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gerstrong / Commander-Genius

Modern Interpreter for the Commander Keen (Vorticon Dreams and Galaxy) and also Cosmos Cosmic Adventure games. This is a mirror repo: The main gitlab repository is at: https://gitlab.com/Dringgstein/Commander-Genius
http://clonekeenplus.sourceforge.net/
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Improve game selection UI #252

Closed akien-mga closed 7 years ago

akien-mga commented 8 years ago

I've just updated my commandergenius package for Mageia, but I'm still having a hard time enjoying it due to the (IMO) bad UX when starting it for the first time. It may come from the way I package it (for example I delete the vfsroot folder because I don't want to distribute nonfree data), but upon starting the program, a user of my package will see:

spectacle j15394

Problems:

Sorry for making this a relatively vague issue, as a developer I know that those are not the most useful to work with, but I felt it was worth mentioning here and I don't have much time to dig deeper myself.

gerstrong commented 8 years ago

I have to agree. For next time the standard will be double in both directions to 640x400 on desktop systems. Actually there exist bigger fonts and better looking fonts, so this won't be a big deal. Thanks for porting to Mageia, btw. :-)

Tamsyn commented 7 years ago

I agree - I don't even know how to import the games I have. I want to play these games - I own these games, I have commander genius. Now what? Your UX should make this obvious, or at least not so obscure.

gerstrong commented 7 years ago

Is it really "oscure" if it is mentioned in the readme file? Seriously...

Tamsyn commented 7 years ago

It wasn't on the webpage, or visible within the download. For you and me, who are used to looking on github for answers, no. For most users, I think so. In fact I had no idea what to do until I found the right thread on the forums.

EDIT: Once I've got it all worked out I'll write up a how-to. The sound isn't working in the first game yet though - or the new tiles, so I'll wait until I know what I'm doing first. :)

gerstrong commented 7 years ago

Actually the readme is displayed on the project github page but you have a good point and it is not the first time someone complains about this issue. I want to rework the webpage anyways and I will consider putting more documentation especially for people on android and who want to get their own games run.

akien-mga commented 7 years ago

Don't forget people install CG from their distro's package manager, which rarely shows the upstream readme in an obvious manner (it is typically installed in /usr/share/doc/<name>/README).

IMO, a good UI and UX when loading CG with no configured game is a must. The minimal would be that it displays in a non-ridiculous size on desktop (see OP), and gives information about how to install and configure games. A second step would be to add some logic to let users install and configure their games out of the box (e.g. "Browse to your Commander Keen 4 installation folder"), but that could be handled in a separate issue.

ildar commented 7 years ago

Good point. Sorry, @gerstrong, I agree. CG is fairly usable so it should be as easy to set up as to play it.

gerstrong commented 7 years ago

I have added a lot of new error messages and more feedback for the user.

@akien-mga: I think I have fulfilled your observation regarding:

IMO, a good UI and UX when loading CG with no configured game is a must. The minimal would be that it displays in a non-ridiculous size on desktop (see OP), and gives information about how to install and configure games. A second step would be to add some logic to let users install and configure their games out of the box (e.g. "Browse to your Commander Keen 4 installation folder"), but that could be handled in a separate issue.

First of all there is a game store. User gets a warning if the catalog file is missing. It should be there by default, since it is considered in our scripts.

Secondly if there are no games another warning is shown with the recommendation to copy games or just let them download with CG internal download manager. It lot has changed there lately.

Version 1.9.9.6 handles it much better than ever before. Let me know what you think.. :-) Closing this issue...

ildar commented 7 years ago

👍 I'll test it next week.

ildar commented 7 years ago

Yep, tested, very satisfied.

ildar commented 7 years ago

keen1 and keen4 miss preview images when installed.

gerstrong commented 7 years ago

Thanks, normally they get generated after the game was started. Some bundles already have these included. They are called preview.png. But not later than after one game start the preview image should appear.