[disc] how do you like to display flash games?

i don't know if that has been asked before, but anyway...

you are browsing a flash game site and decide to launch/play a game... how would you prefer to see it displayed/opened?

my poll is divided in 3 categories so far:

1)/2) the game opens in a popup
basically you click a link to a game, and it displays in a popup window, with the browser's navigation enabled or disabled
3) the game opens in the same window
you click a link to a game, and it displays in the same window, and you generally don't loose the main navigation interface of the site.
4) you can choose the method
you have the ability to choose between 1)/2) or 3) via a correspoding button before opening a game

i know some people clearly dislike pop up windows for example, can you explain why in that case? it doesn't need to be a sophisticated answer, just your short thoughts regarding your experiences, and maybe strong/weak points of each solution...

thanks.

I try to use as little JS as posssible. But, perhaps if "pop-ups" are turned off in their preferences, that could work against you. Also, my games are all 300px wide.

Quote:

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Originally posted by kendude
I try to use as little JS as posssible. But, perhaps if "pop-ups" are turned off in their preferences, that could work against you. Also, my games are all 300px wide.

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as far as i know, pop-ups turned off in the preferences only block automatic pop-ups, not the one you are clicking intentionally yourself...
i also like to keep the same window dimensions for each of my games ^_^
but when it's a game for a client, you really never knows.

Thanks MARMOTTE, I wasn't clear on the "pop-ups" and prefs. I never realy looked into it. I myself prefer it in a regular window, less clutter on your screen.

I like the pop-up games, like newgrounds does it. If you have a slow connection you can let the game load while you use the main browser window to something else. Its very clean and its easy to close the game without closing anything else. I have Firefox and ofcourse I use the tabs. Thats why new windows might sound strange but Its actually very usefull. Since you can then close the window and return to you stuff. And since you play the game and you dont use any other program then the new window wont bother you.

The only thing is that I dont want anything else than the game in the window. Not a "mail to friend" or a "click to close" or anything else. Just the game. But it should be in an html window so you get a proper title :)

Popup window prefered here aswell, although it has to be carefully coded as i have had trouble launching popups with firefox before...

If in doubt give the user the option :)

I voted earlier, then realised i had a science exam..

I like pop-ups the most, but i say give the user the choice, you can never go wrong with that :)

thanks for the votes and posts so far.
you people have clearly mixed feelings about it; there are as many votes in 1) and 3), the other options are almost ignored... interesting.

A pop-up window is maybe the best mode of display flash games for me, I don't like much play the games in the main page of the site, in a pop-up window I have more focus. :D

interestingly enough, all the posts here prefer the pop-up window way, apparently. but regarding the polls, the "in the same main window" solution currently wins.

I prefer main window to pop-up. Pop-up games can be distracting, while full screen lets you focus on the game you are playing.

I definitely prefer pop-up's with no browser navigation included. It looks neat and makes for easier browsing. It's how i've been doing it at my site for ages now anyway.

Having the flash in the main window is just annoying since you then have to open another window of the site in order to continue browsing it as you wait for the other thing to finish loading.

This is the kind of thing pop-up's were meant for!

interesting thread.

Pop up blocker software will stop your popups working and some users may not be willing to disable it just for your game. Anyone who has been to newgrounds can't blame them. I don't visit purely because of the adverts and popups.

I think displaying the game in the main window is good if there are few distractions, sometimes it can be useful to have html data alongside the game e.g highscores.

As Ihoss said, a popup is very useful if you have a slow connection. The last thing you want to do is sit and wait for something to load. I simply drag the window to my other monitor and carry on browsing. It is worth bearing in mind as a sizeable portion of your audience are still on 56k modems.

Personally I feel the user should have a choice. If you want to appeal to the widest audience possible, don't force people to do things your way, unless there is a technical reason why they should.

Just my thoughts :)

Good question marmotte!

I have mixed feelings between pop-up or same browser window. If it is pop-up, then I would have just the window with the game - nothing else. However I also like the miniclip games, how they are inside the main site.

But hey, I would put both so the user can decide :)

I spent a few hours browsing web design ideas at http://www.cwd.dk. I have learned to loathe sites that have popups, splash screens and arty navigation systems.

If the game is on a popup, no matter how good it is, I won't see it. I'll have closed the window and left the site the instant the popup opened.

Even worse are sites that try to control the width of the browser window. Popups on my system are re-directed to tabs using a Mozilla extension. If the popup, now a tab, tries to re-size the window, it changes my entire browser's width.

The reason a pop up is good is that it then looks like an application. If you opened a game in flash player then you play it and when finished you click the [x] button and it's done. If you open it in the same window then you have to hit back and that doesn't givethe same feeling.

Another big question is the dimensions of the game. If the game is very big then I would prefer the miniclip way. But if the game is smaller then I like the newgrounds way. Since i work on a 1280*1024 computer anything will look small. Therefore I like the pop up version.

Since there is no clear answer I think you should have an option. But remeber that a game should be easy to open. You shouldn't have to choose from a drop down box, hit send then a link comes that you click. It should just be 2 links, one a pop up and the other in the same window :)

Ihoss, what do you consider a 'big game'? The default stage dimentions that come with flash - 500x450?

I generally use smaller than this - so I guess pop-up window?

550*400 is about the max I can take. But if you have a widescreen game or something then its accepted :)

I personally like the game in a pop-up. I just think it is a lot cleaner and more professional looking for some reason.

[hijack]
On another note, I've been working on a flash portfolio recently. I am thinking of giving the user the choice to open it in the same window or pop-up, but there is one problem. If the user chooses to open the game in the same window, I do not want the user to sit through the preloader and short intro and then go to the games section again. Is there any way to make the flash file go directly to the games section with php?
Sry for the hijack. :(
[/hijack]

pop-ups are an annoyance,

occasionally they default the browser, so all other windows open at the same size of the popup.

if the type of game needs the mouse input for gameplay, there is the chance that you'll click offscreen and if you have other windows open it will hide it.

I'm protected against auto-pop-ups and some other pop-ups) so you'll loose visitors.

pop-ups that take over my screen get closed down immediately. fullscreen pop-ups get Alt+F4 treatment.

if you try to launce a larger pop-up without shutting the current one down the new open won't be fully visible.

there's about 7 million who don't have javascript enabled browsers.

http://www.fastfroots.de/ prooves that you don't need pop-up windows to make your game look nicer. However if you navigate to 'Ecard' and click pop-up, nothing happens for me - that's pop-ups for ya!

and if you're going to have pop-ups, you should think about giving an option to play in current window or in a pop-up.

However, if you're a mac user, this may be completely different, navigation on macs are a pain in the arse, so i'd possibly prefer them... kinda shattered my own argument there...

dbarbarian, you could probable do this with cookies (I don't fully understand your explaination)

TOKEN3, everything is the same pretty much with a MAC, except for IE (Oohh that IE makes me mad! When it comes to CSS, but that's another thread.) I use Safari or Camino and I steer clear of pop-ups. At work in Netscape 7 I don't even get them. I am in agreement with you 100% TOKEN3.

*Pop-ups are irritating, if your site sucks and is littered with crap...then you are better off with a pop-up so your game can have some justice.

Personally, I like it when the game loads up in the main window. What I like even more is when a brief description of the controlls and basic mechanics of the game are listed underneath the game itself. As you can probably tell I don't like reading instructions and having at least the controlls listed below allows me to jump right into the game.


The only time I prefer popups is when the main site has an ad or two that is also flash based. The ads really seem to slow down games on my computer and with a popup I can play just the game without the ads slowing it down.

token: What I meant was that when you finish playing a game that you oppened in the same window and press the back button, the browser will take you back to my flash portfolio, but because it's flash, it will go through the preloader and all that stuff again and display the home page. Then the user has to go the games section again to chose a different game. I was wondering if there was a way to send a variable to a php file or something when you press the "play game" button, then load that variable when the site is loading up, and if that variable is true, it will automatically go to the games section. Then, it will reset the varaible to false so the next time you visit the site, it will load normally.

Hey,

I think that, if it's true that pop-up blockers dont block pop-ups opened by the user, that a pop-up without navigation is the neatest. It looks realy clean and it gives the user the option to keep browsing through your site.
On the other hand, if there are pop-up blockers that block all pop-ups, then you should give the user the choice between both.

Greetz,
SphuA

Quote:

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there's about 7 million who don't have javascript enabled browsers

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Those 7 million are very unlikely to play flash games :)

I'm not takling about the pop ups you get when you launche the site, just so you all know that. I'm talking about the "play Now" link that you press and a pop up opens.

This is what I mean

Dbarbarian, is your portfolio completly in flash?

If so, I thought there where some possibilities in flash to let the browser-back/forward-buttons lead to a certain section of your movie instead of just the previous page that just loads the complete movie again.

Can this be in a new thread?

Just wondering.. how do you make a link wich opens the swf in a pop-up window without navigator?

Not trying to be offtopic since this is what it's all about, but if someone feels like it is, I'll delete it and make a new post.

Quote:

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Originally posted by SaphuA
Just wondering.. how do you make a link wich opens the swf in a pop-up window without navigator?

Not trying to be offtopic since this is what it's all about, but if someone feels like it is, I'll delete it and make a new post.

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in fact this has been covered more than millions of times ^_^
here's a way:

1) in the html page containing the .swf:

PHP Code:

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<script LANGUAGE="JavaScript"> 
function popup(){ 
window.open("http://www.xxxx.com/game.html","","height=240,width=320,menubar=0,resizable=0,scrollbars=0, status=0,titlebar=1,toolbar=0,left=0,top=0") 
} 
</script> 


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2) and in flash, on a button for example, call that function

PHP Code:

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on (release) {
    getURL("Javascript:popup( )");
} 


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^ edit: that php stuff just puts a space in the word javascript. write it in 1 word

that will open a 320x240 pop-up without browser navigation.
NOW, since you are familiar with flash and functions, you can easily work with that code, and open custom pop-ups while adding information in the popup function
example: popup(value1, value2, ...etc)

This is a great generator that I tend to use (as I forget the function when I haven't used if for some months :))

Pop-up generator

I'm against the poorly designed pop-up's like those with navigation buttons or ones which go to full screen as token 3 mentioned.

A word on pop-up killers:

* If the Flash animation/game was to pop-up automatically the pop-up killer would kill it.

* If the Flash animation/game was to pop-up because the user clicked a link (that executes the pop-up), the pop-up would not get killed. However, some pop-up killers will kill a pop-up from a link like that the first time and require you to click it a second time before allowing it to appear (this is how a lot of pop-up killers confirm whether that specific pop-up should be appearing or not).

I have disabled all the pop-ups and I only turn them on, when I test games after I notice nothing happens when I click "Play".

I use Opera and it kills everything that uses js window.open, no matter where you place it. The worst way to set up your game, is just to have a button opening pop-up and no explanation of what the user should expect.

Opera also allows ANY window to be resized, even if its openend without the usual navigation elements and shows unresizable in IE. So, all the pretty Flash pop-up designs end up being quite ugly.

Keep in mind, that many users are so afraid of the pop-up ads, that they close any new windows without even looking at the content.