SNOW STORM, CPAN Editors Lounge – With how we as a community experienced the last year, and with how development is going forward. Could there be a chance where we return to how we used to be?
Disclaimer: This editorial is of the opinion of the author, and in no way represents the views of the editors or Club Penguin Army Network as a whole.
For context, some people may know that I am an active developer for Flippr, whilst witnessing the development process of it’s sister HTML client SubZero at the same time.
The thing about the post-flash era is that it’s left room for two options to fill the gap of web-browsers, these are HTML (HyperText Markup Language) or downloadable clients. While I’ve never gotten hands on with developing in HTML due to lack of experience, I’ve spent probably a year or so in full, experimenting with Flash files for both myself and CPArmies.net. This led to the point where in January 2021, through CPPSCreator I was able to repurpose an existing CPPS I had to serve Silver Empire during the Private Server void, allowing us to host weekly themed events with a decorated island.
One of the events held on the SE CPPS – at the Dojo I designed. Do you recognize it?
Downloadable Clients
The problem we had with that CPPS is that, like others, it required a downloadable client. Some of our users were happy to download, some couldn’t download it due to their operating system, and others were skeptical given the warning Microsoft would give upon downloading it. They had every right to be as even I wasn’t sure about the client itself – seeing as I wasn’t the developer. I simply had trust in the creator of the client, and the one who amended it for CPPSCreator.
Why am I saying this? Well in recent weeks, having finalised a client version for Flippr, I’ve come to learn of the possibility of installing applications to ChromeOS. For downloadable clients it was thought that Chromebooks would forever be unsupported due to the rumours of only being limited to Google apps, however through the use of a Linux terminal – it becomes possible to install additional applications. This YouTube channel has a handy guide for various applications. At the same time, having obtained a copy of the open source code for a downloadable client, wouldn’t it therefore be possible to create a general downloadable client, by the community for the community? One that can run on all operating systems for a wide variety of Private Servers?
Top: My SE Client’s (WIP) default start screen
Bottom: The same client running New Club Penguin (Other servers are listed at the top)
HyperText Markup Language (HTML)
When doing research I’ve come across a program, which involves the use of a new HTML5 client. Developed by Yukon, the aim is to release a brand-new open source HTML client which developers can then use to create their own version of Club Penguin. For armies, this would be a major breakthrough seeing as it would grant us all a home, on new technology expected to last for many years to come (maybe another two decades). While the client is still in testing and development, it has a very promising future ahead of itself – especially with public testing currently underway. You can participate in the testing from this Discord server. However, please be mindful that neither myself, nor Superhero123 know the developer – so we recommend that if you sign up, use non-personal details.
A screenshot from the Yukon project.
What does this mean?
With the discovery of this, I personally feel that the end of our time restricted to events on Club Penguin Rewritten is coming near. While we rely on it for the sake of recruiting new members into our armies, during events we can maintain a peace of mind. We as armies would not have to fear for accidentally breaking the rules of Rewritten, while they do not have to continuously spend their time chasing after us, making this mutually beneficial. The question as to how this plays out, all depends on which way to go, and what troops are willing to do to continue participating in their army’s events. Will they download a client made for armies? Or, will they wait for more HTML clients to launch? For me, I don’t mind either, the question is what do YOU think?
Dman64w
CP Army Network Editor