New game sneak peek: Drop four!

[Brennan]

Not bad for a couple hours work. At this point it does play turns and detect wins. But no draws yet, heh.

[Nithya]

Oooh nice!

Can't wait to start losing to Trgeoff at a new game.

[Brennan]

I know right But there has to be some weakness somewhere... I'll just have to keep adding games until we find it

[Brennan]

And after some 4am hackerizin':



Not 100% sure I want it to take up the whole playfield like that but I like how big and chunky the pieces feel now.

[trgeoff]

Originally Posted by Nithya

Oooh nice!

Can't wait to start losing to Trgeoff at a new game.

lol, you just need to read this simple explanation, Nithya,

http://www.connectfour.net/Files/connect4.pdf

and you'll be fine!

Anyway, I think youre a natural at any disk game!

Re fullscreen, well at least there's no need for keeping score on the side

Looks like a really great addition to wifight!!!!

[Brennan]

Now with most-recent-move indicator:


Seems like having some different board sizes might work well here, especially since 7x6 seems to have been pretty well studied and solved.

[trgeoff]

Originally Posted by Brennan

Now with most-recent-move indicator:


Seems like having some different board sizes might work well here, especially since 7x6 seems to have been pretty well studied and solved.

But I think its a bit like the situation with dots and boxes, or checkers, where the solutions are not all that easy (perhaps even more so, because all the sites that give you hints don't actually help much). While theoretically, if P1 puts disk in the middle column s/he should win, executing such a win is a whole different matter.

Are bigger boards versions much extra work?

[trgeoff]

oh and have you played around with different colors for the unused spaces? My 1st impression is that the black is pretty heavy, and overwhelms the colored disks, to whose attention the eyes should be drawn.

Ive been playing around with a Palm standalone version, Coconut Fern

http://www.superdisco.net/coconut_fern.php

Seems more gentle on the eyes (the colors on the Palm are more muted than on the website)

[Dan]

I agree with Trgeoff! Maybe a light grey or something for the empty spaces would be better.

[edes]

How about using a tone of gray in the empty spaces, and using darker colours in the chips.

[Brennan]

Thanks for the feedback, everyone! OK, how bout this?


Using "lightslategray" for the untaken spots. Also, the board is now squared off so the dots are in a grid, and the preview piece graphic is blended towards white instead of black. Whatcha think?

Multiple board sizes are quite doable, btw. Should I do the full 7x6 to 10x6 range of boards, or maybe just start with 7x6 and wait and see which sizes are really needed/wanted? Thoughts?

Here's what 10x7 (the biggest) looks like at the moment:

[trgeoff]

The grey still seems too dark to me. I cant remember the proper technical term, but if all the colors used were converted to their grayscale values, the grey, yellow and green would end up
pretty equal. I think you need a color that would have a much lower "xxx" value where "xxx" refers to the term I cant recall (the gin is not helping!).

I think the black is actually better than the grey, because the contrast in terms of the "xxx"ness between the black and the (green and yellow) is high (even if the difference is in the wrong direction, ie the blank spaces should have less "xxx"ness rather than more, which is the case with the black vs green/yellow.)

[Brennan]

I think you mean "Value", from "Hue, Saturation, Value". Value being the "brightness" I think.

Here's what the color scheme looks like converted to grayscale:


I can see how the green is the same brightness as the gray there.

So, how about "darkslategray"? Adds a touch of color, too.


I also put the board background color to "mintcream" (I love these SVG color names )

Here it is in grayscale:


More thoughts? I'm working on the win display; it's almost done. Also, any thoughts on doing various board sizes? I should probably just do all 4, huh?

[trgeoff]

hmm those poor little guys at the bottom still look rather oppressed to me!

(but better than the light grey!)

perhaps you could just have a thin black outline of a circle, rather than a filled in circle, thus denoting a vacant space more directly?

[Brennan]

Well, I guess it's either oppressed or hard to distinguish...



We'll see, I can always tweak it after launch...

Also, RE: board sizes, I'm gonna start with 7x6 (the classic) and 10x6 (the biggest). I can always add the intermediate sizes later on if there's demand.

Edit: changed colors about 700 times

[Nithya]

Aw, I don't like the grey. I prefer the black to it tbh. I agree with trgeoff about the need for contrast.

How about making the chips/coins black and red instead of green and yellow? That might help with the contrast. I think the problem here is that green and yellow are kind of wishy-washy colours and it's hard to find something to contrast with them.

[Brennan]

Heh, I still like it. But actually I just thought of something to try that turned out neat:




Drop shadows!

[Brennan]

I do get your point on the green/yellow issue too Nithya... I just find them to be a nice neutral pair of colors. I'm gonna try to make sure Green always goes first when I use them, too, so it'll be consistent.

Heh specific RGB suggestions or photoshop mockups welcome

[Brennan]

Here, how about a really light blue?

Let me know what you think about this one:

[Brennan]

OK, cancel drop shadows. As neat as they are. Simple is good.

[trgeoff]

yeah i like that much better, one can now readily focus on the pattern that is most meaningful in terms of game play (and its aesthetically pleasing).

Im taking it that the orange column highlight only appears when one starts the move selection process?

[Brennan]

Yes, that is the "selected column" indicator.

[Nithya]

I like it too.

[Dan]

Looks good to me as well!

[Brennan]

By the way, thanks for all the helpful feedback