[Tux4kids-discuss] [GSoC] Tux Racing UI feedback

Fri Jul 27 06:00:08 UTC 2012

Hi Brendan,

On 7/26/2012 8:25 PM, Brendan Luchen wrote:
> Hi Kento,
>
> The stars thing confused me too; I couldn't figure out where they were 
> coming from. Having fractions of stars isn't such a good thing to 
> begin with, but keeping those fractions hidden by rounding makes 
> things worse.
>
> Alternatives:
> - Every question is 1 star, longer lessons have more potential stars, 
> making them more valuable
> - Instead of "Stars = x", show "Points = 3x / y" where x is the number 
> correctly answered and y is total number of questions
> - Continuous "Star Bar" to illustrate the cumulative percentage. We 
> can map the final score to 1-3 stars later. Can also use some kind of 
> cute fuel metaphor.
I agree, displaying the stars/progress wasn't well thought out, it was 
only intended to verify the problem generators were working properly. 
That said, I'll probably just change the star display to be fractional 
instead of integer. Maybe rounded to 1/4 star for display on the 
exercise page, so it's obvious when an exercise isn't at 100%.
However now that I've started working on the game play, I'm not to sure 
about the whole "stars ~ correct answers" idea... originally I intended 
on having problem solving rate be proportional to player velocity, but 
in that scenario it's logical to tie stars to finishing position (rather 
than % correct). That system brings up other issues though, including: 
ensure player is answering fairly and not quickly skipping 
hard/answering easy questions, having the NPCs compete fairly, and 
making stars explicitly represent speed but implicitly accuracy so the 
game is still about racing while requiring high correct % to finish 
first. NPCs is simple if problems specify finishing times for 1st/2nd 
position. Exercise can also specify how long the game is,  how much 
energy correct answers provide, and incorrect answers zero the energy 
meter and have a cool-down time to prevent quickly the first issue. 
Energy steadily depletes and the ship slows as the energy meter goes 
down, so the player must continuously answer questions correctly. In 
practice I'm not sure how well that solves the 3rd issue though... does 
anyone else believe 100% correct answers should be required for 1st place?

> Some minor UI things I noticed
> - "Settings and Quit" doesn't need to be a submenu.
I'm not sure what you mean? On Android it would make sense to hide the 
link since we have the menu button, but I'm not sure how to avoid the 
settings/quit menu altogether.

> - Looks weird in landscape. Probably the CSS needs some massaging, or 
> we can just force a portrait orientation, which isn't uncommon for games.
Which resolution are you using? For my devices portrait is the awkward 
one, with tiny icons / text and large white space.

> - No indication of the correct answer (Pere mentioned already)
The lines didn't show up very well on the sketch scan but the lower 
portion of the screen dedicated to answers will flash green and chime on 
correct, and red + error beep on incorrect.
>
> Looks good on the whole.
>
>
> Cheers,
> Brendan

Thanks :D
- Kento

> Kento Locatelli wrote:
>> Thank you for trying it out!
>>
>> On 7/22/2012 2:46 AM, Pere Pujal i Carabantes wrote:
>>> El dv 20 de 07 de 2012 a les 00:00 -0700, en/na Kento Locatelli va
>>> escriure:
>>>> Hi everyone!
>>>>
>>>> The Tux Racing cross-platform/mobile game project is about 3/4 
>>>> done, and
>>>> I would like your assistance in testing what is complete so far.
>>>>
>>>> Thus far most of the work has been with the "infrastructure" part 
>>>> of the
>>>> app so it's not particularly interesting yet, but the rest of the game
>>>> is based on this so I need your help in verifying it works 
>>>> properly! So
>>>> please mess around with it a little and let me know of anything that
>>>> comes up, whether it's a bug or suggestions for improving the
>>>> aesthetics. I am especially interested in problems with the problem
>>>> generator or UI on desktop browsers/iOS/Android, although feedback on
>>>> other problems/smartphone platforms is welcome as well. Relatively
>>>> recent Firefox/Chrome/Chromium serve as a good reference.
>>>>
>>>> Android APK (Android 2.2+):
>>>> https://github.com/klocatelli/TuxRacing/TuxRacing.apk/qr_code (May 
>>>> have
>>>> to temporarily allow non-Marketplace apps)
>>>> Web-based: http://www.klocatelli.name/TuxRacing/#/index (After loading
>>>> once, should work offline in relatively modern browsers)
>>>> iOS package will be released with the final version, but currently
>>>> pending response from Apple regarding beta releases
>>> Testing in a hurry
>>> Only testing on iceweassel 10.0, don't have android:
>>> language settings ca es en : error no modules for your locale, should
>>> default to english?
>>> language settings en ca es : runs
>> Unfortunately the game only has access to the highest priority language
>> setting, so it doesn't know you have English enabled at a lower
>> priority. But I agree, it's a bit odd to have the game default to a
>> different language (English) and then tell you there aren't any modules
>> for your language... I changed it so everything defaults to English, and
>> lessons that support your language show up at the top of the lesson list
>> while lessons that don't show up lower down with a warning that they're
>> in another language.
>>
>>> playing chemistry:
>>> significant figures: Don't know what are significant figures so figure
>>> kids...
>>> density: haven't managed to get recognized right responses.
>> Turns out the density problem was a bug in how answers were checked in
>> the chemistry lesson, it should work as expected now.
>> I agree that the questions don't fit the purpose of the game, but they
>> are for demonstration purposes only :)
>>
>>> playing arithmetic: right responses are recognized, Perhaps one would
>>> expect a map 1<->1 from right responses to stars. Putting the questions
>>> in small blocks of 5 questions each is great.
>> Isn't that what it's doing right now? Every question is worth 3 / total
>> number of questions. Right now all exercises are 5 questions long, so
>> every question is worth 0.6 stars. If an exercise was 15 questions long,
>> every question would be worth 0.2 stars. The stars count is rounded
>> though, so if you get 2 questions right you only see Stars = 1 (even
>> though it's 1.2).
>>
>>> The ok dialog is a pain, it should autovanish and show the right
>>> response in case of error, we are teaching after all.
>>> The number of stars and the title of the exercise perhaps should 
>>> show on
>>> the top of the question
>> I agree, the current exercise page is a pain... however it's just for
>> demonstration :D My previous email should have had some attachments
>> showing what the final exercise page will look like, though I will alter
>> it to include your suggestion of the exercise title / stars.
>>
>>> No mute/unmute here
>>>
>>> HTH
>>> Pere
>> Thanks, that was another bug! Should be fixed now, though I tested with
>> Iceweasel 11 instead of 10
>>
>> Cheers!
>> - Kento
>>
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