<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_extra"><div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div class="im"><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34)">The added icons are shared between multiple game demos, and their images</span><br></div>
aren't unique enough to be able to locate game demos by scanning icon<br>
images alone. Which makes the icons pointless.<br>
<div class="im"><br></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div>That is true, we need more icons. We already got 116 distinct game icons, we can add more. Reverting everything because we lack icons for each and every game isn't a solution, IMHO. I find that the icons make it easier to distinguish game demos, but if you feel that we will need a fully textual layout, perhaps there is another way of distinguishing entries? For example, perhaps we could make the demo titles bold instead, and keep the variants non-bold? Though the icons do make the page look a bit more colorful and easy for the eyes.</div>
<div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex">The game demos isn't that bad, users can select the section they want,<br>
and then scroll down the alphabetical list to the game demo they are<br>
looking for, or browse through the game demos from a single developer.<br>
The game demos page is already sorted into sections based on the<br>
developers, and all game demos are listed alphabetically, with an<br>
average page length.</blockquote><div>(...)</div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex">If the multiple game demo links were to be hidden be default, it should<br>
be based on the game name. Rather than simply showing the first matching<br>
demo, and hiding all other game demos by default view. But that still<br>
leads to requiring more clicks from users, to access the direct links to<br>
the game demos.</blockquote><div><br></div><div><div>Yes, but the problem here is that it's hard to find out what you want, cause there are all sorts of different game variants and games with very similar names.</div>
<div><br></div><div>For example, say that a user wants to download the Windows demo of Putt-Putt saves the Zoo.</div><div>Here's what he sees with the previous layout:</div><div><a href="http://s2.postimg.org/thtu17bix/puttput_old.png">http://s2.postimg.org/thtu17bix/puttput_old.png</a><br>
</div><div>and here's what the user sees with the current layout:</div><div><a href="http://s29.postimg.org/kbvqq7cqv/puttputt_new.png">http://s29.postimg.org/kbvqq7cqv/puttputt_new.png</a><br></div><div><br></div><div>
IMHO, it's much easier to find what you're looking for when you don't have to look through entries that have very similar text. With the previous layout, he had to read through 24 Putt-Putt entries before reaching the "saves the zoo" episode. And he/she has to go through 6 different demo variants of "saves the zoo" to find the one he/she wants. By grouping similar game variants together, it's easier to first find out the game you want to find, and then its variants. Also, it's easier to see where the Putt-Putt games start from the icons in front of them (i.e. it's easy to see where the Pajama Sam games stop, then the Putt-putt games start, and then the Spy Fox games start).</div>
</div><div><br></div><div>I agree that we can use the demo name to group the demos together. Wonderful idea :) We can split the demo names in two: the demo name itself (e.g. "Freddi Fish 1: The Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds"), and its variant (e.g. "Windows demo"). We could either split the title in the XML itself, or do it in Javascript (however this is slower and more error-prone). The entries have been grouped by target name because it was easier to use the target name as a unique ID. It should be straightforward to change that grouping by the target description rather than the target ID, but we'll probably need to do that in the XML to keep it simple and non error-prone. That way, we can avoid having the first entry as a recommended download too, if we want. We can just make a clickable first entry (e.g. "Freddi Fish 1: The Case of the Missing Kelp Seeds") which will show a submenu/subfolder with all of its variants.</div>
<div><br></div><div> <span style="color:rgb(80,0,80)">> But there is no quick access in that page, if everything is included in</span></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div class="im">
> there! It's easy to get lost in there, and it's really not usable. It's<br>
> a big blob of entries, and the only way for someone to find anything is<br>
> if he/she already knows what to look for! This kind of defeats the point<br>
</div>> of having a page at all - we can just link to the <a href="http://sf.net" target="_blank">sf.net</a> <<a href="http://sf.net" target="_blank">http://sf.net</a>><br>
<div class="im">> demos page for that matter, which has everything grouped, and avoid the<br>
> extra administration burden.<br>
<br>
</div>I think you are exaggerating the issue, the game demos page may be<br>
large, but it is organized, especially compared to the simple directory<br>
listings on SF.<br></blockquote><div><br></div><div>But the point is that it's hard to find entries inside that list because of multiple entries per demo, for the reasons explained above.</div><div> </div></div></div>
</div>