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<H1>[MUD-Dev] Re: (fwd) AD: [custom graphical] whitestar</H1>
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<LI><em>To</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#kanga,nu">mud-dev#kanga,nu</A></LI>
<LI><em>Subject</em>: [MUD-Dev] Re: (fwd) AD: [custom graphical] whitestar</LI>
<LI><em>From</em>: "Dr. Cat" <<A HREF="mailto:cat#bga,com">cat#bga,com</A>></LI>
<LI><em>Date</em>: Thu, 30 Apr 1998 18:22:46 -0500 (CDT)</LI>
<LI><em>Delivery-date</em>: Thu Apr 30 16:23:49 1998</LI>
<LI><em>Delivery-date</em>: Thu, 30 Apr 1998 16:23:50 -0700</LI>
<LI><em>Envelope-to</em>: claw#kanga,nu</LI>
<LI><em>Reply-To</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#kanga,nu">mud-dev#kanga,nu</A></LI>
<LI><em>Sender</em>: "Petidomo List Agent,,,," <<A HREF="mailto:petidomo#kanga,nu">petidomo#kanga,nu</A>></LI>
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<PRE>
> 1) Thank you very much. :) And I do mean that.
Gee, you could have saved me the time and effort of making further
replies if you'd just said it was boring, or kept quiet. Ah well. :X)
> 2) Do you know any good sources about user interface? We're still very
> much in the blood-n-guts of the early parts of design, but it is certainly
> something that we have to think about, and not too far off. Granted, what
> with graduation approaching rapidly, I think the project is on hold, but
> after June, I will be able to dive in with more energy.
To me this is somewhat analogous to joining the initial wave of settlers
starting farms in the American west and saying "Hey, is there a good book
on how to start a successful ranch in Montana?" The answer is no, hardly
anybody even knows much about that yet, and the few that do haven't
written a book. If you want to try it, go invent your own ways to do it
and hope you're one of the experts in ten or twenty years, rather than
one of the failed experiments.
I'm a snob about game design and user interface design. I feel that
there's at most a few dozen people in each field that know how to do it
well, and everybody else is just fooling themselves. They're not asking
themselves the right questions, and they're not going through the right
kind of process to develop potential solutions. I'll grant that people
who build an interface or a game by carefully imitating an existing
interface or game can produce work that's "about as good as anything
that's been done so far", if they pick one of the best things that's out
there so far to imitate. But I think there will be far, far better work
out there in the future and that's more interesting to me.
There is some writing on these subjects out there, but I don't know if
there's anything I'd highly recommend, and I'm not very motivated to go
read everything I can find just to know what to suggest to people. The
best approach is just to plunge in and think hard and do the best you
can. That said, my senior apprentice does often recommend the following
to people:
<A HREF="http://www.useit.com/papers/heuristic/heuristic_list.html">http://www.useit.com/papers/heuristic/heuristic_list.html</A>
You can also find the full text of Chris Crawford's classic old book on
computer game design on the web now, at:
<A HREF="http://vancouver.wsu.edu/fac/peabody/game-book/Coverpage.html">http://vancouver.wsu.edu/fac/peabody/game-book/Coverpage.html</A>
He's also got an archive of all the articles he wrote for his Journal of
Computer Game Design at:
<A HREF="http://www.erasmatazz.com/Library.html">http://www.erasmatazz.com/Library.html</A>
I bought Brenda Laurel's book on user interface design, and her book
"Computers at Theatre" years ago, but I never got around to reading them
so I don't know if they're any good. I have a couple of textfiles full
of demented ramblings of my own that I'll post to the list someday.
*-------------------------------------------**-----------------------------*
Dr. Cat / Dragon's Eye Productions || Free alpha test:
*-------------------------------------------** <A HREF="http://www.bga.com/furcadia">http://www.bga.com/furcadia</A>
Furcadia - a new graphic mud for PCs! || Let your imagination soar!
*-------------------------------------------**-----------------------------*
--
MUD-Dev: Advancing an unrealised future.
</PRE>
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<li><strong><A NAME="00407" HREF="msg00407.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: (fwd) AD: [custom graphical] whitestar</A></strong>
<ul compact><li><em>From:</em> J C Lawrence <claw#under,engr.sgi.com></li></ul>
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<LI><STRONG><A NAME="00279" HREF="msg00279.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: (fwd) AD: [custom graphical] whitestar</A></STRONG>
<UL><LI><EM>From:</EM> s001gmu#nova,wright.edu</LI></UL></LI>
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<ul><li>Thread context:
<BLOCKQUOTE><UL>
<LI><STRONG>[MUD-Dev] Re: (fwd) AD: [custom graphical] whitestar Crossfire MUD</STRONG>, <EM>(continued)</EM>
<ul compact>
<ul compact>
<ul compact>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00259" HREF="msg00259.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: (fwd) AD: [custom graphical] whitestar Crossfire MUD</A></strong>,
Dr. Cat <a href="mailto:cat#bga,com">cat#bga,com</a>, Thu 30 Apr 1998, 04:29 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00264" HREF="msg00264.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: (fwd) AD: [custom graphical] whitestar Crossfire MUD</A></strong>,
Caliban Tiresias Darklock <a href="mailto:caliban#darklock,com">caliban#darklock,com</a>, Thu 30 Apr 1998, 07:18 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00269" HREF="msg00269.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: (fwd) AD: [custom graphical] whitestar</A></strong>,
Dr. Cat <a href="mailto:cat#bga,com">cat#bga,com</a>, Thu 30 Apr 1998, 17:13 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00279" HREF="msg00279.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: (fwd) AD: [custom graphical] whitestar</A></strong>,
s001gmu <a href="mailto:s001gmu#nova,wright.edu">s001gmu#nova,wright.edu</a>, Thu 30 Apr 1998, 20:53 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00287" HREF="msg00287.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: (fwd) AD: [custom graphical] whitestar</A></strong>,
Dr. Cat <a href="mailto:cat#bga,com">cat#bga,com</a>, Thu 30 Apr 1998, 23:23 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00407" HREF="msg00407.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: (fwd) AD: [custom graphical] whitestar</A></strong>,
J C Lawrence <a href="mailto:claw#under,engr.sgi.com">claw#under,engr.sgi.com</a>, Tue 05 May 1998, 18:21 GMT
</LI>
</UL>
</LI>
</UL>
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00292" HREF="msg00292.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: (fwd) AD: [custom graphical] whitestar</A></strong>,
Caliban Tiresias Darklock <a href="mailto:caliban#darklock,com">caliban#darklock,com</a>, Fri 01 May 1998, 04:12 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00295" HREF="msg00295.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: (fwd) AD: [custom graphical] whitestar</A></strong>,
Dr. Cat <a href="mailto:cat#bga,com">cat#bga,com</a>, Fri 01 May 1998, 07:38 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00300" HREF="msg00300.html">[MUD-Dev] OT: CGDC</A></strong>,
Adam Wiggins <a href="mailto:adam#angel,com">adam#angel,com</a>, Fri 01 May 1998, 18:43 GMT
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