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Surprise! New home theater alpha coming out soon...


Jason Carr

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Kriven said Edit: Right now all the images you've shared use games with traditional tower box art. How does the program react to games which have front art that is wider than it is tall? (Like N64 and SNES games..)
I am also curious, specially about Steam banners
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Great ideas, guys. @bd000, the wall I hit had to do with aesthetics/placement. I'm pleased though because I think we have that solved, at least for the alpha, thanks to you guys. One issue I'm seeing is that the fonts are still too small for the living room (I did a test last night). So we're still trying to fit a bit too much on the screen there. I do like the concept of using icons/graphics to help with that (and I love your ESRB idea Kriven). I've had plans to add those family features for ages, so that makes a lot of sense to add soon, indeed. Game music is easy, btw, I already have that added. :) How did you guys envision that side letter thing? Always visible, or only when you go left? Would it be enough to gradually scroll really fast and pop up the current letter big on the screen?
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I too am curious how you plan to tackle the different box sizes. Are you planning a different layout, for example N64/SNES games? Regarding the side letter thing, I think a pop-out from the right would be best. Those that scroll faster then pop up a big letter can often be awkward to control. Regarding the font size, you may have to loose some information. If you don't mind, I will have a play with the layout now see if I can make it work and maybe give you an idea how to tackle this.
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Right now, the boxes just leave space underneath for N64 style boxes. What do you mean a pop out from the right for the side letter thing? Yeah, please do feel free to keep tweaking some mockups. We may wait until after the initial alpha to make any big changes to the placement of things, but we'll probably have multiple views eventually and we'll want the best possible layouts, ultimately.
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OK. How about something like this: mockup1.jpg Move most of the details to the menu bar. Make the box art a little smaller and move the play count/date under it. Replace the rating, genres and complete status with icons. Increase the font size of the synopsis. I managed to get all of BS2's to fit, but you're probably going to have to add a scroll bar to this anyway. You could even add the favourite status in the top right corner. Or as another icon: mockup2.jpg
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Hi Jason. This is a really exciting direction in which you're taking LaunchBox. The layout looks great, not too cluttered, and I really like the image thumbnails suggested by bd000. Maybe these could be scrollable and active in that clicking one would bring up the full size screenshot in a window or full screen depending on your configuration. http://i.imgur.com/HY81bBQ.jpg The Play, Open Folder etc sidebar on the left could be expanded to link to other game related things like the game manual. The only thing I'm not too keen on is the alphabet ladder for quick game navigation. While the idea is great, it looks out of place and takes from the overall look. Definitely needs to be hid in it's current form. The alphabet could also be horizontal at screen bottom, or in a checkerboard style popup. I can't wait for this development to appear - it's like waiting for Christmas!
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Oooh, love the idea of a checkerboard layout for the quick jump menu. This would make it quicker to get to letters further down the alphabet. Also, regarding the scroll bar, maybe something like this (see image below). The three dots could shift along a notch when scrolling. mockup4.jpg
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IMO, having the letter ladder on the left as originally conceptualized is the perfect, cleanest solution. I'd prefer it to be there as long as the user was browsing the games, but to disappear when the user selects a game and the "Play" menu appears. I really, really hate having the letter tabs pop-up as you scroll through the library, though. That's always a pain in the neck. Maybe you could implement multiple options and allow the user to define their preference? Example: "Letter ladder on left or Quick Navigation Pop-Up" "Letter ladder always present?"
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I just want to add, and I meant to include this inititally, that the reason I think the letter ladder works best on the left side of the screen is: First: We read left-to-right. Any kind of slide-in that happens on the left is going to be more easily recognizable than one that occurs on the right. Two: Everything else the player can manipulate is along the left-hand side of the screen.
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There is already a menu on the left though. In the last image posted, on the left side, that is a menu (with clear logo at top) which slides in from the left I think (left press - or am I mistaken here Jason?). Under it is the list of games for the selected platform. Jason said that he already experimented with that menu on the right but it didn't work and is best on the left. That only leaves the right side. Up and down won't work because they are used to scroll the games list. You could put it on the left as a second menu, so, 1st left press = quick jump, 2nd left press = game menu. Another option may be to map it to a controller button/shortcut key and have it pop up on the left or center screen. Personally, I think the always-visible option does make the screen a little too busy and the checkerboard option is a great idea for quicker navigation (remember this project is aimed at couch usage, so using a controller to navigate.). I like the idea of having an option to set a personal preference +1
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Your original mock is what I mean: https://www.launchbox-app.com/wp-content/sp-resources/forum-image-uploads/bd00/2015/05/mockup_1_no_logo.jpg Tap left or right to snap between the letter ladder and games list. For example, if I'm on "Halo" and I hit either the left or right arrow key, the highlight snaps to the "H" on the letter ladder. From there I can Up and Down through the alphabet. After selecting a game, the ladder goes away and both the Letter Ladder and the Games List are replaced by this display: https://www.launchbox-app.com/wp-content/sp-resources/forum-image-uploads/bd00/2015/05/mockup4.jpg There's no reason why the two menus cannot be side-by-side.
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I made a demo in Game Maker to hopefully better help me get across what I'm trying to explain... https://www.mediafire.com/?bcqc7c21sya7lj2 Escape will quit the program, pressing Enter while over one of the letters (only #-C work because... well, small demo) will narrow the games list. I forgot to add a method of returning to All Games, but I still hope this gets everything across okay.
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Hi guys, thanks for all the discussion here, and the demo, Kriven. The initial alpha will not have any kind of a letter bar, but we'll look to add this shortly after. So far I'm most fond of bd's original letter bar concept (on the left). We could make it optionally show up only when going left, always visible, or just turned off.
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Here's the current state of the Platforms screen: Untitled-2.jpg Honestly, I'm not overly happy with it, because I feel like it conflicts too much with the look and feel of the games view, which looks like this: Untitled-3-1.jpg So, I'm a bit torn there. I do really like the functionality of having the Favorites and Recently Played sections. I also want there to be a Recently Added section as well. Any ideas?
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