at Wari.

Game info. For players too lazy to hunt for games rules, I added games information in the scripts. So now it's possible to read something about the game directly from Nomv.

As I said, I plan to release version 1 sometime around December.

Nomv 0.7.4.1

2006-08-18T18:05:00.000+02:00

For this intermediate version I focused on the GUI (it's the "terrible GUI update" I wrote on the previous post).

I'm trying to separate Nomignolov from the GUI. By doing this I hope I could reuse the GUI to write some small utility programs for Nomv or completely different things. My idea is eventually to publish the GUI's sources.

The AI is still very weak. It analyses a fixed number of moves ahead for every game. To speed it up a bit (a lot), it looks ahead at each node with probability 0.5. I plan to work on the algorithm so that the number of moves depends on the branching factor of the game's tree, and on the time granted by the user.

I still need to update the documentation.

Nomv 0.7.4.1 is here.

It's time for this tired programmers to have an holiday, so I'll be visiting Budapest and other near places for the next two weeks (not that this blog is fast paced enough to need such an announcement!).

Logo

2006-08-13T18:48:00.000+02:00

Ta-da! The new logo!

I'll add another post with the rules of 3verse, one of the new game of version 0.7.

By the way, version 0.7 is in reality just version "0.6.7.2 (beta) 06/08/2k6". Anyway I'm writing a terrible GUI update, which I hope it will be ready by the end of next week.

3verse

2006-08-13T17:58:00.000+02:00

the game

3verse is a game for two players. The action takes place on a board of 8x8 squares. The first player owns pieces X, the second player owns pieces O.

At the beginning of the game, each player has two pieces on opposite corners, a sufficient number of pieces and two marks off board.

Players drop one pieces and move his two marks at a time. Who move last is the winner.

the move

The moving player removes his marks from the board, if any.

He chooses one of his pieces already on the board. We will call it the anchor. Then he drops his first mark in an empty square in the same row or in the same column of the anchor. Then he drops his last mark in an empty square in the same row or in the same column of his first mark, but not in the same row or in the same column of the anchor. Then he drops one of his off board pieces in an empty square in the same row or in the same column of his last mark, but not in the same row or in the same column of his first mark.

There can't be any pieces (X, O, or other player's marks) between the anchor and the first mark, between the first and the last mark, between the last mark and the dropped piece.

Here are 3 moves:

other info

I call the path between the anchor and the dropped piece a 3verse', because squares are alligned in three consecutive lines. In the game, you reach the dropping piece with a 3verse. Using k-1 marks, k = 0, 1, ..., you can play kverse.

3verse was invented by me between July and August 2006. I hope the game is new, easy and fun.

Nomv 0.7

2006-08-06T18:31:00.000+02:00

An update, at last!

What's new:
- Simple minimax
- New games: Diffusion, 14-15, 3verse
- Review a played game
- other things.

Download it here.

Documentation is not updated...

In a couple of day I'll add a post with the rules of "3verse", a very simple game invented by me on july. I hope it's really new!

Thanks to Matt who noticed the bug, now Nomv will run on Windows XP with Service Pack 2.

I've realized that december the first will be the first birthday of Nomv, so I must work hard and publish version 1 by then!

About Nomv's short term future

2006-05-27T01:53:00.000+02:00

My program is an hobby project. Nomv (hey, that's Nomignolov in brief!) is nearly completed. The program I had in mind can:

display a board in any shape or form;
let a human move pieces in the board according to game rules;
generate a random game according to game rules;
let anybody add a new game (and provide relevant documentation);
be download from the internet.

Well, I think Nomv 0.6 (beta) is that program! Version 1 will be nearly the same as this one, probably just with a nicer GUI, some more games, a well-kept documentation. But I need some feedback to do this (and maybe some help).

AI. Nomv doesn't have any AI and in the short term I don't plan to add one. My dream is to write, in the long term future, a general AI that make Nomignolov capable of playing at any given game better than with random moves. And this is not easy!

Script AI. In theory it's possible to write an AI for any game in the script. The function "list_moves" could check if it's up to the pc to move. In this case, the list of moves would be studied, and the function could return only the better one. In the near future I plan to add an optional function in the script that select the better move from the list. From Nomv it will be possible to choose among "Human", "Random" or "Script AI".

Linux. Nomv will be compiled for Linux soon.

Credits and help. In the near future I plan to add some optional variable to game scripts: the name of the game's inventor; a game description and some rules of how to move. I'll display this information in Nomv.

Download Nomignolov 0.6 (beta)

2006-05-27T01:32:00.000+02:00

New version of Nomignolov is ready for download!
The real change in this version is not visible: I simplified the way to write scripts. Boards are now in absolute coordinates. For example, the first square of a tic tac toe board has coordinates (1, 1), and the last has coordinates (3, 3). Nomignolov rearrange the coordinates in pixel space.
I rewrote the scripts with all variables named in English, and added some comments, etc.
Nomignolov is still a beta version. This means that, if you find a bug, or have any criticism, suggestion, opinion, etc, you should tell me. This is as simple as leaving here a comment or writing a mail me: "jean" and ".morales" and "@" and "tiscali" and ".it".

Some screenshots

2006-05-02T21:19:00.000+02:00

Some screenshots from Nomignolov 0.5. It starts by showing a splash-screen (click to enlarge):

Here's the list of available games:

Here's during a Wari game:

And finally a finished Entropy game:

If you like to see more images like these on your pc, download Nomignolov and try it :-)

Nomignolov goes multilingual!

2006-05-01T22:37:00.000+02:00

You can now download Nomignolov (still version 0.5) with a multilingual support. The documentation is both in English and in Italian. The documentation comes in two pdf files (English and Italian). The pdf files are proofs: I plan to re-read them carefully. Anyway they have all the most important informations and explains how to add a game.
You can change the language of Nomignolov from English (the default) to Italian simply by changing a line in Prefs.lua. With the same system it's possible to add more languages, by writing Lang_foo.lua.
Now scripts for a game must have English functions (like get_pieces, make_move, etc).
This post was written in a hurry. More to come.

Download Nomignolov 0.5

2006-04-25T17:35:00.000+02:00

Nomignolov 0.5 is downloadable!
Just unpack it in a single folder. It doesn't require installation.
This is still a beta release. It's only in Italian, but the way to play may be quite obvious (or you can use internet to learn some Italian words...).
By the way, "Nomignolov" it's just the Italian word "nomignolo" (which means "nickname") with a "v" at the end, to mimic a Russian name...

Nomignolov is online!

2006-04-25T16:39:00.000+02:00

This is the first house of Nomignolov!
Nomignolov is a program that provides a user interface to play at any boardgame described with a Lua script. At present Nomignolov (version 0.5) lets you play at:

Dao
Entropy
Conway's Soldiers
Tic tac toe
Wari

Nomignolov doesn't have an AI of any kind, so if you let it play, it just moves at random.
Nomignolov is quite a young project, as I've been working on it for only a few hours a week during the past four months.
It comes with a close documentation on how to add a new game. At present it's only in Italian, but I plan to translate it.