Intermittent Game Freeze Bug

There has been a problem which I have experienced and reports of similar issues from users regarding occasional freezing of the game. I have made some changes that have hopefully fixed the problem and I have not been able to reproduce the bug since. Any errors can be reported through the Feedback page on the site.

If the problem persists it is possible to continue the game simply by refreshing the browser - reloading the site. The game will be restored to the last save instance.

New Bug Fixes

It seems somewhere along the way, after the mobile phone responsive layout was added the main menu for the standard site no longer displayed the 'Back To Game' link when a user went to any other page. That bug has been fixed.

Have had some feedback recently describing game freeze issues. I noticed some flaws in the game storage and retrieval from cookies code. I made some improvements to that code to try and make it more bullet proof. In my lastest tests I could not reproduce the game freeze bug. So far the improvements seem to have helped.

Cookies are only stored for 1 week. Any time you visit the site after that your game and options are reset.

Game Speed Bug Fix

It turns out the option to change the speed of the game was not being stored properly. You could change the speed of the game but if you left the site and came back your speed option was reset to medium. That bug has now been fixed. It should be noted that cookies are only stored for 1 week so if you are away from the game for more than a week your options will be reset and your automatically saved game will be deleted.

New Hearts Mobile Responsive Design

The single player hearts website has been updated with a mobile responsive design. Now if you visit the exact same site on most phones you should find an updated layout with a larger menu placed underneath the game area and the cards in your own hand will be much larger, as well as labels and messages. I have also added a player name highlighting feature to make it more obvious who's turn it is and more notably, when it's your turn.

I soon hope to add this feature to the multi-player site as well.

Keep sending in your comments, bug notices and ideas. You will often find responses and answers to questions in the blog.

New Automatic Playout Feature

A new automatic playout feature has been added to the Hearts Multi Online Player version which will skip the remaining tricks and go directly to the end of hand summary in the event that there are no more point cards left to be captured or the player that captured the most recent trick will capture all remaining tricks regardless of the order in which they play their remaining cards. This is not the same thing as a 'lay down', when a player can capture all remaining tricks but must play them in a specific order to do so.

This should speed up the game a little bit and keep it more exciting.

Hearts Variations

I recently received some feedback regarding the possibility of playing different rule variations on the site such as:

• Black maria
• Partnership hearts
• Spot hearts
• Cancellation hearts

Keep sending in your ideas and I will pick the most popular rule variations and work on implementing them.

Development is currently focused on the multi online player version so it is quite likely that rule variations might be implemented there first. Hopefully we can build up a large enough online hearts community that it would be worthwhile to create a system for online tournaments.

Multi Online Player Version Beta Release

You can now play the hearts game against other players online. You have to create a free account, then you can join games or start your own. Your game stats are tracked in 4 categories: Most wins, most points, best win percentage and most moon shots.

The points system awards 4 points for a win (including ties), 2 points for second place (including ties) and 1 point for third place; to any players who's scores do not exceed 100.

If you reach exactly 100 points your score goes back to 0.