I wonder where that would fall on this scale? 
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I’ve clicked thousands of pass buttons, but when I saw the go stone fly from the bowl to indicate my opponent passing, I tried to pass back by clicking on my bowl like 10 times before finding the button for that 
Maybe it would be nice for first players if it was possible to pass by clicking your bowl and then approving a “you sure you want to pass?” message?
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Alrighty, I think I fixed the having to reload sometimes thing for real this time. Do let me know @jlt and anyone else if you are still seeing it though of course, and thanks for the testing!
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This app is very well made! The language and animations are very friendly!
But there are some improvements possible.
The initial image is interesting, but on my laptop it extends above the top and below the bottom, so it is not clear that it is bouncing (as opposed to simply behaving erratically). Some additional animation (a smile and body movements) as done in typical cell phone games like Juice Jam would be very welcome.
The lessons start very seriously with counting liberties. If I were designing an app, I would start with a “real” simulated board to play with, and I’d encourage placing stones by clicking and seeing what happens. Sometimes (appropriately) stones would be captured and removed from the board, using animation. Sometimes the stones would simply remain. The estimated (calculated) score of each side could be shown in large numerals. The child could “play” like this as long as they wish before clicking a button to start the lessons. This way they don’t have to start with thinking, if they don’t want to, just trying out clicking on the board to see what happens. This is what I would want to do, first thing, as a child.
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Could you send me a screenshot by chance? I’d like to get that fixed up.
The play section is really cool and I liked it.
I thought the “learn” section had too many words and was written at too high of a level. I find it kind of difficult to imagine a kid enjoying reading through a definitions of liberties, atari, etc. If you’re able to reduce the amount of definitions and density of text (i.e. difficult words like “interstellar”), it’s much more enjoyable.
I really think it’s possible to teach kids go without diving into the proper terminology. Learn by “doing” as opposed to learn by “defining”.
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No. The initial image only appears once. Reloading the home page fails to show the initial image at all. So no screenshot can be taken. You’ll have to create a version that just shows the initial image, nothing else. Then I can try running it in different browsers. Or you can use an online multiple-browser testing tool yourself.
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I played around on Kids Go Server! and liked it.
Also stumbled on some things while doing so.
Here is my feedback:
- in the lesson about liberties the text seems incomplete?
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suggestions for lessons 6-8: seki, semeai, snapback and handicap.
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a sound off/on option is missing (especially parents might like their kids to use this option.)
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a fancy icon for desktop? Think kids will like that.
- some more info when you challenge an opponent (Kids to play) might be fine.
Is my challenge gone if I click the X?
Is my opponent uberhaupt on line?
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sign in procedure is not intuitive to me, looped?
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chat: no free chat option?
(only pre entered options now) -
how about a link to OGS?
Thanks for creating this kids go server!
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Pretty sure that one’s intentional.
I think the sign in seems to mainly load your name/avatar from a code, but you probably remain signed in unless you clear data. You could try a private tab/window for comparison and then sign in with the code it generates.
I feel like it’s confusing if you expect more from it, and I suppose it’s not easy to tell that you are actually signed in. Otherwise seems ok.
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A little bit more feedback
Lesson 1:
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confusing to use whammo white and pulsar pink in combination with Black and White.
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here is a period missing
(Introduction of captured stones concept?)
Lesson 3:
- talking about Black and showing aboard with white and blue stones is confusing.
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On the subject of overly descriptive go teaching for kids, I present an analogy of a music teacher on their first lesson to a class of 10-year olds:
“Music is the artful arrangement of pitches and rhythms in measured space. A pitch is the vibration of air at an empirically determined harmonic frequency, such as the note A at 440 hertz. Regular multiples of a certain note (220 Hz, 110 Hz) are the same pitch but a different octave. In Western music, division of an octave into twelve equal steps creates a chromatic scale. The Ionian modality uses seven of the chromatic notes and constitutes a major scale. Now class, let’s play twinkle twinkle little star on the recorder.”
— In essence, teaching someone to play music is distinct from attempting to teach someone to understand it. Arguably, you don’t need to fully understand something in order to play it, or even best be able to enjoy it.
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Perfect would be Go tutorial without words
so, even alien would be able to understand it 
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I wouldn’t expect young kids to learn the rules from scratch on the internet anyway. More likely someone would explain them basics of the rules and tell them to go to that website.
Which doesn’t mean the tutorial is useless. But maybe one short sentence for each picture would be better.
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I wonder if it would be cool if there was a counting animation at the end of the game. Kind of like this one on clubhouse games (othello). Since it’s AGA rules, you could technically do area counting (fill in all the territory automatically then count stones). Or any kind of scoring system counting animation might unmask the often confusing-for-beginners mystery of how go is counted at the end of games.
I think as a beginner it’s also hard to know when games should end. Maybe it’s taboo/untraditional to have a talking bot, but I feel like a bot saying “I don’t know where else to play anymore” (or a variety of different prescripted lines) and then passing can make it easier for someone to understand what’s happening or why your opponent passed. Go is rather unusual among board games for passing => end game.
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Some would say it comes with the territory. (ba dum tsh)
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We decided to go with Blue and White for the colors, and change all references to Black to be Blue. We do plan to have someone record the lessons so there will be audio as well. Hopefully having the lessons read will ease the learning process for young kids.
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I want to be able to see my game history.
What if I want to review it with my teacher/parents or show it off to my friends?
Perhaps also have a level up system? Like play x amount of games and you get exp to level up like an rpg. This encourages more play. Then maybe hats for higher levels?
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Browser history, bookmark, copy the link are probably the current options unless it’s updated.
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Hey Shawn, we are hoping to implement some features like that in phase two.
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