[Kde-games-devel] Survey results and IRC meeting

[Johann Ollivier Lapeyre]

2006/10/29, Ian Wadham <ianw at netspace.net.au>:
>
>
> ... ;-)  Thanks, Mauricio, for yet another tremendous initiative!


yes, thanks Mauricio

I'll add a little artists 2 cents too.

Survey: Maybe we could include a feedback form with every
> game, in the KDE standard Help menu.  That way authors
> could get feedback that is specific to their game from a broad
> spectrum of players.


feedbacks  could be usefull, but very few people answer it. A more
interesting thing could  be a "best score ever" thing. At the end of the
game, send score to the KDEgame website, and show the score comparing to
others:
- For the player, it add fun
- For us, it will give us statistics:  which games are played, styles liked
by people...

Graphics: Everyone seems to agree that the graphics need
> improving, but I do not see much specific recommendation,
> other than going with SVG.  "Technology is the answer, but
> what is the question?", as they say.  Presumably it is just as
> easy to draw a crummy looking picture with SVG as with
> any other technology, so let's rely on artistic skill first and
> foremost.  So what is wrong with our graphics?  I cannot
> claim any expertise, but I'll try to provide some personal
> views, if only to stimulate discussion.


Graphics tools or skills are not perfect, so, yes, very often, the
technology define  artworks results. The 1st question could be "what artwork
(linked to a technology) kdegames need?". The 2d could be "what is possible
to do  with our manpower?".
Some personal answer:
- Desktop games  are not like commercial game. Theses one have there own
universe, played several hours at time, in fullscreen, and try to get the
user forget the real life. Desktop  game are in  a windows,  played
(several time) 1 to 15 minutes... and i  think they  must  keep  graphical
harmony  with the desktop.
- KDEgames (tell me if i'm wrong) must be played even without openGL
support.
Concerning manpower :
- SVG are faster to do than pixmap from scrach.(at least to make beautifull
one)
- learning level is lower,(again, at least to make beautifull one). If we
want to get more contrib...
- KDE artist are actually busy with Oxygen, must i think you could get help
later, if it is SVG. as concern to me, i'll do my first kdegame commit
tonight.

Colour choice:  Some KDE games use bright contrasting
> colours for the pieces (eg. bright red and blue).  Some
> less-saturated colours might be better.


and

> BTW KDE colours are not necessarily good in a game.
> What looks good in an icon or frame might not look good in
> the large.  See Landscape->KDE Kool in KGoldrunner.  It
> looks terrible and I am thinking of deleting it, but all colours
> are copied (with an eye-dropper tool) from KDE icons :-)


less-saturated color is not the way. The Oxygen color palette is good for
the game too, and must be followed, but it doesn't prevent us to make
mistake (bad taste). For example, you are talking about red and blue. But
red and blue doesn't fit well together.

And i can tell you that sometime, on Oxygen work, we are still making
mistake (less with the time), and some icons are still going to the trash.
But we are continuing using oxygen palette, because it prevent us to make
more ;)
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