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Tooltips vs Translations
Posted: 16 July 2020, 19:30
by tsaunat
Looking for advice. I've programmed a rather simple tile collection game and I've been asked in the suggestions to add tooltips to the tiles for how they score. While I am being lazy I'm also concerned this will add several lines to be translated -- (presumably again because it's already in the rules), where it's a pretty simple scoring system and already has several visual iconographic indicators of scoring systems. Is it sound advice to add tooltips and I am being lazy or is it possible to overdo the amount of ways to tell someone how scoring works and my laziness is justified?
The game is Butterfly and it's in Alpha if anyone is interested in specifics.
Re: Tooltips vs Translations
Posted: 16 July 2020, 21:23
by paramesis
I would err on the side of accessibility and too many tooltips. Any time I'm learning a new game, I have to refer to the icons at least a couple times and BGA gives us a way to be empathetic to that. It's like reminding a new player at a physical table of what an icon does, even if you already explained it, instead of telling them to look it up in the rulebook. The bigger fish is making the experience enjoyable for new players so they'll stick around. Besides, the interface always gives the option of turning tooltips off in the hamburger menu.
Regarding translations, if the string already exists in another part of the project, it is possible to store it in the JS or material.inc and reuse it. In any case, It looks like you only have 40 strings now, which is very light compared to other projects.
Re: Tooltips vs Translations
Posted: 16 July 2020, 21:37
by Brainchild
In general I think it's a good idea to add tooltips for as many rules as you can reasonably explain. In my ideal scenario the entire rulebook would exist in the tooltips, such that a new player could pick it up without even reading the rules.
That said, each case is different, so I'll join the Butterfly alpha and give some feedback.
Re: Tooltips vs Translations
Posted: 16 July 2020, 22:09
by Brainchild
I just read the rules. You should absolutely add the rules text for each tile to the tooltip!
For anyone else wondering:
https://www.ultraboardgames.com/butterf ... -rules.php
In my opinion Sushi Go is an excellent reference for how this can be done.