[Kde-games-devel] KShisen tiles suck?

[Parker Coates]

On Sun, Feb 1, 2009 at 19:27, Ian Wadham wrote:
> And with all due respect, Mauricio, I think "Configure <gamename>..."
> at the foot of the Settings menu is an ideal way to *hide* the themes!
> The word "Configure" comes from I know not where (Microsoft?), but
> it would be meaningless to most English speakers, I am sure.  I
> wonder how comprehensible it is in other languages.

Personally, I'm in the "configuration dialog" camp, as I think a
settings dialog allows a lot more freedom to display the options in a
meaningful way. You, Ian, on the other hand are in the "settings in
the menu" camp, because you feel the configuration dialog hides the
settings from the user. (You may also have other reasons as well.
That's not really what I'm here to discuss.)

I have been thinking about this comment of yours for a while. I think
you have a valid point about the configuration dialog being tricky to
discover, especially for new users. So as of today, Killbots places
the Configure Killbots action in the toolbar.

For most applications, I would consider this a bad idea. Generally,
the "Configure..." action doesn't merit inclusion in the toolbar for
three reasons. First, it's not an action that one should have to
access frequently. Most settings are set once and never changed again.
Second, beginners generally have little reason to change settings away
from the defaults. Third, valuable toolbar realestate is generally
better spent elsewhere.

But none of these reasons really hold true for our games. Changing the
theme or game type can happen fairly often, just for a change of pace.
Beginners probably get more fun out of changing the theme than any
other demographic. And most games (excluding Kubrick) have sad little
empty toolbars.

Personally, I find a big friendly wrench icon on the toolbar to be a
very discoverable and very friendly way of accessing the configuration
dialog. It might not be appropriate in all games, but for Killbots, it
just feels right. Try it out and let me know what you think.

Parker