Dear Programmers...

[JoysJoy]

We really appreciate you and the games that you make. But there are a few things that we wish you would include whenever you program that increase our enjoyment and encourage us coming back:

1) Please do *not* Switch player colors on rematches. It is terribly confusing and causes unnecessary stress while playing. It's hard to remember which color you are if it changes every single time the game does. Instead, keep previous color players had whenever possible. Some games already do this and they are much more fun to play.

2) Please *always* Include undo buttons and confirm buttons. Playing on a tablet or a phone is frustrating. It is easy accidentally touched the screen on a turn and it was not what you meant to play, causing losses that are not due to our choices. "I changed my mind" is also appreciated with turn based games where the other player has not yet played.

3) Please be sure to add some kind of tooltip button so that mobile players can actually see what's going on. Playing on mobile devices means we cannot always hover/touch areas to find out more information

4)Please have resize buttons available so we can arrange the screen and a way that allows us to play well.



Any more suggestions?

[Strode]

I'm not with you on #3. Depending on the game, it can be annoying to have to click confirm every time. And I dislike this:

"I changed my mind" is also appreciated with turn based games where the other player has not yet played.

You made the move, stick with it. And what if the next player is currently analyzing the board and it turns out you can change your move? No way!

[Gulchen]

1) ​ ​ ​ Is this just for games without a rules difference between the colors? ​ When there is a rules difference
- for example, player order - it seems to me that the players should be switching roles.

(Also, I'm guessing that ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ what you're asking for here would require a change by BGA ​ because ​ the closest the game-implementers
could come is adding an in-game option to change which colors are displayed for the players in the current game ​ ​ ​ .)

[Meeplelowda]

I'm not with you on #3. Depending on the game, it can be annoying to have to click confirm every time. And I dislike this:

"I changed my mind" is also appreciated with turn based games where the other player has not yet played.

You made the move, stick with it. And what if the next player is currently analyzing the board and it turns out you can change your move? No way!

The OP is not talking about changing a confirmed move that others can see and base their plans on. That would obviously be problematic. But there are some games in which players simultaneously make hidden decisions and can change their minds up to the point at which everyone else has committed to a decision.

This keeps coming up over and over and over again to the point where I have this saved in a text file:

This is a great summary written by a BGA developer about adding an undo function on BGA that I can't improve upon:

Why are the inclusion of undo buttons so random and sporadic over the games on here?

Undo needs to be implemented individually for every game. It's not a box you check to just make it happen. Furthermore, undo is tricky to implement correctly and very bug prone. As such, it's often avoided by game developers.

Either commit to allowing rectons to be made, or ban them over the entire site unless a game specifically allows for it in the rules.

Wish granted?
Official BGA policy states that undo should be avoided in games.
"As a rule of thumb, on BGA we advise you to not undo moves. Undo are painful for opponents, in real world and online. Some players may also use Undo to 'test' situations while they should just think instead. In many cases, proposing an 'Undo' means also adding an extra step, which is not good for the game interface."
See https://boardgamearena.com/doc/BGA_Undo_policy

Since BGA seems to be going to allowing them, why doesn't this game have one?

In summary:
1) Undo isn't encouraged
2) And it's not trivial to implement

I developed Gaia Project and got a similar request. I don't want to volunteer a dozen hours to implement a feature that I don't feel is needed and may introduce tons of bugs.

[Kayvon]

Thank you for your appreciation -- and for the quote from that other thread. Maybe I can clarify a few more things...

1. BGA's system handles this autonomously. We programmers have no idea what happened in the previous game when a new one is started; the code can't tell.

2. See my quoted comment above. If it were as easy as checking an "include undo" box, every game would have it. Instead, it's complicated, bug-prone, and thankless. No matter how much time we pour into it, someone's angry about it still. I do choose to include it on most games now, but players should understand that budgets and limited time exist, so it's a development tradeoff, not a simple inclusion.

I can't speak to the others as the UI designer handles those, but I will say that most (a little over half) players are on mobile, yet they consistently think they're an exception to rule, rather than the majority. Games are definitely tested on mobile before release.

[Kayvon]

This keeps coming up over and over and over again to the point where I have this saved in a text file

That's terrific! Thanks for being awesome.