How professional can one make a calculator game? Discuss.
6: Having the program run out of the box. It's far too common for me to try to run a program, only to find out that the author was using data not contained in the program. All data necessary to run the program should be included in the download.
6: Having the program run out of the box. It's far too common for me to try to run a program, only to find out that the author was using data not contained in the program. All data necessary to run the program should be included in the download.I really agree a lot with this. It annoys the shi- out of me to spend hours downloading a game or software, only to find out I have missing DLLs. It's also extremly annoying for those with no internet access at home, because they arrive with the game or software, install it then have to wait until next computer class to download the missing stuff, if he remembers what it was.
10: Have something to distinguish your program and make it unique. Don't write a quadratic solver unless it's freakin' 3D.Don't do it in grayscale, though, because a quadratic solver in grayscale has already been done before. :P (If old Omni members remember that fake news on the old board)
1) No default TI-OS menus, input routine and other type of GUI. Even more professional: custom fonts, but that's not that necessary.Sad but true: the standard OS menus are quite ugly. I think it's OK, though, for programs like Symbolic, Omnicalc, and Unit Ops, which are designed to be integrated into the OS. For other programs, I definitely recommend emulating the feel of the OS menus (standard repeat rate/delay, numbered/lettered options where possible, arrows to indicate when you're at the top/bottom of the list) but not the look.
Build smart software. Smart software make extensive (but never read) documentation useless. Smart software make the user feel he has been using it forever even the first time. Smart software subtly suggests. Dumb software impose constraints.I agree with all of this; these are all good principles for UI design.
A screen that adapt what it shows based on previous use is smart.This I do not agree with. If a program's interface changes every time you run it, that usually makes it harder to use (since you have to re-learn the interface every time, as opposed to a "dumb" interface that you only have to learn once.) Giving the user the option to change aspects of the interface is a good thing. But in my experience, changing stuff around automatically, in an effort to make things easier for the user, almost always does the opposite.
Certainly one major part of making your programs "professional" - maybe even the most important part - is designing a good user interface. That applies to all programs - games, editors, math programs, you name it. It's often a very difficult problem, and it's one that a lot of programmers have a tendency to ignore.Well, one reason why some people use custom fonts is speed. I even saw people using custom font routines that looked exactly like TI fonts just to get the speed increase over TI's slow text routines.1) No default TI-OS menus, input routine and other type of GUI. Even more professional: custom fonts, but that's not that necessary.Sad but true: the standard OS menus are quite ugly. I think it's OK, though, for programs like Symbolic, Omnicalc, and Unit Ops, which are designed to be integrated into the OS. For other programs, I definitely recommend emulating the feel of the OS menus (standard repeat rate/delay, numbered/lettered options where possible, arrows to indicate when you're at the top/bottom of the list) but not the look.
As for custom fonts, they're OK in some circumstances, but they must be clearly legible. All too often you'll see programmers who have designed their own fonts to try to look cool, while ignoring the primary purpose of text (that being, to convey information that the user can read.)Build smart software. Smart software make extensive (but never read) documentation useless. Smart software make the user feel he has been using it forever even the first time. Smart software subtly suggests. Dumb software impose constraints.I agree with all of this; these are all good principles for UI design.QuoteA screen that adapt what it shows based on previous use is smart.This I do not agree with. If a program's interface changes every time you run it, that usually makes it harder to use (since you have to re-learn the interface every time, as opposed to a "dumb" interface that you only have to learn once.) Giving the user the option to change aspects of the interface is a good thing. But in my experience, changing stuff around automatically, in an effort to make things easier for the user, almost always does the opposite.
Well, one reason why some people use custom fonts is speed. I even saw people using custom font routines that looked exactly like TI fonts just to get the speed increase over TI's slow text routines.Yeah, that's a good point. I was thinking about it strictly from a design perspective. (Maybe that's another mark of what I consider professionalism: not letting implementation difficulties get in the way of a nice design. :)) And I'm not saying custom fonts are always a bad idea, just that they need to be well thought-out.
How professional can one make a calculator game? Discuss.Since many people replied by features that make a calculator game professional, I think it is interesting to showcase some professional calculator games out there for z80 calculators.
If you're writing a game that will include regular updates, make the code modular so that users can download updates, not entirely new programs.I disagree with the first thing. Mostly because you'll ram will get jammed up pretty quickly with small add-ons and changes, I prefer a complete new version but in such a way that no data is lost. If neccesary provide a conversion program to convert old savegame data to the new format of savegame data.
Also, use a logical version numbering system.
A professional game shouldn't be uploaded all the time. A new version (with plenty of updates) from month to month. Otherwise, not all users are playing the same game. That's very important.
1.) Try to make the artwork in the game look as good as possible. Just because the calculator isn't very powerful doesn't mean you can't make a good-looking game.
2.) Don't release a public version of a game that is known to have significant problems (beta releases are different, though).
3.) Ask for advice from others on ways that you might be able to improve a game. Often times you may be biased in the judging of your own programs and they may not be as great as you yourself perceive them to be.
4.) Try to make something that will be not just played and deleted within a brief period of time. Aim to make the game something great.
5.) Optimize, optimize, optimize! Make it your goal to make the game code as efficient as possible.
Also, even though this does not make the game itself any more professional, it would be a very good idea to distribute the program under the GPL and include the source code with the game (like DJ said- the TI community is very open source, and I know I for one agree with this unofficial philosophy).
I have to disagree with you on #4, Scout. I can't speak for others, but I think application games are generally a waste of app pages. You don't need to install a whole app for a program. Things like Wolfenstein are very impressive without them.