The update 5.1.152 brought many news among them some changes in the look of the Game Engine.
Unfortunately, one of the changes left the Project Manager with less organizational capacity. It is now no longer possible to collapse the “Game Settings”, “Scenes”, etc.
Another detail is that if I scroll down, close and reopen it will always open at the top. In the previous version it reopened exactly where it was the last time it was closed.
I do not want to be boring. The update is great , but some details make differences and that’s why I thought it important to share.
I believe the design change was made along with adding the search at the top, as it’ll be faster than any form of collapsing/expanding.
While I personally would prefer both, the new search is pretty darn fast. It will also ensure people name their scenes/layouts to allow for faster searching (This is a joke based off your screenshots, no worries either way)
To be more specific, I do think this feedback is valid, and it should still have some form of collapsing for the sections.
Not really. 95% of GD works with the mouse, now I have to switch to the keyboard, type half a word, look in which category the right entry is… Or scroll in the overloaded panel.
Same as the recommendation to start a new preview without hot reload, with the command palette, always open a not required sceene when opening a project and other things. I’m sorry but some usebellity decisions lately…
Change is okay, but if its obviously worse, slower, less clear, without any need…
People ask for add collapsible folders for the things in the manager → all collapsible things will be removed.
Why not useful things like automatically reopen a sceene after renaming it, or some of that: https://jackii.itch.io/gdevelop-feature-requests-bug-reports
A little off topic, probably: the search works well in the panel, you can enter letters in any case and it will find, as well as nested letters. Would it be possible to do this for variables in events?
Type a variable expression (such as Variable() for scene variables.) Then click in the () and type a character, any valid scene variables (number variables for Variable()) starting with that character will prepopulate. If no variables of that type or class, nothing will show up.
Variable event conditions and actions work this way as well.
I can say the change in the project manager is temporary,this is a first step. It’s not the final version.
Btw your feedbacks you all are extremely valuable.
Collapsing buttons are on the design mockup but didn’t make it to the implementation (we moved way too fast). They will be added on the next small release (of before).
As for keeping the scrolling location, I’m adding it to the list. It might have disappeared by mistake.
The app will evolve. Ideally to be “clearer” (cognitive wise), and more accessible (in colour contrast, but also keyboard, mouse and touch). We don’t have accessibility specialist yet in the team, so bare with us while we figure this out slowly adapting our existent components.
You’ll see changes that will feel way more efficient from the beginning, others that will require a little discomfort to get used to, and others that won’t be correct.
In a perfect world, we would test with at least 9 users (3 beginners, 3 mid level, 3 power users) every little change that we make, to measure usability (time spent to execute a task and error margin), but recruiting people takes alotta time (not every user is open to video calls) and the GDevelop team has to move fast.
So, some choices we figure in the wild, with your help.
I am all eyes to read your experience with those choices.
Friendly reminder to not to forget to explain what you are trying to achieve, and when and why the new choice adds friction to your task. Since I cannot observe and moderate these usability tests, please be as descriptive as possible (images and videos are welcome).
Thank you for taking the time to comment on this topic.
Hi @Rasterisko!
The new version 5.1.153 restored both your initial demands:
Scroll is kept
Sections can be collapsed
Thanks for reporting this. I can’t promise we will be that reactive each time, but those changes were spoiling this version that brings many exciting changes!
My widescreen monitor (standard HD resolution) was already too wide before the update, and now that the project manager overlaps the editor, it’s even wider.
I guess this change was brought for mobiles and laptops.
I would prefer to keep permanent access to the project manager, because I really don’t need more width. Also, ideally, it would be docked on the right side, for my own setup.
I personally don’t think a project manager is a good candidate for a modal window when working in a desktop editor. For projects with lots of external events, extensions, scenes, global variables and/or external layouts it creates an unnecessary bottleneck in workflow.
It would be nice if a game developer could opt to pin it in place. I get very tired watching the slide animation over and over. And, it’s frustrating not to be able to look through the project when making certain changes to settings, global variables, etc.
, but some details make differences and that’s why I thought it important to share.
