Re: Improvements to Tetravex

[Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>]

On Sun, 24 Sep 2006, [ISO-8859-1] Andreas Røsdal wrote:

> Date: Sun, 24 Sep 2006 13:27:50 +0200 (CEST)
> From: "[ISO-8859-1] Andreas Røsdal" <andrearo pvv ntnu no>
> To: games-list gnome org
> Subject: Improvements to Tetravex
>
> Some interesting improvements are about to happen to Tetravex,
> in bugs #357194 and #357360.
> See: http://gnomesupport.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=53574

Robert has posted some great suggestions for improving Tetravex.
http://bobthegnome.blogspot.com/

He also proposed a new interface that makes it obvious that the tiles must
be moved into the middle. What do you think about this mock-up for a new
interface? Or do you have any suggestions for a better interface? What
should be done when the number of columns is odd?

+++++

Colour tetravex:
http://bobthegnome.blogspot.com/2006/09/more-tetravex-tinkering.html

+++++


These are great ideas.  I might like to see some implementation details
adjusted but I would love to see the substance of both these proposals
included.

To the first idea about making it clearer the pieces are supposed to fall
into the slots, the proposed layout is certainly an improvement[1] but
taking a cue from the ancient jigsaw puzzle in Mac OS I think it would be
even better if the pieces were a little more scattered.  The current
system looks very much like moving from one box to another box.  It
certainly doesn't look like jigsaw pieces all scattered outside a central
target areas which is how I think it probably should be.  What I think I
would like to see is a gameboard with an equal size boarder all around it
in some way but not quite so neatly packed.  The current layout reminds me
of how a puzzle might look when neatly packed in a box on the shelf, with
the peices stuck into slots.  It doesn't look like loose pieces all on the
table around a central area waiting for the game to begin and I think
that would better the reality users are familiar with from piece based
puzzles.

I'm am sure I wasn't the only person to suggest to colour tetravex over
the years but I'm pretty sure I abandoned the suggestion when I thought of
the theming and accessibility issues.  These colours make an interesting
default which should be okay so long as there is a way to get the
monochrome version and that these new colours are not forced on themes
like the High Contrast black or any other Accessibility theme.  It might
also be wise to try a graphic designer or Tango expert to advise on how
you might make the colours look a litlte less garish and ugly (or if you
should even use the tango palette here at all, or select other colours
from a larger pallette but still complementary to Tango).

This use of colour makes me wonder could instead of colour use an image as
the background to each button and use Tetravex as a kind of jigsaw puzzle?


Sincerely

Alan Horkan

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[1] The small but wide current design is quite suited to smaller wider
displays like the Nokia 770 aka Maemo, or GPE.  So long as there was some
kind of fallback that helped make sure Tetravex required zero changes for
use on a small screent that would be great.