[Kde-games-devel] Palapeli Review

[Arturo Silva]

Hello all,

After a successful(?) first run with the Granatier art I'm now able to
proceed with reviewing other pending projects, in this case Palapeli.
Many apologies go out to Stefan for taking so long to get to this
(approximately 1 week). ^^;

I definitely apologize because the jigsaw game itself is fantastic,
and it's amazing the level of polish that you've been able to cram
into it in only 2 weeks time!  Everything from the library selection,
the import/export features, the Create a new Puzzle feature (which
seems to still be a work-in-progress), the creative way in which the
table texture can be changed (although I honestly think the default
selection is fine), the Cheese-like loading animation while the puzzle
table is being generated, the drop shadows, the realistic ridge lines
for each puzzle piece, and so and so forth....

in short, it looks like a mature piece of software already, and I
congratulate you on a job well-done!  All it really needs is a help
file and a few key things fixed (such as the Create new puzzle, see
below), and it should be ready for feature freeze as is!

I did however record a few observations -- bear in mind a lot of these
are probably on your todo list, or have been talked about in your
blog, so feel free to ignore anything that sounds redundant:

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- I haven't tested this out on a small screen (such as in one of my
netbooks), but my guess is that the default puzzle table behavior will
be scrolling instead of scaling as well.  Do you think it would be
necessary to allow the ability to scale the image (as in you can
toggle between the current view, and a "Proportional view which resize
the puzzle table (and puzzle itself) based on the current window size?

- A popup congratulating the player on completing the puzzle would I
think be nice.  The little status bar update is neat, but just a touch
anti-climactic. ^^;

- In that respect, are you also planning to add a high score option
based on time perhaps?

- Some subtle sounds (which can also be disabled in the preferences if
need be) would be great for a further level of polish.  I'd envision a
"scattering" sound when the puzzle starts, a soft "thuck" sound every
time a piece is placed on the board (but not when picked up), and a
jingle when the puzzle is completed (and the aforementioned "popup
window congratulating you appears).

- Create a New Puzzle doesn't allow you to select a Puzzle Type at
this time, so I think that's the reason why the "Create Puzzle" button
is always grayed out.  Furthermore, since the *.conf files seem to
have multilingual options, I wonder if it would be necessary to have
multilingual data entry lines in the "Create a New Puzzle" screen.

- I'd like for the ridge lines in the puzzle pieces to be optional
(enabled/disabled via the preferences). True puzzle enthusiasts would
obviously prefer the ridge lines, but I'd be more partial to having
smooth pictures instead.

- I'm not terribly big on the floating play button appearing
constantly while hovering over selections.  IMHO, I think the play
button should only appear over the thumbnail IF the puzzle is already
loaded into the Puzzle Table.  Otherwise, the rest of the behavior
stays, except that launching a puzzle to the table would only require
either a double-click or a Space/Enter keystroke.

- In that same vein, it'd be nice to see in the library some
indication of which puzzles are "in progress" (as in have save
information) but not actually loaded in the table yet.

- If the five sample puzzle files are the true default ones, I'd love
for these to be prebuilt as *.puzzle files beforehand.  I had an awful
lot of trouble building these from the source file, and I had to go
through the troubleshooting section in your blog a few times before I
finally got the hang of it.  I certainly wouldn't mind going through
that whole kbuildsycoca4 thing if it's only to create new *.puzzle
files from scratch (which I did in this case), though.  ^__~

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Oh, and the Import Puzzle feature works -- I just tested it with one
of my own drawings....  ^^b

http://pigux.com/kde4/storage/palapeli/ubunchu-akane.puzzle

FYI, the above is only a test and not really meant to be included
(unless you really really like it, but probably not). ^^;

So yes, the above issues aside, my overall impression of Palapeli is a
very positive one!  I do hope it can be a part of 4.4, because IMHO it
deserves it! ^__^b



--Arturo "C-quel" Silva