destiny team mailing list archive

[Zach Elko <zachelko@xxxxxxxxx>]

After some discussions, we've decided to shift our design from our initial
idea. Some of you know about most of this, some of you do not.

*No Central Hub*

We will no longer use a central hub of navigation for our game packages.
Each game will be its own independent application. This decision was made
because the added complexity of getting QT and SDL to talk to each other and
change execution states between each other was not worth the benefit it
provided (read: there was basically no benefit).

Due to this, the Menu application is no defunct. It will remain in the
repository for nostalgic purposes, but any bugs that you may come across
that relate to it in any way are most likely irrelevant.

*Reduced Role For Avatar* *Creator/Editor*

We've decided to only use the Avatar application for "Sleuths". There are a
few reasons for this. First, it's the only game in which it really made
sense. The user will be able to design their avatar initially, and then
alter it over time as they earn points from solving cases. The other reason
deals with the fact that we aren't linking QT and SDL together anymore, but
this is more part of the *reason* that we aren't. Previously, we were trying
to force the avatars into every game when they really didn't belong. This
led to the need to link QT with SDL. Now that we aren't using the avatars
everywhere, we don't need to link the two libraries.

*Undecided Issues*

I'm still not sure how to approach the login application. We need to talk to
our client partner and get a hard and fast answer on what sorts of statistic
reporting she's comfortable with. I've thrown around the idea of displaying
a stats screen at the end of each game, and then she could instruct her
students to hold their hands up when they finish so she can look at the
screen and check them off as having legitimately attempted to make use of
the game(s). This would cut out a lot of complexity for us (no transmitting
profile data over the network, etc...), and seems to be more in-line with
what she initially said she wanted to use the stats for, which was just to
ensure they were taking the games seriously and not just picking random
answers.


Please chime in with thoughts on any and/or all of this.

Zach J. Elko
Ball State University Unified Technology Support
Certified Hardware & Software Technician