Since getting the service layer running for Zifmia, I’m now focused on the client side look and feel and getting a first iteration completed by PAX for the IF Demo Fair. To that end, I’ve come up with a first draft of the wireframe layout.
As you can see, this is very different from previous Interactive Fiction UI designs. There are tabs on the right for different types of content. Popup menus that can auto-enter commands relative to a word in the text, a history of commands and recommended commands, a movement panel with all of the common directional verbs for auto-entering, a list of users (the lamp represents who is in charge of entering commands, everyone else is a watcher), an achievement panel, and a description panel (which will show the results of examine, search, and similar commands without using a turn – everything in-scope is known for every turn).
I’ve tried to keep the focus on words and reading as opposed to images, but this the first foray into developing a Zifmia web client and I wanted to try to stay somewhat generic. Future, game-specific user interfaces could have clickable maps, and other features. Eventually, Zifmia will allow a UI package to be uploaded that contains javascript, css, html, and images and tie the package to a game. Then when someone starts that game, the game UI package is used to display the game.
There is still one piece missing and I’m still pondering the implementation. The user can review previous turns. This data is stored on the server. So if the user has played 100 turns, how do we show this and how can we make it easy to select a previous turn or allow paging? This is a purely UI question. Technically, retrieving any turn is a simple AJAX call.
Since we’re using jQuery to design pages, we should be able to offer jQuery themes too.
I will also be adding oAuth to protect the service and offer pay games, web chat, and more.
I’m hoping to have the bulk of this design ready for PAX.
The Textfyre Times 