[Theme Changes] Attention Theme Makers: Upcoming Game Collections in ES

[mediamogul]

@cyperghost

All great feedback, thank you. My original idea for 'All Games' was to do a ransom note style as I did, but using the various fonts from the more notable game systems. I lost interest in that direction when I realized the classic Nintendo logo couldn't really be used. Of course these are only meant to be quickly implemented stopgaps for myself until @UDb23 finishes his own stellar work, but you raise some good points and I might continue to develop them further if the mood strikes again.

Of course that's only my liking! Don't take this personally.

Certainly not. I've been in commercial design for too long to take any criticism personally. These days, as an art director, the first bit of advice I give our new designers is to get some thick skin and get it quick. Everyone's work can always be improved and in most cases, no one can see exactly where without the input of a group of like-minded people who share a common interest in the outcome.

[Omnija]

Seems everyone is getting around to adding these new features, and so i felt like i should too for my upcoming theme.

still need to get around to do the custom collection one but it's a start.

[mediamogul]

@omnija

Clean enough to eat off and sharp as a razor. Very nice!

[Rookervik]

I agree with many other people. Love the Last Played folder and logo. I love the collections in folders. All Games isn't too hot on the logo. But that's already been mentioned.

As far as keeping things in line with design, all of the "controller" arts look great. And for logos, those change depending on system... there are no design rules for the logos. So they all work.

I have noticed some changes in the carousel since theming was added. There is a gap between the white bar with logos and the grey bar with the number of games. That was never there. And logos do not scale as large as they used to on the selected system. So those changes to ES actually changed how all themes look. I do not mind the gap between carousel and #games, and I can live with the logos not scaling as large as they used to. It's just something I noticed.

As long as these "collections" do not appear as default systems I am happy. I turned off the saving of metadata changes... it speeds up the shut-down time immensely. And I only scrape images, otherwise my boot time would be somewhere around 3 minutes because of the size of the XML files. So I cannot benefit from "recently played" or anything like that. Since changes aren't saved.

Also, if you need to get in touch with me, make sure to highlight me here on the forum since we don't have IM. I don't have enough time to read every topic and see what I should chime in on. But I'm happy to help and love to make graphics. :D

[pjft]

Thanks all, and thanks @Rookervik for the reply. Indeed, none of these are default systems, you need to enable them. Even without metadata, though, you'll still be able to benefit from "All Games" if you'd have a use for it. :)

@UDb23 Here's a video with the latest icons:

Overall I like the direction it's taking - great job!

A few thoughts:

• The "Last Played" text feels misaligned, because its baseline is the lower part of the "y".
• The folder icons themselves are "larger" than the other controllers in the theme. It's weird, and I can only assume it's caused because of any blank space around the other controllers.

Both of these are solvable in the actual theme (I actually did so for the folders for the video, otherwise they'd be huge), but I'd probably prefer to have the theme values as standard as possible, but I imagine it's a minor thing.

I wasn't able to test the Custom Collections one yet just because it isn't implemented yet and I'd rather not butcher the theme even more :D

[mediamogul]

@rookervik

All Games isn't too hot on the logo. But that's already been mentioned.

'All Games' definitely presents the biggest challenge to represent visually for a user interface. Do you have any personal thoughts on how it might be best illustrated?

[cyperghost]

@mediamogul

'All Games' definitely presents the biggest challenge to represent visually for a user interface.

Well this is really a hard nut :)
For IO my idea was ... well... what is all?... RetroPie is a linux system....
Yes ... all means ROOT-dir so the sign I choose was </>
You can take a look here

I'm going to be excited how the Carbon theme will look like. There are tons of good designer work here :)
Maybe </roms> is a good looking one :)

[Rookervik]

@mediamogul Yeah I'm not sure. It is a very hard one to include. I was thinking some sort of galaxy font. All-encompassing. Or maybe some ALL ӕ GAMES with that little infinity symbol. Or using a letter from game system logos. Might be best to just go with a single font. As using different logos letters looks a little off:

(Can you tell which letters come from which system?)

Or maybe even have a folder in the logo for it.

"Folder Icon" ALL GAMES
"Folder Icon" FAVORITES
"Folder Icon" ETC

Those are just some ideas that I might try. I won't be using the folders so I am not too judgmental on how they look :D

[mediamogul]

@rookervik

Or using a letter from game system logos.

Yeah, I had that same idea, but hated not being able to utilize a letter from the NES. Also, as you say and no matter how you arrange them, it ends up looking off and too chaotic like a ransom note which is where I landed temporarily for mine.

[mediamogul]

@cyperghost

Yes ... all means ROOT-dir so the sign I choose was </>

These are the type of creative solutions I appreciate the most as pitches where I work, as they show a lot of personal thought and break away from overused conventions. However, an argument can be made here to keep with overused conventions for user interface elements, so as not to alienate the user with new concepts of iconography. That said, </> is a striking graphic image indeed.

[UDb23]

@pjft said in [Theme Changes] Attention Theme Makers: Upcoming Game Collections in ES:

A few thoughts:

The "Last Played" text feels misaligned, because its baseline is the lower part of the "y".

You're right, will be fixed.

The folder icons themselves are "larger" than the other controllers in the theme. It's weird, and I can only assume it's caused because of any blank space around the other controllers.

I will use some standard controller logos taken from original Carbon theme and check the actual "page size" in px that are used and if there is some "transparent border" around the controller graphics. Will the size the "folder" icons accordingly; that should solve the "too big" issue.

I wasn't able to test the Custom Collections one yet just because it isn't implemented yet and I'd rather not butcher the theme even more :D

I've been thinking (and searching the web for inspiration) a lot on how to make the "all game" text logo. Not yet ready with a new proposal but I found some more really interesting free fonts that could be used (also for "last played").
In my opinion for these "text logos" Bold title (and in some case condesed) fonts should be used; not too strange (would not fit with carbon aesthetic) and not too common (wouldn't stand out). Of course if, in addition the selected font would allow inclusion, as suggested, of some small icon, it would be perfect.
Will come with some new proposal soon.

Additional thought: as it's already the standard for music, could we call 'em "playlists" instead of "collections" ? Maybe it's just a crazy idea ;-)

[UDb23]

btw If interested I can share here the free fonts I found and get your opinion, before creating a logo out of them.

[mediamogul]

@udb23

not too strange (would not fit with carbon aesthetic) and not too common (wouldn't stand out).

I couldn't agree with this more. However, in it's own way, this balance is almost as difficult to achieve as any single design element. The other logos these have to compete with visually are some of the most creative and well-thought-of designs ever produced. My tendency in these situations is always to get as creative as possible out of the gate and pull back when necessary.

[hansolo77]

Are there any plans to make a "custom" list for games that support RetroAchievements? It's built into RetroArch, and more games are getting added all the time. The way I'm doing it now is having a subfolder inside each system folder (called "Acheviements"). Then if I decide to play a game with them, I go into that subfolder for the list of games that have them. A more simplified method, using these "non-system specific" collection lists would be awesome. Of course a change would need to be made to the skins/etc. I was just wondering if anybody is working on this?

[pjft]

@udb23 said in [Theme Changes] Attention Theme Makers: Upcoming Game Collections in ES:

Additional thought: as it's already the standard for music, could we call 'em "playlists" instead of "collections" ? Maybe it's just a crazy idea ;-)

It's an interesting idea. I'm not especially fixated on any particular terminology, and as far as themes go, theme makes can call them what they feel resonates the most with them.

In terms of playlist vs collections, at least my initial thought is that playlist is a good term for music because it's a sequential list of things to be played. In terms of games, I always thought of it as collections (in fact, per @Zigurana 's suggestion, which I was immediately sold on).

When I was younger, I could bring over my friends to see my fighting games collection, my favorite games collection, my Mega Man games collection... That term Is very much associated with games, at least for me. It also aims to bring back the physical aspect, as well as the collectible aspect of videogames.

I wouldn't think of playlists for games myself, I think.

[pjft]

@hansolo77 not automatically. But you'll be able to create one such collection in the future should you want to.

[mediamogul]

@pjft

In terms of games, I always thought of it as collections

Collections does seem to fit better for a grouping of games.

[hansolo77]

@pjft said in [Theme Changes] Attention Theme Makers: Upcoming Game Collections in ES:

@hansolo77 not automatically. But you'll be able to create one such collection in the future should you want to.

Sounds awesome! I'm actually going through my entire rom collection and "favoriting" all of the games I used to have. Kinda fun. I thought a similar method could be done for creating a custom list for achievements. Just go through each system and mark a game as a favorite if cheeves work for it. I was then going to just change the gamelist to say "Achievements" instead of "Favorites". Only problem, I can't figure out where the favorites gamelist is stored. It's not in the /retropie/roms folder, nor is it in the /emulationstation/gamelists folder. I thought maybe you were doing some trickery and adding an extra line for it to the existing gamelist metadata, but it doesn't show up there either. What gives? :)

In the case of achievements, I think having a simple button to "add to achievments" would be ideal, as compared to going in and editing the metadata (inside of ES) and switching a flag to ON.... Maybe L2 or something for adding to a custom list?

[hansolo77]

I think there's a memory leak somewhere. I experimented with adding the "last played" collection, as well as the "favorites". I then went through and added a dozen or so games to the favorites list. When I went back to the home menu and scrolled over to the FAVORITES menu item, I saw a couple of the backgrounds for other systems had been blanked out. MAME and then PC-Engine. I did a quick system restart (not just ES). It boots up ok, and the menus look correct. Then I go into FAVORITES and the whole system locks up. I power-cycle the Pi 3 and wait. Once back up, I try to go into a different system (Mega Drive for instance) and after scrolling about 3 lines down, the system is completely locked up again.

I'm using the Comic Book theme, and never had this problem until I enabled the collections folders. Also, my "Favorites" collection only has 22 games in it.

[UDb23]

@mediamogul let's stick to collections then.