Disability and game making - UI request(s)

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  • Ashley Tom and the rest of the scirra team

    I thought you guys might like to know that I've discovered that I can reasonably comfortably make games in C2 without using my hands.

    Because my hands are injured, I've been using a head tracker, dwell clicker and two different on screen keyboards. It definitely requires some patience as it's nowhere near as fast as using my hands, but it's a big step up from what little I was able to do before. There are obviously some tasks I need my hands for like making graphics, but for the vast majority of the work using C2 itself, it seems like I can use it pretty well!

    That said, there's one thing in particular that would really make it easier. On the event sheet, clicking below the scroll bar only scrolls down a small amount. In almost every other program I've used, like web browsers, clicking there scrolls almost a full screen down, leaving only a small amount of what was previously at the bottom of the screen then at the top. As it is, I have to keep clicking repeatedly, which requires a head turn each time, or switch to dragging mode with the dwell clicker and then back again, which requires extra head movements as well - not an issue when doing it a little, but scrolling around the event sheet happens a lot.

    Could it be changed to mimic the standard behavior of most programs? Or could it be made an option to set how far it scrolls? Then people could keep it the current way if they like it as is.

    Optimally, I'd like to be able to set the scrolling distance of the arrows at the top and bottom as well - currently clicking on them barely moves the event sheet at all. Being able to set those both independently would make it useful for when I don't want to scroll the whole screen.

    Another thing I think could be a good UI improvement, though less important, is to make use of the empty space to the right of the 'add action' links at the bottom of an event's actions. There's no link for adding anything else, and that seems like a good spot to use for it - the icons listed in the menu when right clicking an event would work perfectly there, so instead of 'Add action' it would read 'Add: (icons here for all the stuff in the right click menu, like condition - action - event above, event below, subevent, blank subevent, comment, group, variable, toggle disabled, etc). Mouseover could display what the icon does if people aren't sure.

    I know my situation is unusual, but I actually wanted it to work these ways anyway when I was able to use my hands, and I think it would be better for users in general if at least scrolling mimicked the behavior of most programs.

    I also understand you've got a lot to work on, so I understand if you can't implement features like these that would most benefit probably one user.

    I want to say how grateful I am for the work you're doing - I was really going out of my mind with such limited ways to express myself until I realized I could do this again, so thanks for making construct. It's helping me get my sanity back.

  • Great to see your back using Construct again!

  • Sorry for what you are going through.

    But, can we get a video of how you use it? I am reading through how you use Construct (and a computer at that) and it sounds really intriguing. I'd love to see how it is all done.

  • Hey, Alspal! Yeah, I needed a break from gamedev for a while but I'm having fun again. <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt=":)" title="Smile">

    Sorry for what you are going through.

    But, can we get a video of how you use it? I am reading through how you use Construct (and a computer at that) and it sounds really intriguing. I'd love to see how it is all done.

    Hmm... I think it would be easiest if I just link to what I'm using rather than record a video myself.

    The head tracker: http://naturalpoint.com/smartnav/products/4-at/

    Here's a video of it in use. I don't like sticking a reflective dot on my forehead, so I use a hat instead. Once you get used to it and adjust the settings it's a lot faster than the speed they show as well. It also shows one of the keyboards I'm using for a moment at 28 seconds in:

    Subscribe to Construct videos now

    The keyboard in the video works great for inputting small numbers or words, but for anything longer like expressions and such I use dasher: http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/dasher/

    It works like this:

  • Is it going to be ok man? Are your hands going to recover?

  • Nice to see you back around Arima.

    And I'm glad to know you have found some way to satiate your (game making) creativity needs again in a hopefully far less painful way than it used to.

    There is this Shard RPG thingy with a very nice battle system that still requires all your attention and needs to be released some day

    Welcome back.

  • github.com/brownhci/WebGazer

    Hey, neat! If I get a webcam I'll try that out. It seems to be a lot less accurate than the head tracker I've got, but it would still be useful for web browsing and such. Thanks for the link!

    Is it going to be ok man? Are your hands going to recover?

    Hopefully they'll recover at least somewhat, but since originally hurting them in 2005 they haven't ever healed past the point of being able to do a small fraction of what they used to be capable of each day. I've been to a bunch of doctors, including hand specialists, and their responses have been either to tell me they don't know, misdiagnose me saying they would just get better, and when I went back to one after they didn't, was accused of lying about how much pain it was causing me. So at this point, unless they invent some new treatment I'm not counting on it.

    Thanks Kyatric, it's nice to be back.

  • Arima Welcome back. I just want to tell you that I'm really amazed by your determination. I hope your hands will get better soon and I wish you good luck with your projects.

  • Arima Hope you get well mate!

  • Any event sheet improvement ideas I've made in the past have been ignored/unresponded, I hope that won't be the case for you too, but maybe they're wanting to just wait and fix the editor for Construct 3 instead?

  • Arima Welcome back. I just want to tell you that I'm really amazed by your determination. I hope your hands will get better soon and I wish you good luck with your projects.

    Arima Hope you get well mate!

    Thanks!

    Any event sheet improvement ideas I've made in the past have been ignored/unresponded, I hope that won't be the case for you too, but maybe they're wanting to just wait and fix the editor for Construct 3 instead?

    Maybe. I'm hoping my request is simple enough that it won't have to be put off that long, if they choose to implement it.

  • Well they are in the middle of making a new editor.

    Let's just hope the lessons learned from the previous ones guide them as well.

    Of course you have to take that with a grain of salt, as that means things like libraries, and etc which may have made things go quicker in development, may be off the table.

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  • Hello Arima,

    Thank you very much for sharing your experiences and solutions for using Scirra other than by hands.

    I find it very amazingly what you accomplished. Really it is an accomplishment you can really be proud of and which I admire very much.

    I hope your hands will be healed soon. You never know. I wish you very much success and hope to see more games from you here.

    Keep up the great work.

    Friendly greetings,

    Bad_Wolf

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