Hi, I''m making a card game and I was wondering what the most intuitive way of selecting (multiple) cards would be. Currently I have the user click on a card in their hand and then the card moves up a half-inch (or thereabouts). They then need to click a "Play Cards" button. I was wondering if anyone could think of a better way of going about doing this. For selecting single cards its probably easiest for the user to drag-and-drop their card, but I can''t think of a good equivalent for multiple cards.

Maybe allow the cards to be stacked on top of each other while moving? Kindda like Solitaire where the top card would be placed slightly lower than the bottom card, and the player would still be able to see the what the bottom card is by looking at the symbol and number at the top corner. This way you would be able to drag-and-drop multiple cards.

Make a temporary stack of cards that you''re about to play. Make each one individually selectable, so that they can change their minds before playing.

Or: Right click selects a card, left click/drag moves all selected cards into play, just like a single card. Click and don''t drag or double click might work as well. Selection would, of course, be represented like you said as moving up a half-inch. If you do the single click, try making an unselected card not do anything upon a drag, but make selected cards move when dragged. That way, they''re forced to learn what to do. This may or may not be desirable, depending upon how often multiple card selection needs to be used.

I really hate buttons; I''m not sure why. They just seem like such a bad design whenever they''re not part of a dialog box.

Thanks guys,

I think I''m going to take your suggestion to click to select, then drag the selected cards. I didn''t really like the button approach either.

Dragging sucks.

Are there different places I might play this group of cards? Because if there isn''t, why do I need to drag them? That requires a button down, a move and a button up. I''d rather just do a button click.

How about left clicks to select the cards and a right click somehwere within the vicinity of the hand you''re holding to play them.

Nice and quick.

"How about left clicks to select the cards and a right click somehwere within the vicinity of the hand you''re holding to play them."

The thing is there could be multiple pools where you could move the cards to instead of a single place; like in some games there''s a difference of playing the card on the field or discard it into a junk pile. Then it wouldn''t be just a simple left click to select and right click to move. In this situation drag and drop would be the better option.

Yeah, I know. Read the second and third sentence of my prior post. As soon as we get an answer to that question, we''re all groping in the dark, aren''t we?

Well, I suppose I should have given a bit more info on the type of card game, oh well better late than never. Anyways, this is a 4-6 player game called President (or Scum, or Asshole). There is no discarding, and you play your cards into a pile in the middle of the playing area. Um, well that should be enough info for the card selection bit. And it means that your method can be used bishop_pass, but even if there were multiple destinations you would just need to click on the destination rather than just clicking anywhere.

You have to drag because it''s the most like reality. He asked what the most intuitive way of selecting multiple cards would be, not the most streamlined way.

quote: Original post by Flarelocke
You have to drag because it''s the most like reality.

Dragging sucks, dude. If you have to drag, you have to:

• Properly preposition the mouse.
  
• Depress the button.
  
• Hold the button down and move the mouse to the new position properly.
  
• Let go of the button while maintining position.
  

I would much prefer a casual click and be done.