Mobile Skin
- GickerLDS
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18 Nov 2016 02:06 #1
by GickerLDS
Mobile Skin was created by GickerLDS
I've ben wanting to get something set up for my MUD to make mobile gaming easier. I've considered both a native app for iOS and Android, as well as using Web Sockets or some other web technology to do what I have in mind, but maybe the answer is most easily found here by re-skinning the MUDPortal client.
Essentially what I want to do is use the client here, in a full maximized window. On the right side, I want to have a sidebar, with perhaps 3 or 4 rows. One for movement, one for info (score, equipment, inventory, etc) and the third for combat, and perhaps a 4th for custom buttons. Whenever one of the 'row' icons is pressed it pops out a group of buttons, for directional movement for example, or for buttons that fire off specified commands. In the case of combat, it might have a row of buttons that, when a mobile user presses and holds, allows them to specify the target, so you could have maybe 4 preset attack targets. And then the 4th row, custom buttons, you'd press and hold to specify a preset command. The idea is along the lines of what the Android blowtorch client could do, but more preconfigured for my MUD.
I think this is better than creating a native app, because it doesn't need updates, will be responsive in design, and will work on any platform that supports HTML5.
So I'm wondering if that's doable with the MUDPortal client as it currently stands, and if so, if I can get a few pointers on where to look or get started on it.
Cheers!
Gicker
Essentially what I want to do is use the client here, in a full maximized window. On the right side, I want to have a sidebar, with perhaps 3 or 4 rows. One for movement, one for info (score, equipment, inventory, etc) and the third for combat, and perhaps a 4th for custom buttons. Whenever one of the 'row' icons is pressed it pops out a group of buttons, for directional movement for example, or for buttons that fire off specified commands. In the case of combat, it might have a row of buttons that, when a mobile user presses and holds, allows them to specify the target, so you could have maybe 4 preset attack targets. And then the 4th row, custom buttons, you'd press and hold to specify a preset command. The idea is along the lines of what the Android blowtorch client could do, but more preconfigured for my MUD.
I think this is better than creating a native app, because it doesn't need updates, will be responsive in design, and will work on any platform that supports HTML5.
So I'm wondering if that's doable with the MUDPortal client as it currently stands, and if so, if I can get a few pointers on where to look or get started on it.
Cheers!
Gicker
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- plamzi
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20 Dec 2016 21:34 #2
by plamzi
Replied by plamzi on topic Mobile Skin
When I first built the client, I made some responsive design decisions to make it work fairly well on mobile and tablet. But it's hard to keep these things up when you're one person, and usability has most likely degraded over time.
Since the client is open source, anyone can take it on and build on the mobile UI behavior to make it work better on smaller screens.
But just so you know, web apps are pretty far from competing with native ones when it comes to latency, responsiveness, providing the best experience. Yes, it's tempting to go that route because it's less work, but most likely you'll find that even years after the release of iOS and Android, you will be frustrating users if you expect them to play your game on their phone (or even tablet) via a web app. There's just gonna be some really rough edges.
Since the client is open source, anyone can take it on and build on the mobile UI behavior to make it work better on smaller screens.
But just so you know, web apps are pretty far from competing with native ones when it comes to latency, responsiveness, providing the best experience. Yes, it's tempting to go that route because it's less work, but most likely you'll find that even years after the release of iOS and Android, you will be frustrating users if you expect them to play your game on their phone (or even tablet) via a web app. There's just gonna be some really rough edges.
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