Game Dimensions

[Kevin]

Hey matlu what are the exact game dimensions? I was thinking about redesigining parts of the game login screen Game selection screen, lobby etc.
And I need to know hte exact dimensions in px. thanks

[matlu]

Currently it is 560 x 420 pixels (I mean whole game window). It is possible to change it, but it would require very good reason (and it's not likely).

Currently I'm trying to redesign lobby. I think that we need 2 kinds of lobby:
- lobby for games which can be played by 2 or more players (like cyber wars). In this lobby somebody creates new game, other people join in, and the game is then started
- lobby for 2 player games (checkers, reversi etc.) I'm not sure, but PROBABLY it's better to let this work differently (jagex also had it this way): anybody can directly challenge any other player by clicking on his name, he can accept or refuse the challenge. It is probably better than first approch (create a game, and wait till somebody joins).
WHAT DO YOU THINK? Should there be 2 different lobby types? Or also 2-player games should have same lobby as "multi" games? (create game, wait till somebody joins)

If you want to redesign any screen, just do it

- probably also the name of the game should be displayed in the lobby
- there should be a list of games in progress (to be able to spectate them)

[zzboots]

Yes, having two different lobbies would be good.  Seems very pointless to have people trying to make games where only one person can join.  Being able to challenge someone is always nice

[matlu]

And one more thing in case you redisgn screens: player should be always somehow instructed what to do. Newbies often abandon games, because the controls seem too difficult, or they don't know what to do. So there should be messages like "click a game to join", etc...

[Kevin]

Alright I completed the first part. The game selection screen
You can find a link here
http://www.duelboard.com/forum/index.php?topic=100.msg839

Also, the max width and height for pictures on this forum is 400 by 300 so you have to click the link in order to see it in its proper size.

[matlu]

Also, the max width and height for pictures on this forum is 400 by 300 so you have to click the link in order to see it in its proper size.

Ok I changed picture size limit on the forum to 560 x 420

Alright I completed the first part. The game selection screen
You can find a link here http://www.duelboard.com/forum/index.php?topic=100.msg839

Looks nice.
- background is nice, but it would probably increase data-file size too much. Some people play from dial-up, and the game takes already too long to download for them. (All data files currently occupy only 60kb. Game code itself occupies 35kb. I spend much effort to make it so small. Both sizes will increase soon anyway). But I can try to generate same background on algorithmic basis. Should not be too hard.
- I would have to also somehow include your fonts into data file. My rendering engine currently supports only monochromatic fonts (single color), but I'll probably improve it soon.
- I will also probably implement possibility to load and display jpg images. These can be compressed very well. I will probably make possible to have some jpg image as background.

- anyway, more importent than fancy fonts and nice background, is to design good layout... I mean placement of buttons, lists etc.