New Mobile Menu
Today, I finally tackled something that has been on my to-do list for quite some time. The sticky header on the top of the site on phones and tablets has been moved to the bottom of the screen. This was not an easy thing to do because the header has been the foundation that everything on the site is set to. For instance, when you play one of the canvas based games like Baby Launcher, the game checks the header-height and makes sure it sits below it.
The reason i decided it was time was because of the games themselves. I have been racking my brain trying to make the games easier to play initially. Baby Launcher is a good example as it needs to be played in landscape mode. So you first get an overlay asking you to rotate your phone then another overlay so the game can ask for your permission to go full screen. This is because most devices need tap permissions to anything. I can't just make the game go immediately full screen without your permission. That's why the games ask you to tap the screen.
I still haven't found an elegant solution to that particular problem, but the rabbit hole I went down in the process led me to make the change and get the bottom menu fully functional. As a result, the site feels much more app like on mobile devices.
Another issue was tackled as well. When you visit the site on an Android device, your device will constantly bug you to install the app since the website is a PWA (Progressive Web App).
I suppressed the prompt on Android and added a simple banner asking you to install the app if you want, but you can dismiss this prompt for 30 days if you don't want to install.
At the moment the installed PWA doesn't mean much because when you install the website it simply puts a shortcut on your home screen. You still need an active internet connection to use the site because I don't include things like the games or wall of secrets for offline use. The secrets would be pointless off line obviously, but the games are still internet dependent simply because I modify them constantly. They are works in progress.
As I get games into a more finalized state where I'm not modifying them so much, I may include them into the PWA files so that you can play them offline if you want. I have made an offline page so if you have the app installed but don't have internet you can play the Dotz game. It is simple and has no database dependencies so that was a no brainer.