ODTUG APEX Gaming Competition - How'd They Do It? (Part 2)

At Kscope 15 this year we launched the first ever ODTUG APEX game competition. The APEX community responded with 15 entries! Each and every one of them left me thinking "How'd they do that?" So, let's find out more about the games and those who wrote them.

Next up is Jari Laine.

First off, tell me a little about yourself.

My name is Jari Laine, Senior BI Specialist working on Tieto.
Twitter: @jariolai
Blog: http://jaris.blogsite.org/apex/f?p=BLOG

How many years of APEX experience do you have?

Almost 10 years.

What motivated you to participate in the APEX Gaming Competition?

I have long time think make some game with APEX (card game or Yatzy). I have seen years ago, quite nice games created on APEX e.g. Chess and Reversi, witch did give me idea to make also some game with APEX This competition was final "push" to actual make game using APEX.

What is the name of your game?

Yatzy

Briefly describe your game.

Solitaire dice game similar to Yacht and Yahtzee.

After each roll, the player chooses which dice to keep, and which to reroll. A player may reroll some or all of the dice up to two times on a turn. The player must put a score or zero into a score box each turn. The game ends when all score boxes are used.

How long did it take you to develop your games?

I didn't track time spend. Rough estimate could be 3-4 working days.

What was the most challenging element of your game design and how did you overcome it?

I'm not good with themes and CSS. I did decide create custom theme, and it was hard to get it working to different browsers and mobile device.

First I did make game on APEX 4.2 and then tested it with APEX 5. Game did work but I was very disappointed to find out that button request from PL/SQL expression, function or SQL query was deprecated in APEX 5. WHY????? That was useful option!

Alright, how can I play?

https://apex.oracle.com/pls/apex/f?p=53139 Just enter player name.

Anything else you'd like to add?

I did create Yatzy because I like play that game for real. Game idea is quite simple. I hope someday add more features to game.

Thanks, Jari for giving us a peek under the covers. In the coming days we'll share more insight into the other games that were part of the contest.

...our journey continues