[Kde-games-devel] Behavior of game applications after being started.

[Karl Ove Hufthammer]

Ethan Anderson:

> I agree that a game starting up right when you start a game application
> can be annoying.  This should never happen with a game that is timed. 

I agree. And this includes the various card and board games.

> With other games, however, it is fine.  Is it fair for some timed games to
> have a pre-start observation period?

I think that could be considered cheating. And I guess KShisen hides the
tiles when you press the ‘Pause’ button because of this.

I guess in card games and similar games you could lay out the cards (so that
the user could see the current layout) but not turn them over and start the
timer before the user cliks on the ‘Start game’ button. But then again,
KPat doesn’t *use* a timer (and should not, either). :-)

Of course, with games such as KMines, there is no problem showing the entire
playing field when game starts (but the timer should not start before the
first click).

I agree with all of the below:

> If so, starting when the app is opened and 
> starting the counter on first click is fine; if not, naturally, the user
> should have to actually start a new game for the game to begin.
> 
> The problem with the 'start new game' approach is that it involves this
> tiny button in the tool bar or menu bar.
> 
> When I start a game, I'd like it to be one big button in the middle saying
> 'click here to start a new game' if there's no current game or 'click here
> to resume last game' if there was.
> 
> ..and when a game is over, whether or /not/ high scores are displayed, the
> user should get a dialog with the 'quit' and 'new game' options in it
> instead of having to go back up to the menu/toolbar every time.
> 
> Some mines games I played would start a new game just by clicking on a
> played-through field.  That was really nice.