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Old 10-05-2009, 11:18 PM   #1
Brennan
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Default New game sneak peek: Drop four!

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

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Old 10-06-2009, 07:48 AM   #2
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Oooh nice!

Can't wait to start losing to Trgeoff at a new game.
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Old 10-06-2009, 03:59 PM   #3
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I know right But there has to be some weakness somewhere... I'll just have to keep adding games until we find it
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Old 10-06-2009, 04:20 PM   #4
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Default Take 2

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.
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Old 10-06-2009, 08:35 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Nithya View Post
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!!!!
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Old 10-07-2009, 12:14 AM   #6
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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.
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Old 10-07-2009, 12:25 AM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Brennan View Post
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?
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Old 10-07-2009, 12:35 AM   #8
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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)
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Old 10-08-2009, 03:36 PM   #9
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I agree with Trgeoff! Maybe a light grey or something for the empty spaces would be better.
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Old 10-08-2009, 08:01 PM   #10
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How about using a tone of gray in the empty spaces, and using darker colours in the chips.
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Old 10-08-2009, 10:50 PM   #11
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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:
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Old 10-09-2009, 10:12 AM   #12
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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.)
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Old 10-09-2009, 05:00 PM   #13
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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?
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Old 10-10-2009, 03:57 AM   #14
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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?

Last edited by trgeoff; 10-10-2009 at 04:00 AM.
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Old 10-12-2009, 05:28 PM   #15
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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

Last edited by Brennan; 10-12-2009 at 05:35 PM.
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Old 10-12-2009, 09:09 PM   #16
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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.
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Old 10-12-2009, 09:24 PM   #17
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Heh, I still like it. But actually I just thought of something to try that turned out neat:




Drop shadows!
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Old 10-12-2009, 09:34 PM   #18
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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
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Old 10-12-2009, 09:43 PM   #19
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Here, how about a really light blue?

Let me know what you think about this one:
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Old 10-12-2009, 09:57 PM   #20
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OK, cancel drop shadows. As neat as they are. Simple is good.


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Old 10-12-2009, 10:14 PM   #21
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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?
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Old 10-12-2009, 10:20 PM   #22
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Yes, that is the "selected column" indicator.
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Old 10-14-2009, 06:57 PM   #23
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I like it too.
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Old 10-20-2009, 03:43 PM   #24
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Looks good to me as well!
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Old 10-30-2009, 06:05 PM   #25
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By the way, thanks for all the helpful feedback
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Old 08-18-2010, 10:43 PM   #26
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I think it may be very helpful for each player's pieces to also be indicated by some sort of symbol in addition to a color. I've seen very angry posts in other places from color-blind people enraged that color was the only way to tell things apart.

And since playing on a mobile screen in sunlight isn't always perfect, adding symbols to the pieces may make glancing at the board that much easier for the rest of us as well.
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Old 08-18-2010, 11:04 PM   #27
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If the tonal separation is great enough (that is: you could tell the colors apart if they were converted to greyscale) then that solves both those problems too.


Im red/green color blind and have great trouble seeing the red pieces on the dark squares in wifight checkers, because the red has exactly the same greyscale value as background (see attached pic). The black outline doesnt help a great deal Im afraid either, because its very thin.

The drop4 image shows that totally CB people would have probs with the yellow and green, although I dont personally.
Attached Images
File Type: jpg Checkers.jpg (32.7 KB, 418 views)
File Type: jpg Drop4.jpg (24.1 KB, 415 views)
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