Know any UI Developers? (Bounty Inside)

[steve]

Thanks Braids. Don't give me access no way no how, I have no idea what I'm doing. Mostly just looking to attack this GUI thang. But now I've got a lot of reading to do and I'll get to know the code a lot better. See you in the trenches.

[moomarc]

i protested, but my bosses were penny pinching idiots.

I know the feeling, that's why I work for myself now (I tend to be a mean boss when it comes to holidays and woking hours though )

speaking of size, i think we're trying to get this runnable on 1024x600 netbook displays. at least, we should be, given that we're overhauling it, anyway.

I'm not sure which way things are going at this stage with Steve entering the fray, but as I mentioned before if I need to make changes to my initial design I have no problem doing it. I think that it should be scalable to some extent seeing as Rob's been using the png files, so there aren't discordant edges to worry about if the elements need to move.

[friarsol]

seriously, certain people have certain specialties, some have more opinions, some have stronger opinions, some are snobby and have been coding in Java for more than 10 years, and some can deny your write-access to the source repository. those with the most power do not micromanage. chat around on the forum, add some notes in Mantis, or comment on some commits in Gitorious. you'll get to know us.

Do we really have someone on the team who has been coding in Java for 10+ years? I wonder who Braids thinks is the non-micromanaging powerful sentient beings of Forge.

[Rob Cashwalker]

I now have the gui launching a game with two selected constructed decks.

JRadioButtons don't look very cool with everything else going on.
Moomarc, can you work up some graphics for the game modes? Needs a normal pic, a selected pic and a roll-over pic, probably in the same style as the human and opponent deck buttons.. We can ditch the cray background there... Also, the start button's click image looks better as a roll-over, so need a new click image. I would like the human and opponent deck buttons to be have a toggled image, to indicate that a deck has been selected for that player.

[moomarc]

I now have the gui launching a game with two selected constructed decks.

I'm impressed! Didn't think you'd be able to keep it so close to the original.

JRadioButtons don't look very cool with everything else going on.
Moomarc, can you work up some graphics for the game modes? Needs a normal pic, a selected pic and a roll-over pic, probably in the same style as the human and opponent deck buttons.. We can ditch the cray background there... Also, the start button's click image looks better as a roll-over, so need a new click image. I would like the human and opponent deck buttons to be have a toggled image, to indicate that a deck has been selected for that player.

Working on it now... will post here when it's done.

[moomarc]

The buttons for the different modes are slightly taller than the JRadioButtons, so the elements had to move a little. Because of this my guides were slightly out from the earlier buttons, so I've recreated ALL the buttons. The sizes are more standardized this time (all title buttons are 205x25 and the smaller ones are 205x22) but should be able to replace the original ones with no more than 2px difference. This will make it easier to create theme mods, though.

Regardless of whether you choose to replace all the buttons or not, the Library and Mode title should be, as the original png files assume they're connected to the grey backing block that's been removed now, so the bottom edges aren't properly rounded. I create rollover and down state images for these two headers as well (even though they're not buttons) in case you feel that one of those states works better for the normal state.

The final start button state is also in this package. It is the same size as previous buttons so there's no real need to relink the other states except to use the naming convention I used for the buttons included here.

Other additional buttons I've included are:
- A version of the deck editor button so that it can be included under the library category in the same style as the human and opponent deck buttons.
- all 3 button states for Puzzle and Gauntlet modes for the eventual inclusion of those modes. If the devs think that either might be added in the next few months, I could create Locked states for these that will indicate the mode is not yet available, but will build the anticipation. They could then be worked into the UI now before things get set in their places. Just an idea.

Any feedback and/or requests are welcome.

[Rob Cashwalker]

Marc,

I had my wife give me a gut reaction to the design and layout. (with comparison to the original interface) She hasn't played Forge before, though she plays many games especially flashy ones on facebook.

While it looks cool compared to the original, but points out that it looks "squashed". The font size for the sub items is small, and runs into the top and bottom borders, makes it hard to see, especially for larger screens. I don't relish the idea of making it dynamic though.... While it may look good for netbooks, on a 21" screen, it will be too small.

She says there's not enough difference between the headings and the sub-items... she might tend to click on them headings, thinking they're broken, as opposed to just being headings.... Lack of roll-over might not be enough of a clue.

Funnily enough, she likened it to the old DOS games, like she felt she should reach for the arrow keys...

[moomarc]

Haha! I took the same approach in getting my wife (non-gamer in my case) to give a gut feel and she loved it. That's the curse of design.. it's impossible to please everyone. I was working with screenshots of the original UI to get font sizes etc seeing as I wanted to make it as easy to implement as possible. I hadn't really expected it to be all graphic buttons in the end.

I'll think of how to change the non-interactive headers and I'll make the rest of the buttons a bit taller. I'll also play with the fonts a bit and make them more legible. In the meanwhile is there any way that you could post a standalone version of the UI as implemented thus far, so that we can get more feedback from the other devs and testers?

We must also keep in mind that this is intended as the default only, so I based the button style on the token title boxes I made for the pets. I wanted to create a overall feel that is a mix of medieval and a hint of modernity, but didn't want it to be bias towards any magic colour. Other replacement themes could have much more vibrant colours and different fonts to suit different tastes.

Suggestions welcome.

[Rob Cashwalker]

LOL.. don't ask the devs... ask the devs' wives....

I like the visual link to magic... my wife doesn't play, so that part just passes her by.. They all can get like 5 - 8 pixels taller, with a pixel's-worth more margin. Changing the colors between headings and items was my wife's suggestion. I was thinking that clickable items could have a metallic background inside the frame.

The primary problem is that the imagery is tied to the target resolution of 600x600. I'm considering having to go down a route I really don't want to - providing the opportunity to re-size, re-arrange and re-image the gui elements through a file - like a real "skin". Then there would be a default built-in skin at 600 and default skins included for various other resolutions.

But before then, I'll just finish up updating with all the new button images and post the screenie.

[Chris H.]

Would it be worth it to release a beta with these UI adjustments? To give our user base a chance to try it out first-hand and to then comment on it?

[Rob Cashwalker]

no where near ready yet...

[moomarc]

I think that might be a better idea as they'll have the feedback we want... USER feedback (if we let the wives decide I might as well start adding flowers and diamonds. )

I'll probably be able to do some of the button replacements this weekend. I'll work at 5px taller per button (excludes start button) if you want to prepare the java side.

With regards to making it resizable, I'm not sure it's worth it. The current UI is smaller, and though it's resizable, the individual elements don't scale.

Edit: Okay, saw your reply to Chris, but I do think we should release a version as early as possible. I'll try create one theme replacement as well so we can get feedback on that process too. Just let me know which the final files are so I know what to replace...

Edit 2: Fixed some spelling

[Rob Cashwalker]

I would not make it dynamically resizable... using the window handles.. Just that the user could select a different skin which could modify the overall size and position of the window plus its elements.

[Jaedayr]

Perhaps try to post the changes immediately after a beta release and get some extended alpha testing and feedback.

[Sija]

Hi everybody I'm newbie but i wanna show my layout



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