[Kde-games-devel] Here, there be feedbacks

[Matt Williams]

> Hi all,
>
> I upgraded to KDE4 and decided to do some bug hunting for KDE
> games. Poor Johannes will probably have had a heart attack when
> he saw his issue counter jump from 2 to 20 ;)
>
> First of all, let me say that I really like the games in KDE. They
> do feel a _lot_ more polished.
>
> One thing I am noticing over and over again is the lack of
> consistency between the different games and with the overall
> KDE design principles. An incomplete list of those issues is
> below.
> There might be very good reasons to do something the way it was
> done. Maybe I just can't see that reason in particular case. On
> the other hand, different programs having the same design
> principles is a Good Thing.
>
> Now, for the list
>
> 1) Kdiamond and KSpaceDuel have no 'View' menu item. But
> they offers 'show toolbar' and 'show statusbar' under 'Settings'.
> This is different from standard KDE.
>
> 2) Some games offer you to change the hotkeys, others don't.
> Some let you edit notifications, others don't. knetwalk and
> kdiamond even let you edit your toolbar.
>
> 3) kdiamond starts a game immediately when you open the
> application, most others wait for you to press a button.
>
> 4) kbreakout has an overlay with 'game paused', kblocks simply
> pauses the game without telling you this is the case.
> Note that kmahjongg etc blanking out the field is a Good Thing
> that should remain different.
>
> 5) Kmahjongg offers a demo mode. Other games like
> kspaceduel and kjumpingcube don't (you can set them to have
> the computer play both sides, but still). I would argue that it
> would make sense to add an explicitly labelled demo
> functionality to every game that has an AI. And that the user
> should be able to stop/continue the demo at any point in time,
> taking over any side he/she wants to.
>
> 6) kblocks has a 'get new themes' button in the settings,
> kbreakout does not.

I won't go through these all right now since I'm at work but at first
glance they all seem valid points.

> Long story short, I think the games should present themselves
> in a more uniform way. Maybe there should be some basic
> design documents and guidelines?

You couldn't have brought this up at a better time :) We'll be sure to be
discussing things like this at Akademy next week. Before the 4.2 release
I'll be going through and doing a UI check on all the games to make sure
they conform to the HIG (human interface guidelines) and if there are any
specific questions I'll bring them up at the HIG day (on Wednesday?).

I agree that visual and functional consistency is important and it's a
deliberate goal we're working towards.

> Also, I am not sure what to file bugs & wishlists for the
> highscore against. Does anyone know?

Please file them against the 'libkdegames' product and then make sure you
either email me about it or add me (matt at milliams.com) to the CC since I
will be rewriting it almost entirely for 4.2. We talked about the new
highscore system plans extensively a month or two ago (probably April
time) so please read through those emails (they're archived and you'll see
my name cropping up a lot) and see if you agree with the ideas and add
anything that you would like to see.

> Please note that I am not even halfway through with the games
> and will probably file a lot more. If you get a dozen small reports,
> please don't be annoyed. I just learned that for these things,
> actual reports/tickets/whatever are a _lot_ better as you can't
> lose track of them :)

Yes, please file bug reports for these things. Even if it's only a UI
inconsistency, something that doesn't conform to the KDE HIG (through
that's not completely defined yet) or even somethings that just doesn't
feel right.

Anything filed before tuesday next weeks will be sure to recieve special
attention from us.

Thanks a lot for doing this and please pop into our IRC channel for a chat
any time :)

Matt Williams
http://milliams.com