The 81-Square Universe

Hirohiig has made a mock-up of my hand drawn idea for the game table interface.
It doesn't have to be exactly this way, but it's a good mock-up of my image.

As for the waiting room, I think there are basically two options. (A and B shown below)

Interestingly, only Shogiclub24 uses type B, and all other website other than Shogiclub24 use type A.
I'm curious about why.

So is it better to use type A at 81SU, too?
I think a good point of type B is that it makes it easier to find the game table of the player you're looking for, and see whom he's playing with right now. (especially when the number of the players are huge as in SC24)

But maybe we can merge the good points of type A and type B, by making the player list of type A similar to that of type B. (showing the name of the opponent whom one is playing with)

Personally, I prefer type B. I can see the merits of type A, namely that it saves space, but it's inconvenient for when you're trying to find someone you know.

I also think it would be nice if the lobby had a public chatroom. PlayOK's lobby does, but it's hidden and most people don't even know it exists, so no one talks on it.

btw with the interface is it possible to include a beep when its your turn

I'm currently working on the very first prototype of the client with Flex.
Hopefully, I can publish it on the github very soon.

Oh, I'm glad to hear that, because personally I prefer "B", too.
But I was afraid assuming that most people might prefer "A", since most websites adopt it.
Can I hear opinions from anyone who prefers "A" ?

One thing that is important when deciding the interface is, that we should adopt Shogiclub24's style as much as possible (except when it's not a good idea), because SC24 is the most famous playing website in Japan. We have to try to draw attentions from SC24 users in order to make 81SU more popular. So the new interface has to be easy for SC24 users to get familiar with.

What items do we need in the personal data of the new playing site?

• name
• country
  (I think it'd be cool if we put a national flag image ahead of the name PlayOK uses two alphabets for country name, "ja" for Japan for example. I think it's sometimes hard to know which country it means...)
• avatar
• joined date
• rating (maybe the same rating system as SC24?)
• rank
  (should we change the rank according to the rating as SC24? Or should we give the rank according to his past record as in real professional players? It'd be cool if we give some title names to strongest players.)
• total win and loss
• recent Kifus
  (We have to erase old Kifus in view of sever data storage, of course. SC24 keeps kifus for up to one month, I guess.)
• self introduction comment, maybe?

Anything else?

You have to divide the data into what the player can see of himself, and what can be seen by others. I think we should make a list with data needed to be displayed at each different timing, so you wont see data that is irrelevant at the time. Also I think that we should not just 'copy' a Layout A or B, but rather make a layout depending on the types of data we need.

After thinking about it further, actually I'm getting more confident that we should adopt a layout similar to "B" (SC24 style).

In a layout like "A" (which means it has a list of tables), some one first makes a table, and then other players go in there, and they start setting up the game (such as in playOK or Yahoo).
But in this style, it often happens that, when one gets in a room, the host doesn't even respond and the game doesn't start at all. So you get out and find another room. On the other hand, when you're hosting a table, it often happens that someone gets in, and then you greet him and start trying to setup the game, but he suddenly gets out without even saying anything.
And I hate these kind of things. (and I believe most SC24 users hate.) It's very more difficult to even start a game in playOK and Yahoo than in SC24.

So why don't we choose SC24 style?
which means, we only have the list of players, and there's no list of tables. I mean, no one creates a table just to wait.
Just as in SC24, you just find someone to challenge from the list of players, click him, setup the rules first, and then press "challenge". It is not until he accepts the challenge that a board shows up, after which the game immediately starts.

The problem with this style is that the watchers can't access the table before the game starts (because the table doesn't exist of course). So actually it's a little bit difficult in SC24 to gather with your friends, and then watch together a game played by two of them.
But we can easily solve this problem by implementing chat room feature in the waiting room.

Another thought I had, is that a watcher should be able to save the whole kifu of a game. In SC24, if you start watching in the middle of the game, the kifu will only let you see what you watched. I often go there to watch 6-dans play, but I never get to see the opening because of this.

I agree. I was also thinking about that.
To solve that problem, we should make the program so that when someone starts watching from the middle of the game, it automatically loads the moves so far. Thus, the watcher can replay all the moves after the game is over.
(Also, it'd be better if the watcher can choose an option of seeing a quick replay so far, when he has just entered the table)