fastr
Scott Reynen sent me the link to his flickr-based game last month and I am only just now getting around to posting it.
fastr is a multiplayer guess-the-image-tag game similar to the previously reviewed single-player, Guess-the-Google. Instead, this game makes use of the flickr API to create a well-designed and enjoyable multiplayer experience, and one that can be rather addictive when a sharp group of people are playing with you.
Just enter a nickname and join in the fun immediately. As images are displayed one-by-one, type your guesses into the text field provided for the tag that you think links all of the images together. With each image displayed beyond the first, 1 point is deducted from the score you will receive if guessed correctly.
Each round lasts for 5 minutes with a visible timer counting down the seconds. A list of players and their scores are updated on-the-fly as the game is played.
Very nice, and lots of fun. Thanks Scott, and sorry for the delay in posting this. Click.
Also, for anyone interested, Scott has made an API available for anyone interested in extending or augmenting the functionality of fastr.
It would be nice if Scott was able to filter the names that people enter to avoid profanity and obscenities from those still too immature to handle civility.
Yeah, that'd be really good.
But I love the concept. I even like that you can't register -- that way, no one can really dominate, unless you become kind of known in the game for being really good (using the same nickname repeatedly).
It's a lot of fun, with a competitive element that wasn't evident in Guess-the-google.
It also reminded me somewhat of Peekaboom.
Can someone explain how the timing and scoring works? The timer doesn't just count down but it jumps now and then, and so does the score...
Otherwise a nice game :)
Coditor - your score is not based upon the time, it's based on how many images have been displayed for the current set.
Each set of images relates to a single tag, the word you guess by entering text into the field above the images.
The highest score you can achieve for each set of images is 10, that is if you guess the correct word after seeing the first image only.
The round is 5 minutes (displayed as seconds) which counts down to zero. At which time the current game ends (final) and a new game begins in about 10 seconds. When a new game begins, everyone's score is reset to zero (0).
Does that help? =)
The game could benefit from a (much) larger dictionary from which to pull tags. It feels a little like cheating once you play for a while and begin to recognize the same images popping up again.
The problem I found is that some of the answers are spelled incorrectly. i.e. lightening (my guess) = lightning.
But overall, I like the concept.
Love this game, only needs a couple of tweeks to make it truely rockin'. First, I noticed a bug with repeated games, ie two things for "glasses" back to back. You don't get any point for answering correctly the second time. Second, it def needs some chat functionality.
hey guys...try changing you name halfway. You virtually take over the other guy's place
the thing with the first one going twice seems to be for late commers
I still don't really get the scoring - it seems like there are 2 scores?
Jay,
Thanks for your reply. I did understand the method of scoring (amount of images left to be displayed), but the scores that are displayed in the left column and behind my name change when the time jumps from eg. 143 to 197 ...
YES
finaly i won with 64 points
took forever
great game JAY
I notice that the counter doesnt seem to be working.
It reads 287, 286, 285, 284, 287, etc.
Also, most of the time it doesnt show the scores of the people playing, only those of what I assume to be previous players.
At the end of each set of pictures the score blinks to those of the current players for a moment, and you can tell the round ends and a new begins from time to time this way.
I assume an error occured some time ago, and the game needs to be reset...
This game is addicting. I felt so good for getting in the #1 spot a few times during a run, but then again, it *was* like 10:30pm...and then I got distracted by the cute little pygmy marmoset...
http://flickr.com/photos/12355785@N00/74884884/
Which brings me to point out that perhaps the handy little links below the picture should open up a new window when you click on them? And then you could open up your favorite pictures, but still play the game and look at the pictures later? Just a thought...
Hi Carolyn, depending on the browser you're using, there are various methods of accomplishing what you want to do.
For example, if you right click the link a pop-up menu should appear giving you the ability to open the link in a new window.
Firefox allows you to set what happens when you ctrl-click on a link, such as opening a new window or creating a new tab.
Does that help?
The timer and scoreboard don't work properly for me in IE or Opera, but do work in Firefox.
OK that was my problem! Why do I use IE??? UGH
You gotta be careful if you play this at work... the 1st game I played had boobies!
i really like this game. its really fun. it just can be really confusing at times.
Update