ASR Integration on Beta 1.4, Game reviewing and Game Negotiation.

This past week was packed with a lot of action again. This weeks 200 account release was over in 3 hours! Faster than any other release.

And it was a breeze. There was absolutely no lag, marking for us a milestone since the Beta release.
We are technically ready to open up for more and more users.

The great number of users and games has given us a huge amount of feedback. The Tweaki has grown into a 7 headed-Hydra and we are cutting heads as quickly as we can :).

As we improve the quality and reliability of the server, there are a few features in the vecinity.


Two of the most missed features on Kaya right now are the ability to quickly set up a game review, and  being able to pre-set handicap before a game.

They are both in the making and they will be included in the near Future, so be patient about it :).


However, today we are releasing an new feature. Collaborating with the ASR League, specially with founder Stalkor, we have set up an integration of the league into the server.

Starting a league game is extremely easy to do, and the reporting is done automatically. Game rules are enforced, and only other league members are able to accept an ASR game challenge. Of course, you can also pick who you want to play specifically in the league.

Right now there is only one group as this is very new and the first run of the integration. You can quickly sign up by sending a pm to stalkor or to other league admins on the ASR channel.
There are more detailed instructions in the server,  including links with more information.

Server improvements and further account releasing

Last week some famous Kaya users accompanied me in an all-niter i pulled last  Wednesday. 

I had returned from a gathering and found someone online that i could make a technical consultation about, and when i heard the answer i started working immediately. At 1 am. I went straight on until 7am working and polishing a solution that was unavoidable for the server.

Because it was quite grand a change i chose not to do it for 1.3. But today  i did it. It took me less than 5 minutes and all the work i did last week made lots of sense.

The server is now faster and more responsive than ever. It working super fast and this should clear out all the sporadic lag we had in the past week, where we released 400 accoutns in a matter of 3 days.

Provided the new solution is stable today and tomorrow, we will be releasing more accounts this week. Kaya is healthier and getting better really fast thanks to all the feedback and excitement players have enjoyed .

Beta Craze, 1.2 Beta and scalability.

Its been a while since the last post and a lot happened since.

The Beta launch was a success! 200 accounts were registered within 6 hours. Lots of people could check Kaya, play and watch games.
Beta Launch was crazy. The server has now people active all day long. And it kept me very busy the past two weeks.
The main reason why we opened a limited number of accounts is to see how the whole system behaved as it increased users, in a very reliable way. The feedback we got, both on this subject and on the overall server features and tweaks was amazing and helped us improve things a lot.

Beta 1.1 came with major improvements both client and server side.

As we still polish and improve our ability to scale (that is, to serve more users at the same time) we will be opening more and more accounts until being absolutely open. And Beta 1.1 and 1.2 are focused on that.

Those that didnt get an account on beta will have an opportunity very soon!

Kaya.gs 1.0.0 Beta Launched!

We JUST released the 200 accounts, they are up for grabs.

We worked VERY intensely the past two weeks to deliver the best experience we could.
We have a long road ahead, but we also traveled a lot! Kaya is looking beautiful, and we have several novelties that make both the chatting and the playing experience unique and new.

I hope everyone can enjoy it. We will be on the server providing live technical support and with the rest of the founders, help out so new users can set up quickly.

Check it out at beta.kaya.gs !

Kaya.gs announces Beta Launch date!

Finally the Beta is coming!

Kaya.gs will open up its doors with version 1.0.0 Beta on the 3rd of August. 

After 32 weekly and steady releases, we are ready to intake new users that want to start experiencing a new way to play Go online.

With the new design, bots, a big board, and many new and novel features like malkovich, variation sharing, video broadcasting and more, Kaya has a lot to offer both to new players and to experienced online go enthusiasts.

When we release, we will start allowing only 200 new registrants. So stay tuned to get your account quickly!

Major changes on Kaya, the last stepping stone to Beta.

0.31 came with amazing changes. A completely new Main page UI was done, with great aid from Gryn, one of our most enthusiastic supporters.

The new UI is very modern, and uses space a lot better than the old one. We want to release before the EGC finishes so we are moving as fast as we can, and this is the last huge change before release.

Although all works fine, there are many tweaks and fixes to do, so shoot away at the tweaki! Lets find all the imperfections, so we can fix them and make the long awaited final release.

The stability of this release will decide the Beta launch date!

Kaya 0.29 Alpha comes with huge performance boosts and GoGameGuru's Baduk TV!

Sit tight because im going Fast & Furious on this post!

Since we got out on december, there were always performance matters at hand. We are using a very small server ( this week i calculated it has 1/4 CPU power of my 4 year old laptop) so fine tuning it becomes a necessity quickly.

Last week the canadian open was coming and i wanted to improve performance before the event ocurred, so the server had less lag and worked smoother.

The event was very successful, and JeansebL is doing an awesome job with the broadcasts. It is very rewarding to see Guo Juan using Kaya for her public lectures, and we expect these activities to grow in quantity and numbers, specially after outing.

Unfortunately, the first day of the event proceeded before the updates, but the improvements were vast.

When the games got large enough (100's of moves) the game would start to slow down. It was a problem in the parser so i would have to revisit it. After making a small but significant change, i could reduce the processing by 4x , making it way faster.
But it still wasnt fast enough, so this week i devoted myself almost exclusively to performance. And oh boy did things get better.

As of today i have a complete understanding on how the server works from a performance level, from bottlenecks to pending improvements. This time, i improved the parser from that 4x solution to 50x faster. Its blazing fast. Which means games will run much smoother now and there will be only a fraction of the lag we used to have sometimes.

Also, i improved a lot of things from the main page. Its 10x faster and uses less resources.
So in this version we will experience a much quicker experience, and im dying to check it out :).
If all goes fine, and the performance fixes are polished, we are very well ready to intake a decent number of users. Beta is getting closer!


See you guys around!