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The 10 Default Serial Number User Interface Design Failures

On 05.17.10, In Design, My Rants, by GamingHorror

So you got this PC/Mac game and during install or when you’re first starting it, you’re asked to enter a Serial Number like WARZ-DOOD-IROK-4331. Errr….

I would like to indulge on the serial mistakes companies make when it comes to entering serial numbers and why this process, if done wrong, only helps to reinforce software pirates.

#1 – Serial Number is not trivial to locate. Either there is no mention whatsoever in the “Please enter your serial number” dialog where to find the Serial Number, or that information is wrong. It doesn’t happen very often but when it does, it’s a painful experience. There is no standard place where a serial number is printed but it’s very common to see them printed on the backside of the manual, at the bottom, or on one of the disks itself. Hopefully that disk isn’t in the drive while you’re asked to enter the serial number! Less frequent but very annoying are serial numbers printed on the inside of the cover pages, either the first or the last page, along with other text and not visually enhanced with a thick border, red color or something to that effect. One game i know hid the serial number on a label underneath one of the disks of the DVD box. This may actually be a good place if that disk is the first disk and the setup program asks you to enter the serial number right away.

#2 – Serial Number font makes it hard to differentiate certain characters. The game SpellForce i worked on suffered from this very unfortunate problem. Certain characters like 0 and O or 7 and 1 were so hard to differentiate, and printed in a font that was way too tiny and consisted of dots instead of lines (as if it was printed with a needle printer), that consistently users entered incorrect serial numbers. It was a customer support nightmare. A good serial number does not use look-alike characters and either print the zero with a slash inside or do not use either 0 or O in their serial numbers.

#3 – The Serial Number entry box is a simple textbox. Usually the serial number consists of dashes to seperate blocks of 3 to 5 characters. A simple textbox leaves it up to the user to enter the dashes and makes it hard to spot missing or extraneous characters in each block. Take a look at how Microsoft implemented the serial number entry boxes – each block of characters has it’s own box and the dashes are already printed between the boxes. The cursor advances to the next textbox when you filled in the exact amount of characters from the first box. This is the best way to ask users to enter a serial number and it should be standard with all other methods frowned upon and getting a 10% review score deduction if they don’t use it. Game companies, please learn this lesson!

#4 – Dashes are added automatically while entering the serial number. This is the poor man’s solution of Microsoft’s (and other’s) serial entry fields which uses several textboxes with the cursor advancing (see #3). In this case we have just one textbox but someone thought the user needn’t enter the dashes and so they are added while you are typing. It does help to get the number of characters per block right. However, the problem with automatically added dashes is that they’re not immediately visible and the user will type them anyway! Sometimes you’ll even end up with 2 dashes!

#5 – Dashes are not printed at all. In my opinion this and the following are the worst kind of mistakes. Your printed serial number contains dashes but while you enter it in the single textbox it does not allow you to type dashes. Some users may frantically try to type the dashes and get frustrated, they may even think their keyboard is broken. You’ll end up with a long chunk of non-seperated characters and it makes it very hard to spot any mistakes or missing characters. Game Developers: DON’T MAKE THIS MISTAKE!!!

#6 – Serial Number entry box is case sensitive. A serial number never contains lower-case characters. Any serial number entry box that prints the letters as they are typed, which is usually lowercase, is just downright dumb and stupid. I’ve seen it myself: users start entering the serial number, they notice that the letters are printed in lowercase, so they go back and delete them and then enter the characters with the SHIFT key held down. Of course this can lead to other mistakes, like holding the SHIFT key pressed while entering a digit. Major disaster! There is no excuse whatsoever not to automatically uppercase any letter entered in the textbox!

#7 – Serial Number has several entry boxes but cursor does not automatically advance. Someone tried to copy Microsoft’s system but forgot to implement the crucial element to advance the cursor to the next entry box once the correct amount of characters was entered in one. This is a user interface nuisance which simply need not exist. That is a 5-minute task anyone can implement even during a rush to get things done quickly (aka crunch).

#8 – Serial Number is entered using the game’s ornate font. This makes the characters not look at all like the ones that are printed and in some cases makes the characters hard to distinguish even if the serial number itself took care by not using characters like O and 0. Do not use ornate fonts for entering serial numbers, period.

#9 – The Serial Number contains upper and lowercase characters. Yes, seriously, WTF !?!?!?! Use a modern serial key generator service that adheres to certain usability standards. Serial Numbers with upper and lowercase characters should be outlawed.

#10 – The Serial Number entry boxes allow you to enter invalid characters. Developers already know which characters are allowed in the serial number and which aren’t, so why not filter them out? Do not allow the user to accidentally or incidentally type characters which can’t be part of the serial number, like any SHIFT+digit character if the users does happen to hold down shift while entering the key.

Let’s recap, a serial number should:

  • be all UPPERCASE
  • not use similar looking characters
  • be printed in a standard location (back of manual)
  • be printed in a readable and reasonably large font
  • be visually highlighted from surrounding text or images to make it easy to spot
  • not be printed on the disk if it may be in the drive when the user is asked for the serial number
  • not be printed under the disk in the DVD case if the user is asked for the serial number before having had to remove the disk during install

The User Interface Guidelines for entering Serial numbers are:

  • one textbox for each chunk of characters with dashes already drawn between boxes
  • cursor advancing to next textbox when exact number of characters has been entered
  • entered characters are automatically and properly uppercased
  • invalid characters are not allowed to be entered
  • uses a font that closely matches the printed font / does not use an ornate font

It’s really rather simple, so why do i have to see these mistakes repeated over and over again???

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First steps towards a cocos2d hex-tile engine

On 03.28.10, In Design, by GamingHorror

I decided i should start with the first steps towards my own game. I already know that it needs to be tile-based because that makes a lot of things a whole lot less complicated. I also know that rectangular tiles just don’t cut it and hexagons are the way to go. Not only that, they’re a natural fit for what i intend to build – but no, it’s not going to be a wargame and you’re not going to move around entities across the grid either. For now i’ll leave it up to your imagination what the heck i might be doing. It’ll become clearer over time. ;)

I already know about the scaling issues of tiled engines, this cocos2d forum post being a good example. So i’m wary of mathematically correct hexagons (correct as in fractional vertex coordinates) and instead tried to come up with a simple hexagon shape whose vertices all lie on fixed point coordinates. In the image below it’s the top row. And as you can see in comparison to the perfectly shaped hexagons below (implemented according to this 8-year old Gamedev.net article) they are a bit compressed along the Y-axis. But that is actually ok since i would prefer a look not straight from above but at a slight angle, so that any objects can be drawn as seen from a 60° or even 45° angle. On the other hand each object now needs 5 images for each of the 6 directions, with the horizontal direction mirrored. And hex tiles can’t just be rotated to any angle, only flipped along the x axis. So there’s a lot of gfx to be done (and paid for) but i’ll worry about this later on.

In fact, i fully intend to work on this game off of my mind, step by step. No big plans, just one step at a time, and see where it leads me to. I have some grand ideas of course but i see them more as a guiding light than a plan that needs to be implemented. If i learned anything from the process of creating Black Hole is that it’s never a singularity you’re working towards. The game shifts and drifts as opinions clash and fun evolves. I don’t even want to imagine how crappy the game was when we started but it can be a painful process, the idea that seemed so cool seemed to fail so utterly at one point and just didn’t provide the necessary fun for quite some time. But as you move along things start to come together in different ways, as you try out different ideas. And that’s how i’m planning this game. At the moment all i know is that i need a hex engine for cocos2d.

But doesn’t cocos2d support TMX maps which support hex maps? Well yes, and no. It doesn’t support hex maps with the edges pointing up and down but i need the straight connections to be in the horizontal direction. The other thing is: i don’t want to design maps, i want to generate them. And change them during gameplay. That seems like it’s not possible with TMX hex maps. I also want complete freedom, and taking a little time to come up with a hex tilemap engine is time well spent. I’m not building an engine from the ground up, just what is needed to draw a hex map and selecting fields based on coordinates.

About the look of the game, i browsed the web to find good examples of hex tiles that would fit perfectly to the game. But that was harder than i thought. There’s only one set of hex tiles i particularly liked, they were made by David Baumgart and posted on his Gamedev.net journal:

I especially like the blending effect seen in the zoom-in part of the image. As much as possible i would like to hide the fact that the game map is based on hexagons and create a much smoother, visual look. But that is still a long way out and i don’t even know if that’s possible on the iPad. I’ll definetely dig into that though.

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Why do Bioware and i not get along?

On 03.21.10, In Design, My Rants, by GamingHorror

If it comes down to western RPGs over the last couple years, there are only two companies providing us with high quality titles: Bethesda with Oblivion and Fallout 3 and Bioware with Mass Effect 1 & 2 and Dragon Age.

I just can’t seem to warm up to Bioware titles. After giving it some thought, i figured it all boils down to this: Open-World atmosphere and “feeling in control” (aka having many choices). While Bethesda titles throw me into a big world with a main quest guiding me through the game and dozens of side-quests plus the first-person view which just makes it easier to draw players into the gameworld because “you’re in it” and not just watching your player move through the world, the Bioware titles are inherently linear with the side-quests merely trying to give me the impression of a big world. In case of Mass Effect, this failed misably with their empty-world planetary side Mako-missions. That was a terrible and inexcusable drop in quality which led to me not doing any side quests at all because they felt so out-of-place.

As for choices, it seems to me that choice in Bioware titles boils down to just dialogue options whereas in Bethesda titles, you also get to make choices in the world. How you approach your goal, how you decide to finish a quest. Admittedly that is also possible in Bioware games but somehow it doesn’t have the same emotional impact, largely because those choices seem superficial when most of the game is obviously scripted. For example, in Dragon Age when i approach a group of people standing right in the middle of a crossway, i know that there will be a cutscene forced upon me and i have to get into this conversation. In Oblivion and Fallout 3 this rarely happens and when it does, it is scripted as part of the quest. I leave the house, and someone talks me up. He doesn’t stand there waiting for me to approach him, he (or she) approaches me from seemingly out of nowhere. Much more believable.

Speaking of which, suspension of disbelief. Bioware repeatedly kills it for me. One thing that stood out was the blood in Dragon Age. After a measly fight with a few rats, me and my companion are strewn with blood splatters. Way over the top. The conversation after that already fight felt a little bit out of place but when i went on and met my dear mummy, she was so worried about me even expressing i had the desire to follow my father into battle. There i stood, bloody as hell already, and mummy didn’t want to let me go to war. Plus i should really go see my brother and wife and son. So they were also very happy to see me, never mind i had blood all over me. Just great. I think this is one of the out-of-place ideas that Bioware allows because they don’t have a director who says no to these things. Or maybe it was marketing because blood & violence sells? Or maybe it was a programming geek who said we can do it and then he did and everyone saw there was blood and it was cool and everyone would love it. Right. But don’t get me wrong: i love blood & guts in games! In Fallout 3 it’s way over the top as well but somehow, it just fits into this grimy, ruthless world. It does not stand out as odd, in that case it just is cool! Maybe that’s because the characters have the common courtesy to clean themselves up when they go into dialogue.

And then, Bethesda titles do a great job of having both an open-world and relatively but not completely linear quest-dungeons. Bioware in turn is basing their world on top of linear quest-dungeons, so naturally places more often than not seem a little crammed while the parts in between can be awfully empty and usually are. This discrepancy adds to me sensing that this isn’t really a world i’m exploring, i’m merely moving from point A to B without any choice whatsoever.

What about eastern RPGs then? I must admit that i very much enjoyed playing Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey. They have been my first exposure to eastern RPGs ever and i loved it. Are they linear in nature? Mostly, yes. But they do two things much better than Bioware RPGs: they have a really compelling story to tell which is often tied into the action, this has really drawn me into the games in the first place. And then they try not to hide the fact that moving about the world vs. fighting are two different modes of gameplay, while Bioware, for whatever reason, choose to keep the dice-throwing mechanics in it’s combat system. Which makes it perfectly awkward to shoot at an enemy, seeing the crosshair over his body, yet missing every second bullet because you’re not well-trained with that particular weapon. Fallout and Oblivion instead rely on tried & true FPS combat mechanics and that just fits right in just like the turn-based combat of eastern RPGs is a welcome refresher because i can really make useful decisions during combat.

Overall, Bioware RPGs to me are combining the wrong elements to create their games and game worlds. It seems like a compromise in so many aspects, i’d rather choose the action-oriented open-world playstyle of Bethesda RPGs or the eastern RPGs with their impressive story-telling and turn-based combat. Not something that’s in-between and trying hard to stay true to the core of older Bioware RPGs like Baldur’s Gate. I’m sure, had i played this game back then, i would have loved it. But as a matter of fact, once i got a Bioware collection of old RPGs, the only RPG from them i really, really enjoyed was Planescape Torment. And that wasn’t even made by them.

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“Technical convergence is total bullshit …”

On 02.26.10, In Business & Industry, Design, by GamingHorror

That is just one of the memorably quotes from Jesse Schell’s speech at the DICE summit 2010. I like that particular quote because it flies in the face of Michael Pachter, who believes there will be one big entertainment box by the year 2020 … like whose going to produce that? Microsonyntendo-Applezon Business Machines? Sure.

Well, Jesse tries to imagine the question “Is Your Life Just One Big RPG?” and wants us to think “beyooooond Facebook”. If anything, it’s very entertaining to watch.

While the future picture he draws in the third part is, well, futuristic i do see that the tendency towards that direction is strong. But i’m actually more interested in the psychological aspects of today and their roots in reality that i find inspiring. There are certain things that never get said out loud, or not often enough. Especially for us game developers i do notice a lack of respect towards the psychological aspect of the games we find appalling (like Mafia Wars, Farmville etc.) or the achievement systems whose followers get ridiculed as Achievement Whores. That is not only missing a huge point, that is missing business opportunities with eyes wide open but narrow focused so you’re effectively too blind to see.

But … and therein lies the beauty: if you know that there are enough gamers out there who also see it that way, you can monetize that as well if you are willing to accept that it’s going to be a niche. It’s not going to fund you a million dollar business but it may well support your life as Indie game developer just fine. Examples are plentifold, and one of the most inspiring stories (and games made) in that area is Eschalon, a classic semi-turnbased fantasy RPG modelled after Ultima and others which won the Indie RPG 2007 award. The author, some self-proclaimed “normal guy” called Thomas, has against all recommendations for being an Indie success refused to give Interviews and the only personal insights he allowed are the ones in this forum post. It’s important to point out that he made 95% of the game by himself, worked on it for 2.5 years and invested his life savings into the project. If you have any love for old-school RPGs, give it a try – that man deserves it! And that game deserves to be played even more!

But enough of that, here’s Jesse Schell’s talk if you haven’t seen it elsewhere yet:

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Tutorials are an afterthought …

On 02.24.10, In Design, by GamingHorror

From my own experience and by looking at other games i am aware that in a lot of cases – even today – Tutorials in games are an afterthought. I would even go as far as to say that if i don’t like the tutorial chances are, i won’t like the rest of the game either. For a good game, the Tutorial blends in with the game, it just feels natural. Where it is an afterthought, it’s in cases like Prototype: at first, you get all the good stuff, all the weapons and powerups and what not and you are free to try one after the other. Then the game starts, and you’re just that little guy without all these powers.

Types of Tutorials:

1) you get it all but then we’ll take it away from you
2) we explain our overly complex system to you…
2a) … in just 5 minutes, even if you wouldn’t use most of this stuff anyway – we know you just want to play the game, right?
2b) … in 60 minutes because we think it takes this time to really memorize all the good stuff
3) we interrupt your playsession for this trivial hint shown in a messagebox!
3a) PC: if you happened to be clicking your mouse where the OK/Cancel buttons where – we are sorry, you don’t get this message a second time
3b) Console: if you happened to be pressing one of the action buttons that dismiss the messagebox – again, we are soooo sorry we didn’t think you might hit that button while playing our button-smasher and might want to see that message again.

From the comments:

4) Let the game show everything to the player, while not giving him the chance to try out for himself.

5) This is your sixth playthrough for the game? Too bad for you, you must take the tutorial again and you cannot skip! :]

Do you have more tutorial cliches to add to this list?

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