[Kde-games-devel] Changes in KPat trunk

[Parker Coates]

On Wed, Apr 1, 2009 at 8:18 PM, Matthew Woehlke wrote:
> Parker Coates wrote:
>> On Wed, Apr 1, 2009 at 5:41 PM, Matthew Woehlke wrote:
>>> Parker Coates wrote:
>>>> There is a dialog to warn the user if they are about end the game in
>>>> progress, which would result in a loss being recorded to the
>>>> statistics. The dialog is skipped in following situations:
>>>> • The user has previously checked the "Do no ask again" checkbox.
>>>> • The game is won.
>>>> • The game is lost.
>>>> • The application is quitting
>>> Opinion: automatically save the game and automatically re-open it. No
>>> dialog, no loss recorded. (Great for when I'm playing a game on my
>>> netbook in a restaurant and the food arrives :-). Or any similar
>>> situation where I'm interrupted and want to shut down quickly.)
>>
>> I think you missed the this bit from the first paragraph of my email:
>
> Nope, saw it, and...
>
>> I was asking only about the case when no automatic saving is done.
>
> ...right. My suggestion was essentially to remove that case :-).

I had considered it, but decided against it for a few reasons:
• I really think showing the new game selection screen on start up
will encourage the user to explore new game types.
• On a machine where multiple people share a login (think Grandma and
Grampa) I wouldn't want KPat opening someone else's abandoned game
when I fire it up. (Also, on such a machine, users are much less
likely to care about statistics.
• Change is scary. Forced change is even scarier and is likely to
result in bug reports. ;)

I do have a new question for you all, though. If the "Remember State
on Exit" option is enabled, what would you expect to happen if you
close KPat after losing a game? The options I see are:
• Reload the lost game. (This is the current behaviour, but I find it
a bit demotivating.)
• Load a new game of the same type.
• Show the game selection screen.

All input is appreciated,

Parker