Author Topic: Professionalism in calculator games (Read 9704 times)

Ashbad · « **Reply #15 on:** December 04, 2010, 04:22:31 pm »

Make your game worth play by having a great story, great characters, great setting, etc.

Make sure the gameplay is fun and not frustrating/confusing

Make sure controls aren't too sensitive.

If possible, include all data WITHIN the main program.

If you can't, try and make as few appvars as possible.

saving and loading from an appvar looks professional.

DJ Omnimaga · « **Reply #16 on:** December 04, 2010, 04:49:18 pm »

I really dislike when I download a computer software but even after reading the readme, I still can't understand how to get it to work. This is frequent with Linux-native softwares ported to Windows: Their authors seem to assume that if they can understand it easily that everyone else will, so their readme is written only for people with an IQ of over 300 or so.

Also, think about people who are more visual as well. Don't put an unnecessarly long wall of text in your readme. Try to keep it as short as possible, else some people will just get lost and skip the wall of text. In other word, don't make people go "TL;DR". If you absolutely want to put so much info in your readme or program, at least include a shorter version with your release.

FloppusMaximus · « **Reply #17 on:** December 04, 2010, 05:10:20 pm »

Certainly one major part of making your programs "professional" - maybe even the most important part - is designing a good user interface. That applies to all programs - games, editors, math programs, you name it. It's often a very difficult problem, and it's one that a lot of programmers have a tendency to ignore.

Quote from: DJ Omnimaga on December 03, 2010, 07:06:40 pm

1) No default TI-OS menus, input routine and other type of GUI. Even more professional: custom fonts, but that's not that necessary.

Sad but true: the standard OS menus are quite ugly. I think it's OK, though, for programs like Symbolic, Omnicalc, and Unit Ops, which are designed to be integrated into the OS. For other programs, I definitely recommend emulating the feel of the OS menus (standard repeat rate/delay, numbered/lettered options where possible, arrows to indicate when you're at the top/bottom of the list) but not the look.

As for custom fonts, they're OK in some circumstances, but they must be clearly legible. All too often you'll see programmers who have designed their own fonts to try to look cool, while ignoring the primary purpose of text (that being, to convey information that the user can read.)

Quote from: ExtendeD on December 04, 2010, 07:03:09 am

Build smart software. Smart software make extensive (but never read) documentation useless. Smart software make the user feel he has been using it forever even the first time. Smart software subtly suggests. Dumb software impose constraints.

I agree with all of this; these are all good principles for UI design.

Quote

A screen that adapt what it shows based on previous use is smart.

This I do not agree with. If a program's interface changes every time you run it, that usually makes it harder to use (since you have to re-learn the interface every time, as opposed to a "dumb" interface that you only have to learn once.) Giving the user the option to change aspects of the interface is a good thing. But in my experience, changing stuff around automatically, in an effort to make things easier for the user, almost always does the opposite.

Munchor · « **Reply #18 on:** December 04, 2010, 05:12:51 pm »

I like the TI Basic Menu( a lot, but for school programs and math programs.

Awesome menus may be The Impossible Game menu for example.

A new thing to add:

A professional game shouldn't be uploaded all the time. A new version (with plenty of updates) from month to month. Otherwise, not all users are playing the same game. That's very important.

Builderboy · « **Reply #19 on:** December 04, 2010, 05:24:51 pm »

One thing that i always do in my programs, I include a logo (Angle Productions) but i only have it appear the first time the program is run, as i found that when playing other games with logo's, it got annoying quite fast for having to wait for the logo to load every time i wanted to play the game.

DJ Omnimaga · « **Reply #20 on:** December 04, 2010, 08:45:57 pm »

Quote from: FloppusMaximus on December 04, 2010, 05:10:20 pm

Certainly one major part of making your programs "professional" - maybe even the most important part - is designing a good user interface. That applies to all programs - games, editors, math programs, you name it. It's often a very difficult problem, and it's one that a lot of programmers have a tendency to ignore.

Quote from: DJ Omnimaga on December 03, 2010, 07:06:40 pm
1) No default TI-OS menus, input routine and other type of GUI. Even more professional: custom fonts, but that's not that necessary.
Sad but true: the standard OS menus are quite ugly. I think it's OK, though, for programs like Symbolic, Omnicalc, and Unit Ops, which are designed to be integrated into the OS. For other programs, I definitely recommend emulating the feel of the OS menus (standard repeat rate/delay, numbered/lettered options where possible, arrows to indicate when you're at the top/bottom of the list) but not the look.

As for custom fonts, they're OK in some circumstances, but they must be clearly legible. All too often you'll see programmers who have designed their own fonts to try to look cool, while ignoring the primary purpose of text (that being, to convey information that the user can read.)

Quote from: ExtendeD on December 04, 2010, 07:03:09 am
Build smart software. Smart software make extensive (but never read) documentation useless. Smart software make the user feel he has been using it forever even the first time. Smart software subtly suggests. Dumb software impose constraints.
I agree with all of this; these are all good principles for UI design.
Quote
A screen that adapt what it shows based on previous use is smart.
This I do not agree with. If a program's interface changes every time you run it, that usually makes it harder to use (since you have to re-learn the interface every time, as opposed to a "dumb" interface that you only have to learn once.) Giving the user the option to change aspects of the interface is a good thing. But in my experience, changing stuff around automatically, in an effort to make things easier for the user, almost always does the opposite.

Well, one reason why some people use custom fonts is speed. I even saw people using custom font routines that looked exactly like TI fonts just to get the speed increase over TI's slow text routines.

As for menus, if you make a BASIC game and want it to be as small as possible, I guess you could maybe use Menu() but yeah, otherwise it's best to make them look different.

As for logos and intros, it's good that if it shows up everytime you run the program that they can be skipped. It's not always possible but you can at least skip some parts.

As for title screens, often small games will use a simple one that looks like most old ASM games to not spend lots of RAM on a set of sprites or a splash screen, but for larger programs, I think it's best to try harder at making a title screen, else the game can look less attractive. Don't do the opposite either, though: an amazing title screen followed with a crappy game.

AngelFish · « **Reply #21 on:** December 04, 2010, 09:11:55 pm »

If you're writing a game that will include regular updates, make the code modular so that users can download updates, not entirely new programs.

Also, use a logical version numbering system.

DJ Omnimaga · « **Reply #22 on:** December 04, 2010, 09:42:40 pm »

Yeah that can be a good idea. Sadly, some updates are large, though, so those will inevitably require a full re-download or close.

FloppusMaximus · « **Reply #23 on:** December 04, 2010, 10:01:10 pm »

Quote from: DJ Omnimaga on December 04, 2010, 08:45:57 pm

Well, one reason why some people use custom fonts is speed. I even saw people using custom font routines that looked exactly like TI fonts just to get the speed increase over TI's slow text routines.

Yeah, that's a good point. I was thinking about it strictly from a design perspective. (Maybe that's another mark of what I consider professionalism: not letting implementation difficulties get in the way of a nice design.

) And I'm not saying custom fonts are always a bad idea, just that they need to be well thought-out.

Although, as far as implementation goes, the system text-drawing routines are indeed pretty slow, but LoadPattern is usually fast enough. That's what I normally do for programs that have a lot of text: I use the built-in fonts, but a custom display routine.

DJ Omnimaga · « **Reply #24 on:** December 04, 2010, 10:40:32 pm »

Oh you can do that? I guess that's another idea, then, instead of having to include a copy of most fonts again.

As for implementation difficulty, we have to remember that sometimes we're very limited on-calc, though. I doubt, for example, that I would have been able to fit graph screen sprites in Illusiat TI-81 Remake, because of the 2400 bytes of user RAM limit.

Lionel Debroux · « **Reply #25 on:** December 05, 2010, 05:21:56 am »

On the TI-68k platform as well, programs which need to draw strings quickly, often use the built-in fonts (the two main methods in use nowadays being that of RAM_CALLs provided by "kernels", and the one which originated, AFAICT, in TICT eBook Reader) with a custom display routine.

Agreed with ExtendeD on quality control, streamlining the release process and communicating about software (BTW, FloppusMaximus, you don't do enough of the latter, IMO

). Somewhat less agreed on smart UIs, for the caveat outlined by FloppusMaximus: UIs shouldn't try to be too smart.

Galandros · « **Reply #26 on:** December 05, 2010, 07:13:59 am »

Quote from: Raylin on December 03, 2010, 06:49:54 pm

How professional can one make a calculator game? Discuss.

Since many people replied by features that make a calculator game professional, I think it is interesting to showcase some professional calculator games out there for z80 calculators.
In my honest opinion they are:
- Robot War 2 by DigiTan
- Wizards by NanoWar
- Zelda by Spencer
- Escheron: Shadow over Ragnoth by Zera and Iambian or Iambian and Zera (pick the order)

They all put to shame 95-99% of all GameBoy (original) games. Although they are not finished.

I could probably mention Pokemon Red by BuckeyeDude but is a clone, and I guess I am leaving many games. Specially old ones.

Sorry to leave TI-BASIC games behind but if I choose a professional would be with xLib and very probably with some custom font. (I think there are a few) And TI-BASIC language is not professional and was never designed to be. But with xLib some truly professional games can be done, just take lot of effort.

matthias1992 · « **Reply #27 on:** December 05, 2010, 07:30:58 am »

Quote from: Qwerty.55 on December 04, 2010, 09:11:55 pm

If you're writing a game that will include regular updates, make the code modular so that users can download updates, not entirely new programs.

Also, use a logical version numbering system.

I disagree with the first thing. Mostly because you'll ram will get jammed up pretty quickly with small add-ons and changes, I prefer a complete new version but in such a way that no data is lost. If neccesary provide a conversion program to convert old savegame data to the new format of savegame data.

I don't think it is neccesarily proffesional but some large games should have just one install file that you run and that sets all the settings for you and prompts you wether you want this or that (game saved in custom list or in appvar) + a counter of how much mem it will cost. It gives more freedom to the end user, I hate it when I install a group and then figure I have a list of 20 programs. I just want one program that I need to run. Also if Xlib or Celtx is used I would prefer people would say it in their readme's or if providing a installer: just say, this game requires DoorsCS....

As for the gameplay elements I'd say "story line" is the key word. I think developers should be stricter in the way they program their levels...altough I like the freeworld/freeroaming concept alot I think games that have a linear story line that is strongly guided by the programmer are far more intresting! I think a game also needs some exotic gameplay, like a piece where you would go inside a tank for a top-down zombie survival game or something like that...
A linear story line also gives you the power to make it look like you have physics inserted in your game but you can just fake these FX...
Don't get me wrong, I like to free-roam and discover secrets and so but I think a linear storyline can really spice up the excitement, angst (if a horror game) and expectation alot. I myself discovered this trough COD, it is very linear but nevertheless the story catches you and grasps you, I am using some exotic gameplay elements in my latest game, Dwell.

So far I really agree and like the tips given here, I am surely going to use them when releasing Dwell...

Ashbad · « **Reply #28 on:** December 05, 2010, 07:36:08 am »

Quote from: ScoutDavid on December 04, 2010, 05:12:51 pm

A professional game shouldn't be uploaded all the time. A new version (with plenty of updates) from month to month. Otherwise, not all users are playing the same game. That's very important.

That's very true. You don't see me redownloading starcraft or spore or Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup every couple of days, so why should I be doing that for a professional calc game?

DJ Omnimaga · « **Reply #29 on:** December 05, 2010, 04:35:14 pm »

I personally think that if the update is too large, it is best to have the person redownload most of it, though. Sometimes there are just way too many file changes and making a patch or remembering which files were updated or not is just impossible. I wish on the 83+ it said the last modified date of a file. For small updates, if the game got multiple files it is best to just make the user update one of them or something. I feel for large games redownloading the entire thing can be a major PITA. This happened with Supreme Commander 2 when I ran it. It downloaded the entire 3 GB installer from Steam...

Also, it is possible to sell your programs if they're good and contains no copyrighted material, but it is looked upon in the TI community. The TI community is very open source and most people like how everything is free. When someone says he'S gonna sell his stuff, everytime he's put down by other people who disapprove of such behavior in the TI scene. It can also be hard to sell a calculator game because it's just for the calculator. If you do so, you would need to sell it for cheap.

I think for calc games, if you want to make money from them it's best to just make it donation-ware.

Author Topic: Professionalism in calculator games (Read 9704 times)

Ashbad

Re: Professionalism in calculator games

DJ Omnimaga

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FloppusMaximus

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Munchor

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Builderboy

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DJ Omnimaga

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AngelFish

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DJ Omnimaga

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FloppusMaximus

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DJ Omnimaga

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Lionel Debroux

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Galandros

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matthias1992

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Ashbad

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DJ Omnimaga

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