[Kde-games-devel] KScoreDialog usability related question

[Dmitry Suzdalev]

On Tuesday 12 June 2007 21:49, Tadeusz Andrzej Kadlubowski wrote:
> I also want to write about KScoreDialog in katomic, as it is the only
> KDE4 game I play maniacally.
Nice to hear ;)

> Generally — I like KScoreDialog. I don't mind it popping up after I
> have finished a level. Players are used to highscore lists since late
> 70's ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteroids_%28computer_game%29 ).
Yes, I know this. I am not against higscore lists in general - I'm arguing 
against sudden popups of score dialog :-)

> What confuses me in katomic is that after I finish a level a yes/no
> dialog pops up asking me if I want to advance to another level (see
> GameWidget::gameOver()). It breaks the workflow. Recording highscore
> belongs to just finished level and advancing to another one should be
> considered after all the actions on the current level are finished.
>
> Besides I don't know what happens when I click „No” on this
> questionYesNo dialog.
Well, my fault. Let me explain you why I added this message box.
Firstly I think that it *is not* the right thing, when developer *explains* 
something to the user :-). Ideally the game should be understandable as it 
is. So the simple existence of yours "I dont' know what happens" indicates a 
wrong design to me :).

But perhaps you (and maybe someone else) will have an idea on what is the 
right thing to do, after my explanation.

So. This message box is there so the users can use one simple feature of 
katomic: save the solution (i.e. whole history of your moves) in a file.
After you completed a level you *may* want to save it and for example mail the 
solution to a friend.
If you hit "no" - you can do two things: save the level or play with "Undo 
all, undo, redo, redo all" actions to see each step you took while solving 
this level.
If you hit "yes" - the moves history of previous completed level is completely 
forgotten, so you can't save it any more - if you return back to that level 
you'll have to start it from scratch.

So this message box exists only to give the player an opportunity to save 
*finished* level.
I agree, that it shouldn't be there. I'll think what can I do about it. If you 
have any ideas, please share.

> Here's KScoreDialog screenshot of almost 30 levels completed:
> http://hell.org.pl/~yess/highscore.tiff
>
> The list layout is broken.
It surely is. We should look into it. Thanks for screenshot.

> I don't understand what is to be cancelled in KSCoreDialog.
Hmm... Perhaps it is about not entering your name... But you're right. 
Misleading.

> Sorry for somewhat harsh tone. I see that things improve constantly —
> for example the score numbers are no longer directly cast to strings,
> as they were about one week ago,.
Heh :). Yes, i fixed it recently. I'd do it earlier, but I thought that it is 
kdelibs' bug and waited for it to be fixed, without even trying to look where 
it comes from :).
And your tone is just ok for me. There are problems, you report them. Thanks.

Cheers,
Dmitry.