Addressing the So Many Numbers blank screen bug

UPDATE (Mar 13): Read the follow-up post here.

I've received reports that players couldn't load So Many Numbers after I pushed a minor update last week. All they get is a blank screen, no matter how many times they refresh.

It turns out the cause of this blank screen is more complicated than I thought, What's worse, I may not fully be able to patch what I call the "blank screen of death." Allow me to explain.

(Warning: technical jargon ahead! Skip to "What you should do" if you just want to know what to do if you're affected.)

Why the blank screen of death happens

For starters, last week's update on its own did NOT cause the blank screen of death. All I did there was change some text.

What really triggers it is how the game reacts to an update. Whenever you load So Many Numbers, it caches a copy of the game to your device so you can play offline. Whenever I push an update, the game has to recreate the cache so it can load the updated version offline.

That's where things get awry.

Dark Mode for the win

Ever since Dark Mode arrived in macOS Mojave, I knew it marked the future of UI design. Now that iOS, Windows 10, and all major browsers also support dark mode, it's time for my projects to embrace the dark side!

You may wonder, haven't you tried a dark theme before? That's true, but the user had to manually toggle it for his or herself. Now that browsers can detect whether you're on light or dark mode, webpages have the ability to automatically enable dark themes. A win, win for everyone!

Here's how I intend to handle dark mode on my future dark-enabled projects:

• By default, set the theme to light or dark based on the systemwide theme.
• The user can toggle light or dark themes via a button on the project. This means the user can use the project's dark theme while on their system's light mode, and vice versa.
• If the browser does not support dark mode, use the light theme by default. The theme toggle should still work, though.
• If JavaScript is disabled, use the light theme by default, and hide the theme toggle if possible since the toggle won't work.

To practice dark mode, I edited my GitHub homepage, a basic landing page with links to my projects.

I hope to one day enable full dark mode support on my other games, such as I am Thinking of a Number and So Many Numbers. In the distant future, I may add a dark theme to the Games by Tim site as well.

Face reveal!

It's about time I make my face more public. As you can see, I'm more than a cursor around a blue circle.

My photo is now on my GitHub profile, and I plan to incorporate the photo into parts of this site in the future.

Update about the site update

Remember when I said I was in the middle of updating this site?

Well the changes I had in mind back then are complete. That said, I have ideas for another site renovation. One much larger in scope...

That's all I have to say for now.

So Many Numbers! - Major Update

So Many Numbers has a brand new update, and it's a huge one. From redefining new gameplay features to a complete rewrite, let's get this changelog up and running!

Escape a Tower Version 2.6 - Futureproofing the Game

Escape a Tower version 2.6 is out! For this update, I focused on under-the-hood adjustments that help the game adapt to newer Web standards.

Offline support is back!

Previous versions of Escape a Tower would save the game to the hard disk so it can reload without Internet access. However, the method I used became deprecated, so I reluctantly removed this functionality in version 2.4.3.

That's why I'm excited to announce that offline functionality is back, using a modern Web standard called service workers. Service workers offer more robustness than before and should remain future proof for years to come. Special thanks to UpUp.js for making service workers easy to set up!

"Install" Escape a Tower

Chrome users may notice the new + button on the right of the address bar.

"Installing" Escape a Tower will launch the game in a dedicated window that functions like a native app on the computer. It'll appear on the start menu, taskbar, dock, etc!

Chrome does all of this because Escape a Tower is now a progressive web app (PWA). PWA's are a recent Web initiative that bridges the gap between Webpages and native apps.

New app icon

To adhere to Chrome's PWA guidelines, I needed a larger-sized app icon. That's why I resized and enhanced the icon a bit, which you can see the result above.

Still supports ancient browsers

Despite these new Web standards, Escape a Tower maintains its top-notch backwards compatibility, going as far back as IE5 from 1999. Those curious can download the game files and see for themselves (virtual machine highly recommended).

For everyone else, click the link below to enjoy Escape a Tower's new offline and install features.

Click here to play!

Fixes for hyperlink issues on PowerPoint for Mac

Some PowerPoint 2016, 2019, and 365 for Mac users have encountered a bug in my projects that causes certain hyperlinks to take two clicks, instead of one, to activate. Unfortunately for us, it's a PowerPoint for Mac-specific flaw that's been unresolved for over three years.

However, it turns out if you add spaces to the project filenames, the hyperlink problem goes away. Don't ask me why; it just is what it is.

I would have re-uploaded Flashcards for PowerPoint and Wheel of Fortune for PowerPoint, but GitHub Releases does not allow spaces in filenames. Therefore, if you encounter the hyperlink problem in these projects, you should rename the file to include spaces.

Example: rename the file

WheelofFortuneMac4.1.1.pptm

to

Wheel of Fortune Mac 4.1.1.pptm