GUI Sketch, LF Opinions

[WarDog]

This is a partial GUI Sketch, its the main screen interface. I still need to come up with the options, inventory, abilities, and a few other interfaces, but i want to get a theme going and build the panels off of it.

This is the sketch im leaning towards as my GUI skin, but was looking for some feedback before i explore it any further.  I know the sketch isn't that great, but try to focus on the idea of what im doing.

[Strafe]

Hard for us to understand how and where the gui will look ingame, at the moment it just looks as if you're showing us a sketch of some possible ui stuff but how about the placement, where will it actually go?

For some inspiration look at some Warcraft 3 screenshots, they have a good noticable style, leaves, barbaric, death etc whilst keeping not too far off to distract people from the main gui and enough space to comfortably have the gui working efficently.

http://bit.ly/p91uO7
http://bit.ly/qUK9gn
http://bit.ly/nKC5AI
http://bit.ly/qvpdQO

[slym]

I disagree with Strafe on that one. To me this gives a very good idea of how it will look. The biggest issue I see here is the size of it. When you are making a gui, the most important goal to achieve is giving the player the most amount of playing screen possible. Try to make your ui as small as it can, without making it hard to understand. If you could, I would make the quests expand/collapse. That is one heck of a dragon btw :D

[edit] My apologies. I can't read! This is a very well planned out gui. I cannot wait to see what the finished version looks like. It's just about perfect in my opinion.

[Kemerd]

Looks nice. Like how the dragon is the bottom, and the hangs on the gui.

[Jaiden]

It's pretty and a nice way to stray from all of the other generic interfaces on this website. However, it's a bit too flashy and may ultimately end up being confusing and inconvenient for the player.

Furthermore, the existence of a screen isn't even hinted in your sketch. Judging by the layout now it seems it would be nearly impossible to put a screen in without the interface being in the way or distracting.

[azkanan]

In b4 OP realises Eclipse doesn't support alpha shading :D

[SawQuart]

@Azkabanana:

> In b4 OP realises Eclipse doesn't support alpha shading :D

>implying they aren't using CS:DE

@Jaiden:

> It's pretty and a nice way to stray from all of the other generic interfaces on this website. However, it's a bit too flashy and may ultimately end up being confusing and inconvenient for the player.
>
> Furthermore, the existence of a screen isn't even hinted in your sketch. Judging by the layout now it seems it would be nearly impossible to put a screen in without the interface being in the way or distracting.

+1

[WarDog]

you know i didn't give very much detail about how i was gonna do this one, it was very very late when i finished and scanned it.

the size is undetermined so far because i do want to do like slym said and leave as much of the game screen to be as clean and uncluttered as possible, its hard to read but it does say at top of sketch that the quest window will collapse and expand by clicking the center jewels, and im gonna make all the panels do that for a clean slick look. it will be centered at the bottom of the screen and the size is gonna be a litte tricky cause i want it to be big enough for people with large monitors but also not to asborb to much of the screen for people with smaller monitors.  if you ever played diablo 2 on a small monitor then on a big one you will see exactly what im talking about.

this is just a road map, things will probably change, even the dragon himself could take on a new form and be repositioned in a better way. The whole thing could eventully change but maintain the same idea just with better images. like Jaiden said:

> It's pretty and a nice way to stray from all of the other generic interfaces on this website.

i noticed a lot of people were not impressed by most of the other GUI's i been reading on the forum, most people said same thing just generic squares and rectangles.  And the name of my game is Epic Myth: Cursed Dragons.  So whatever GUI i do end up using i want it to reflect the theme of the game so players can enjoy the game beyond a simple generic buildup.

anymore feedback please keep them coming, i really appreciate the comments and info. =)

[IdoFreePixel]

@WarDog:

> **i noticed a lot of people were not impressed by most of the other GUI's i been reading on the forum, most people said same thing just generic squares and rectangles**.  And the name of my game is Epic Myth: Cursed Dragons.  So whatever GUI i do end up using i want it to reflect the theme of the game so players can enjoy the game beyond a simple generic buildup.
>
> anymore feedback please keep them coming, i really appreciate the comments and info. =)

aren't yours generic squares and rectangles with a dragon behind it?

Look at WOW's interface: http://blitzreborn.com/gallery/screenshots/255138205067WoWScrnShot_042906_053939.jpg
Guild Wars: http://static2.videogamer.com/videogamer/media/images/pc/guild_wars/screens/guild_wars_143.jpg
Maple Story: http://pcmedia.ign.com/pc/image/article/114/1145278/maplestory-20110120060616245.png

It is simple and does the job. If I were trying to play your game and at my corner of my eye I kept seeing that huge dragon it would really distract me.

[WarDog]

> aren't yours generic squares and rectangles with a dragon behind it?

true, but i mean in the fashion that im not just gonna put simple squares and rectangles down and say done, i want something to wrap, i want textures, and i do wnat it to pop.

I want people who play it to say, "well the story was great, the music kept me hooked in, and the graphics just awed me."  Might just be me, but thats what i like to feel at the end of any game i play, wether its online or single player rpg.  I just kinda feel like if i go ahead and subsitute for what may be easier and simpler, its gonna kick me in the ass in the long road.

wow has so many more game features that they need the extra room to expand for players, in that case then simplicity for order wins out, but for me with so much less to expand on, wouldn't better imagery and creativeness win over since there will be less features to show, all i got button wise so far, are inventory, quest, abilities, settings, save, and exit, then my life, magic, and experience bars with a map.

but you know i am a novice at game development, i could be totally wrong about it all.

[Strafe]

I understand that you want people to enjoy every aspect of the game, but I know a lot of Rpg Maker games that are better than commercialised projects simply down to easy and great gameplay or a storyline, it's all about the gameplay really mate. People aren't going to keep coming back because they like one of the songs on your track, the reality is they will want to keep playing because of good gameplay, whether the maps are good or whatnot the simplicity and ease of a gui fits in and like about 3 or 4 people have already said, the dragon is too much, keep the dragon, just resize it, tone it down.

[WarDog]

i feel ya man, and i appreciate the advice. ty

i may be wrong on this tho, its not to do with my sketch, but someone once told me awhile back when i was talking about wanting to get into making rpgs and games and what not, and he told me that a good game has a great story and good graphics, but its the music that can help keep that fantasy going.  he told me that, when the music is lousy or not so good, its easy to get sidetracked and lose interest in what your doing, but he said you can add great music to keep the flow going so it makes it feel like your apart of the world your playing in.

thats just what some dude told me, but in way i get what he saying.

[evilbunnie]

@Jungle:

> >implying they aren't using CS:DE

>Implying they have to use CS:DE to have alpha blending/transparacy and cannot code it themselves.