tiny improvement: where am I?

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filbo
Posts: 647
Joined: Fri Jun 20, 2014 10:06 am

tiny improvement: where am I?

Post by filbo »

Sometimes I just can't find the player at the start of a level! Like 'The Exception Two' level 6 ('levels/Emerald Mine Club/emc_exception_2/6'). Player's in the upper right corner, but it took me a while to find him because it's so busy.

So: could the player(s) please glow or something until first moved? Like a 1s sine wave blink cycle (from normal to much brighter to normal). Or blink, or have a throbbing circle around him, or whatever...

This should apply both for a normal start and for single-step. I often start a level with: SPACE(play) from main menu, immediately followed by '1' (start single-step). Now the level's sitting there completely static, and I start trying directions to move, and in this case only 'down' does anything and I don't even notice it as I quickly die.

In fact this might be good in a couple of other places:

- any time the game is paused in single-step or just pause, for more than a set period of time (optional, or delay is user-settable, because of course it'll bug some users). Useful if you paused a level, went to bed or something, came back a long time later and weren't sure where you were.

- on demand any time (I've occasionally lost track of myself in some sort of melee). But this is unnecessary (or, already available) if the player starts glowing after a few seconds of pause...
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Holger
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Re: tiny improvement: where am I?

Post by Holger »

This is also a good example of how small details can improve playability and usability in general quite a lot. When looking at classic Boulder Dash, the player's position is blinking for a short time before the player really appears on the playfield, which has not only the advantage that you cannot miss the start position of the player, but you also have a short time where you can see what's going on before the player enters the game.

While the latter cannot be easily added to existing levels (at least it would look strange, as the playfield would have to be frozen during that time), the former could indeed be added as described.

Which also reminds me that I often have the same problem in the level editor, and not only for the player, but for arbitrary game elements: Where the heck is that single element that the "info" tab tells me that it is part of that level?! So being able to highlight the selected game element in the level at all existing playfield positions would be very useful.

Instead of letting the player blink (which could still get lost in a level full of animated and flashing and blinking enemies), I could also imagine to play a quick "centering rectangle" or "centering circle" animation at game start, which starts with a larger radius and quickly centers to the player, which should also be easily visible in a level full of animations.
filbo
Posts: 647
Joined: Fri Jun 20, 2014 10:06 am

Re: tiny improvement: where am I?

Post by filbo »

Yeah, I was thinking of that 'focusing circle' thing: on some desktop OSes, you can set it so that hitting some key (like left-ctrl by itself), or waggling the mouse, causes a focusing circle to zoom in to the cursor location. A way to do that on demand in RnD would be good, though dedicating a key to it seems like overkill.

But if pause does it, that's enough.

If there's a configurable timeout, before the timeout is reached there could be a button on the pause screen: '[click|touch] to highlight player[s]' (basically complete the timeout).

And yeah, a 'highlight all the this elements' action in the level editor would be awesome. Possible implementation: whenever you click on a thing which sets the 'pen color' -- anything in the element list tray, or one of the 3 'pen color' displays themselves, or ctrl-click on a element in the level -- briefly flash all such elements on the level. Just a 1/4 second blip would be fine, I think. If you want more you could repeatedly click on the left / button 1 'pen'.

Oh wait, that doesn't work, clicking on a 'pen' gets you to the Element Settings screen. But repeatedly click on that element in the element list, or ctrl-click on an instance in the level.

Couple other level editor ideas I've just had, not particularly related:

- a little number under each of the 3 'pens' representing the count of that element on the level (the 1st thing you see in Element Settings)

- search box for elements: click 'magnifying glass' type icon, text box appears; type 'steel' and see all elements with 'steel' in their names (? or descriptions?). Results shown as another segment in the element list tray, like 'USE'. (maybe '[ ] search in descriptions' is an option in the search box)
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