[Kde-games-devel] Palapeli Review

[Stefan Majewsky]

Hi,

it's been quite a long time since you posted your review. Thanks for that, and 
apologies that I did not answer up to now. Things have been quite busy, you 
know.

Am Freitag 16 Oktober 2009 03:27:47 schrieb Arturo Silva:
> - 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?

The current zooming implementation is quite basic. I'm currently collecting 
ideas on how to improve it. However, I do not know whether an improved 
implementation will make it into Palapeli 1.0.

> - 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. ^^;

This is on my short-term todolist, already (the one that contains anything 
that has to be done before KDE 4.4 = Palapeli 1.0).

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

Added to my mid-term todolist (the one that contains tasks for KDE 4.5 = 
Palapeli 1.1)

> - 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).

Added to my mid-term todolist.

> - 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.

The short answer: Make sure that $KDEDIRS is configured correctly.
The long answer: On my short-term todolist is displaying some messagebox when 
slicers are not installed correctly. Also, these problems will be gone 
completely when Palapeli is installed from distribution packages.

> - 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.

If you mean the shape of the pieces, that can not be altered after the puzzle 
has been created (design decision). You can, however, create puzzles with 
simple rectangular pieces.

> - 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 the current SVN revision, the button's gone, instead, the puzzle is loading 
by activating the item in the list. In this case, "activating" means either 
clicking or double-clicking, depending on your global KDE configuration. 
Pressing the Return key will also work.

> - 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.

Without the intent to sound harsh: This is an implementation detail which the 
user should not have to bother with.

> - 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.  ^__~

As I said, this kbuildsycoca4 hazzle will be gone once Palapeli packages are 
provided by your distribution. Concerning the puzzle files: I think I'll 
create them once when Palapeli moves to trunk. Before this point, I want to 
keep the freedom to alter the format of the puzzle files.

FYI, I've put my todolist into SVN. (It's in palapeli's top directory.)

Greetings
Stefan
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