Interface breakthrough - feedback desired
Flayra
Game Director, Unknown Worlds EntertainmentSan FranciscoSuper Administrators, NS2 Developer, Subnautica Developer Join Date: 2002-01-22 Member: 3Posts: 6,943 admin

Hey everyone!
This week has been great. After addressing a small potential interface improvement (link), I stumbled upon what I believe to be a major simplification and major improvement to the interface in Zen of Sudoku.
This new method gets rid of the pop-up number chooser entirely. This approach also lets me get rid of Advanced Mode, "number mode" and a slew of other interface complexities. It replaces all of them with a totally different way of choosing numbers. The potential downsides are:
1. Alienate you guys - you probably bought the game assuming basics like this wouldn't change.
2. Require right mouse button for pencil marks. This is one of those cardinal assumptions I had when designing the game, but I think it is trumped by the fact that the entire interface becomes so much simpler as a result.
Take a look at this demo movie to see how the new interface works. It's so obvious I can't believe I hadn't tried it before.
Please let me know what you think about this! After playing with it for a couple days, I believe it's much better, but I'm not the average user either...
-Charlie
This week has been great. After addressing a small potential interface improvement (link), I stumbled upon what I believe to be a major simplification and major improvement to the interface in Zen of Sudoku.
This new method gets rid of the pop-up number chooser entirely. This approach also lets me get rid of Advanced Mode, "number mode" and a slew of other interface complexities. It replaces all of them with a totally different way of choosing numbers. The potential downsides are:
1. Alienate you guys - you probably bought the game assuming basics like this wouldn't change.
2. Require right mouse button for pencil marks. This is one of those cardinal assumptions I had when designing the game, but I think it is trumped by the fact that the entire interface becomes so much simpler as a result.
Take a look at this demo movie to see how the new interface works. It's so obvious I can't believe I hadn't tried it before.
Please let me know what you think about this! After playing with it for a couple days, I believe it's much better, but I'm not the average user either...
-Charlie
Comments
i cant judge how casual gamers see that change, but i think its a great improvement in usability
one thing i noticed in the movie: how can you see the difference between preset numbers and numbers you added to the gamefield?
Game Director, Unknown Worlds Entertainment
I'm not sure about the content of the game, but I suggest some things I would see in the game:
- different backgrounds
- different text fonts
- a clock with a highscore, so you can see whether you become better or not
I'd say to include an option for a popup number selecter, but those same older players probably won't know how to change it or why they should. I'll run it by my mom and see what she thinks.