Re: Handheld Gnome Games

[Callum McKenzie <callum physics otago ac nz>]

On Thu, 2005-04-07 at 20:38 +0100, Alan Horkan wrote:
> In most cases is it essential to turn off the toolbars (hiding the handles
> and setting to icons only might also have worked but I didn't try it) and
> an option to hide status bars would have helped.
> If a game included a Full screen option that also significantly helped to
> optimise the use of space.  (Having options to hide toolbars and
> status bars and to go to fullscreen consistently in every game might be
> worth considering.  I'll leave that for another days discussion though.)
These issues are being actively pursued right now. Also look for
fullscreen modes where things like the menu are automatically hidden so
that the maximum space is given over to playing games.

> I was suprised quite how usable the Card games Aisleriot and BlackJack
> were even at a very small size.  Games like Mahjong and the Card Games
> would benefit considerably if they had High Contrast themes (proving once
> more and yet again againt that accessibility makes things better for all
> kinds of users).
Accessible themes: another thing on the long list of "we must do that
sometime because it's a really good idea".

> The preview in Glines gets very small, and it doesn't look like it is
> making the best use of the space available to it.
The preview code in CVS has been altered and it may alleviate this
problem, but I suspect it is really a problem with GTK limiting the
space it gives the preview in the horizontal direction. I suspect that
this can be fixed by using something other than the naive packing
arrangement we currently use.

> Gnibbles was reluctant to even run, I couldn't get past the start screen
> not that I expect it would be very easy to play in a box that was
> effectively less than 200x150.  (It crashed reproducably if I tried to
> open preferences.  Oops the seg-fault seems entirely unrelated to the
> small display, trying to access preferences at all in Gnibbles 2.10 causes
> a sefault for me.)
That is a new bug to me. Could you get a stack trace into CVS along with
a dump of the appropriate gconf settings.

> My use of a resolution taller than it was wide meant less favourable
> results for Same Gnome, and Tetravex (text was just way too small).
We have long thought about a colour matching version of tetravex. That
might make things easier.

> SameGnome ... I'm not a fan of the current version of Same Gnome (the grid
> for one thing but I'll get into that another time).
Doing something reasonable with the grid was a task that I ran out of
time for in 2.10. If another one of your gripes is that the animation is
too slow for you, try CVS which has a fast-moves option now.

> Hope you found my little experiment to be of interest.  I wish more
> applications were as well designed and flexible as Gnome Games.
Anyone who thinks the games are well designed has not read the code. But
we will gratefully accept the compliment anyway :).

 - Callum