Board Game Arena

Please for the love of all things good, include an "Undo" move button in your games.

And a "Restart" turn button to go back right to the beginning of your turn too please.

It just feels very bad when you accidentally hit a move you don't want to and there is no way to undo it. This is easy to do on mobile or smartphone.

I've messaged the BGA staff and they say it's up to individual developers to include this function. I know it may add more complexity to a game, but it's a huge help when learning or playing new games, or on mobile/smartphone, or when a game includes complex play mechanics.

Thank you for your consideration.

I think this depends on the game and how it is programmed. See also the BGA Undo policy: https://en.doc.boardgamearena.com/BGA_Undo_policy

Starwarrior1128 wrote: ↑20 March 2024, 04:43 Please for the love of all things good, include an "Undo" move button in your games.

If you are looking to contribute. Then head over to the BGA Studio site.

https://en.doc.boardgamearena.com

Game on.

Undo is not a box you check to just make it happen. On many games, it's the most complicated part of development and testing. Furthermore, once implemented, undo is is very bug prone and players still request more savepoints and functionality. As such, it's often avoided by game developers.

I understand it's a very highly requested feature, especially by those who don't appreciate the effort required to implement it. I would offer that BGA games are usually open for anyone to contribute to, so if you feel strongly about it you can add the feature yourself. I suspect, however, that the real ask is for someone to just volunteer dozens of hours of time to do it for you, which isn't entirely reasonable.

It's also a pain to face. Watching a player make a move, then having them hit undo as you're getting ready to make your next play can be frustrating. It's also a pain to watch in replays. I do wish undo options were restricted a bit, such as a limit to 1 undo in a row, so players can't keep hitting it for the same turn, etc. Some players use it to be annoying, others use it to test moves instead of calculating it beforehand like they're supposed to. That's not to say the undo button doesn't have its place in some games for known missclick concerns, but I can't say I'd be excited with it as any sort of universal option. It's something to balance on a game-to-game basis.

For sure, which is why BGA policy actually discourages allowing undo.

Adding turn confirmation buttons is a grsat way to prevent misclicks and is easy to do.

I don't think BGA policy discourages undo button; in the wiki page describing development they say please consider including it.

BGA Policy wrote:When to propose to Undo?
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.

I read that as at least - proceed with caution.
Undo and confirm can be the same thing. To not confirm and start again is the same as undo.
It's probably now that even more consideration goes into the UI and exactly how turns are completed. And gives the best information to the players so they can tell what's going on.
The level of undo in some games now is incredible. Seems like every action has to be coded with a reverse / undo feature. And this is all stored into a DB action stack. It's very impressive. It must at least double the workload.

While the undo abuse can get annoying, it's still part of the world where you'd want to have it, rather than not.

Note that you can vote there : https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=13887

+1
I'm so agree with that !
Missclick is so annoying when you learn a new game !