Research on the Memory game

[John Layt]

On Thursday 25 Aug 2011 16:51:54 Anne-Marie Mahfouf wrote:
> Hi!
> 
> Following Marco's mail about the Memory game, I wrote a small doc to assess
> what we currently have and hopefully to trigger a discussion and the best
> design possible as a conclusion for such a game.
> 
> In this doc, I define what a Memory game is. I present the MemoryGame and
> KMemory with screenshots, I extract positive and negative points
> (subjective as that only reflects my view).
> Then I list a few points for an implementation and that's what should be
> discussed and defined here.
> 
> The doc is in .odt (I can put it on my scratch pad), the pdf is attached.
> Should the conclusions we agree on be on a wiki? Community or techbase?
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> Anne-Marie

Good analysis.

After messing around with my new Plasma Active tablet for a bit, especially 
the KDE games and edu,  and having previously observed how easily my 5 year 
old nephews took to using touchscreens (Angry Birds!), I think the one 
interface should be used for both.   I think the ux restrictions enforced by a 
touchscreen app are a good fit for young children by simplyfying the interface 
and making options visible and easily manipulated.  A 5 year-old may not 
recognise what the word 'Reset' means or know to navigate a pull-down or 
right-click menu to find what they want, but will quickly learn that clicking 
on that circular arrow picture with a mouse or their finger will do what they 
want.

Multi-player is a must for me, my twin nephews usually fight over who gets to 
play any computer game, so something they can sit around and play together on 
a tablet would be great.  And it would save me having to lay out all those 
cards on the floor too :-)

I like the ui maximising the usable space, widescreens are standard these 
days.  The items/text in the layout sections should rotate, but the sections 
themselves can stay in their relative positions.

Blinken and Kanagram are good examples to follow, everything needed in the 
main window and able to be directly manipulated.  Just a shame the virtual 
keyboard covers the Kanagram text entry box.

Just my 2c in passing.

John.