SGGS Revisited

Summary: I revamped my gemini game server, so even if you tried it before, you may want to give it a go now:

A couple of years ago, I wrote SGGS, a system for playing turn-based games over gemini, primarily as an experiment in using streaming to support synchronous play. But it didn't see much use, and I accepted it as an essentially failed experiment.

Now, with the success of Bubble demonstrating that it is entirely possible to implement complex interactive systems within the strictures of gemini, I thought to revisit it and examine the reasons for its failure. With Bubble's to compare it to, the interface felt decidedly clunky. I had taken terseness to its extreme, avoiding redirects and always writing as few lines as possible, even when this sacrificed understandability and ease of navigation. The result was a confusing experience, especially on graphical clients. Worst, the user was sometimes expected to intuit that they should navigate up and refresh, even though directly refreshing at the wrong time could lead to unintentional actions.

Meanwhile, the lack of notifications meant it was too easy to forget to check if it's your turn in a game.

So, I put some effort into reworking the interface and adding various convenience features, including email notifications and a gemsub feed, as well as the option to disable streaming for those clients, like amfora, which can't handle it. The sum effect is, I hope, that the system is now reasonably easy to use and understand. Let me know if not!

I also added a couple of new games:

3d-majority: a neat little obscure abstract strategy game by the late Bill Taylor

pente: a nice tactical gomoku-like.

Feel free to suggest other games you'd like to see added.