Robin

By shiny, I mean it's far too 3D for a 2D game ;D As for the old-school feel, I don't see how such simple games could have any appeal any other way o.O

It's too big and too shiny. A GUI made up of components like that will not match the old-school feel and simplicity of an Eclipse game.

Use something other than paint. You can't make a good GUI without at least a few features from a higher-level image manipulation program. Try the GIMP. It's free. [http://www.gimp.org/](http://www.gimp.org/)

Hehe. Released it. [http://www.touchofdeathforums.com/smf/index.php/topic,30159.0.html](http://www.touchofdeathforums.com/smf/index.php/topic,30159.0.html)

Well, this one started out in Konfuze, then ported to Elysium, then port to Eclipse, then ported to Mirage. I used it as the base for Essence, so I'm just gonna use the latest release of that. Saves me having to re-do any of the programming and I can just concentrate on making some fun quests and balancing the classes out.

Alright, finding all the stuff about my game motivated me to release. Just writing up a couple of converters for the old map data now then I'll port the GUI to the new engine. I'll have a release by the end of the day :3

@Rage: > sucks. Well obviously. You can see I've actually improved over the past few years ;D 

Brings back memories. About 3-4 years old though. 

Background image is distracting, horribly pixelated and corrupted. The small boxes are huge, irregular and the entire thing just screams at me 'I can't be arsed putting effort in to my game'. The menu GUI is one of the first things people see in your game. First impressions make a huge difference.

Since when was paperdolling a criteria for a good game?

… get what? I uploaded the source of the GUI along with my source code, it's just been removed from this forum. What don't you know how to install... and what's it got to do with anything? :\

Well, I did post a bunch of files with all the .psd stuff in it a while back. Marsh deleted it though.

@renzo: > well of course if you save it under the same bit level theyre going to be the same size, but why would you? > my point was that i gave 2 500x500 .bmp files that were not the same size, when robin made it out that no matter what you do they will always be the same sizei just proved that they could have different sizes > > and yes as an uncompressed file, the sizes, if saved under the same bit level, will be the same size since it is loading all pixels in the picture, rather than just the important ones and leaving out the redundant ones > and thats why .bmp format is horrible for the internet > but yes, enough about .bmp, GUIs are supposed to be in .gif format anyways Next time you make a point, actually tell us in your post instead of confusing the shit out of me xDD

Yup. Renzo, if you're gonna try and prove me wrong at least don't cheat xD You wasted a lot of my time whilst I tried to find out why my files were showing up as the same size. Here's your two files using the same format:   Seems I was right, you silly moose :3

Don't use the same font on navigation buttons that you did for the header. Looks nice though.

Nope. Our trees have more contrast.

Don't gradient things. Tree's aren't a gradient of colour. Use your pixels to create contrast to create a sense of texture and depth. It doesn't look like wood at all.

@Niko: > lol, Robin you are wrong. Sorry mate. For one we are talking about eclipse Gui's am I correct? Eclipse loads Gui's in .gif format. If you take any random image of your computer, open it in paint then save it on your desktop as a .gif. Then you copy and paste the size attributes in an other paint window (making the same size) and save a white canvas as .gif. They will be 2 totally different file sizes. Ive tested it, so before YOU make a complete fool of your self you should try testing your argument out. I know the external GUI loading uses .GIF, but most of the projects people have had me look at have bypassed that and just pasted the image into the form, which saves it as .BMP @renzo: >  That is the most disturbing picture I've ever been proven wrong with xD Although it seems my Windows shell is lying to me, because if I download both those images to my desktop, right click properties, it tells me both are 736 KB Unless IE & Firefox have some sort of algorithm which cuts down on the filesize whilst rendering it. I'll have to look into it. I hate to think that Windows is lying about my filesizes :P

Anatomy wise, they're a lot more built than that.

@renzo: > i would suggest actually trying out your proof before posting it… > > here are Soljah's 2 sigs >  >  > Sig 1 file size is 75.46 KB > Sig 2 file size is 49.96 KB > both sigs are 400px by 80px > you can right click and check their properties if you want, but a image file size is determined by more than just dimensions > > i agree with your comments about the GUI itself though I would suggest actually reading my post before making an absolute fool of yourself. Those signatures are obviously .png files, which use compression algorithms. Eclipse loads the files as .bmp, which are uncompressed. Go do the same experiment with two .bmp files, like I originally told you rather than skimping on your reading ;D Bambam, just go down the usual routes. Go **to** the sto**r**e to **rent it.**

Why does that map have Sheffield in it? D: Last time I checked, Sheffield was a lot bigger than that xD

@Alex: > Wouldn't it take longer to load all the coulours on each pixel than having them all the same? …

Looks pretty flat. Can't see where the light is coming from without zooming in. Try adding more contrast.

@Riley: > link=topic=29673.msg267761#msg267761 date=1217730007] > \o/ > | < - wee! Someone got Gameboy MMO ^^ > / \ > > Just kidding. Very well, seems like its a cool idea to make the screen smaller, FF graphs ftw ^^, and the GUI looks good too, I just wonder how the inventory will show up tho… The inventory will be rendered over the actual game. @Elder: > I like it, but it seems odd that the GUI is taller than it is wide. As I said, it's experimenting. Trying to do something a bit different. @Hyperion: > I hate you Robin :P You say your super new to Photoshop and that your not any good at it and then you go and create things like this. Lose talent, your making all the people like me that just sit around on the forums look bad! :P :3

@Riley: > link=topic=29950.msg267757#msg267757 date=1217729324] > You should remove the picture where the game shows cuz it takes memoruy uselessly. Plus I doiubt these pictures aren't copyrighted so you should remove them unless you are authorized to use them yourself… > > I don't see how the FFV Black mages fit into space background... And I also doubt you have the copyright on those as they are copyrights of FFV... If there is anything I can find good in it, its the good mixing of pictures in a background... > > Before shouting people should not use, you should be sure you can use it. Please explain how adding more detail to a GUI changes the file size at all. File size is dictated by the dimensions of an image and the format it is saved in. Go save a 1024x1024 .bmp image of block white, then one full of random images. Both will be the same size. As for the GUI, it's terrible. A GUI is not there to have fancy pictures on, or to be eye-catching. It's there to blend into the game and add functionality to it. You want people looking at your game, not at the fancy pictures in the background. Try changing the size and layout. The default Eclipse GUI has a poor layout that doesn't do any of the features any justice, and the size is just huge. People who play these small games want them to be small. Something they can run but won't take up their entire screen.