I couldn't play this game at all because of the colors. I only saw two colors: yellow and everything else.
The solution was to change the background to an all black field and remake the jools to different shapes.
I created some new images, sized and formatted correctly, and posted them so anyone else with the same problem won't have to make their own.
Just copy the files into the JooleemPortable\App\Jooleem\data\marbles folder, allowing overwrite.
Thanks, funnily enough I just re-downloaded PortableApps today and caught Jooleem. I found it pretty enjoyable, but being colorblind the blue jools were the only ones that stood out, the other colors all looked the same.
With your modification it's much easier. Weird how relevant and recent this thread is. Thanks.
That is rather odd and coincidental.
Thanks @ the original poster for posting this.
This mod makes Jooleem easier to play, period. Doesn't matter if you can see the colors or not.
Bejeweled uses different icons for the different colors and has for years. Maybe they were on to something?
Jim
neutron1132 (at) usa (dot) com
I don't know if that was their intent or not...there are several other games (Big Money, Astropop, Chuzzle) by the authors of Bejeweled, Popcap.com, that I can't play because of the colors being the only differentiation between the game pieces. Bejeweled does work great for me though because of the different shapes.
Most of PopCap's games have a colorblind mode--just open the options. I know for a fact that AstroPop and Chuzzle have it, and I think quite of few others do, as well.
...I did not know that.
I was referring only to the online versions. Is the option in there too, or is it only the full versions that have it? I'll have to dig around the next time I'm on the site.
The new images, did you make them yourself or get them from somewhere else? I'd like to update to use them. I make a point to test websites for color issues but hadn't thought to test the games we package.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Perhaps a add-on under accessibility?
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The replacements started out as screen caps of some other game whose exact name I *cough* can't recall *cough* right now, and were heavily modified in The Gimp to jive with Jooleem's use of the images.
But I just changed them again. You can re-download the same link. There are some new jools that I made completely from scratch with Inkscape, to avoid any possible copyright issues. These new ones look better on the original grey gradient background.
Those look very nice!, and better than the previous ones. Might I suggest recreating the circle marble as well to make it a little smaller and fit in with the rest better? Also, I think the diamond would look better with a brighter blue, IMO, and the green with a different shade as well if you recreate it.
Thanks for your contributions!
Edit: This seems to make the game much more playable! It's easier to pick out quadrilateral patterns. Awesome!
Recreated the green marbles. I'm finding the colors running together again, but at least now the shapes make the patterns easier to pick out.
I started to change the blue diamonds, but I threw out the originals and I'd have to recreate them again...which I'm too lazy to do. As they are they pop out better than all the others to my eyes.
I occurs to me that I may have defeated part of the intended challenge of this game by making the pieces contrast better.
Oh well. I consider it more of a puzzle game than a visual acuity test, so I'll not be loosing too much sleep over it.
Part of the challenge is to force an area to change, hoping that a color will show up to let you grab a large area or the entire playing field.
Jim
neutron1132 (at) usa (dot) com
How about using a couple of the icons from the Crystal Clear (sometimes packaged as Linspire Clear) by Everaldo. There are a couple gem icons in there that would work. Different shapes. And a good visual look similar to other jewelish games.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
What is the status of posting the alternate gems on the main JooleemPortable page?
The sourceforge page for Jooleem has about half of the comments and feature requests concerning colorblindness with no answers for anybody.
I had to search hard for this thread here, already knowing it exists. Those who don't know it exists would never find it.
From the original poster's comments, the original gems were copies of other games, but then he says he created them from scratch to eliminate any potential copyright issues.
Even after a year, the file is still available for downloading, but who knows how long it will remain so?
neutron1132 (at) usa (dot) com
I'd been toying around with a new set to use in the official release that will work if you're color blind but still looks polished. What do you think of these?
https://portableapps.com/temp/marbles.zip
Just unzip it to your JooleemPortable\App\Jooleem\data\marbles directory and replace the files.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Differentiation between the different shapes is good.
The stars seem to leave too much background compared to the other shapes. Maybe they could be a little fatter in the core area and the points less skinny?
They are much better than another set I found, where the gems don't do higher resolution as well.
I'm not colorblind, but any of these sets make the gameplay easier than the original marbles.
Thanks for looking into this.
neutron1132 (at) usa (dot) com
This definitively makes playing easier, even for seeing people like myself.
I prefer this set over the original and am looking forward to an official release.
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