Bestest GUI

[bicilotti]

Worked a bit with AGS lately and started to think about GUIs. Which one do you prefer and why?

Personally I've grown up with SCUMM GUIs (the best surely Fate of Atlantis), and while developing I wondered how many players do actually agree with me.

[Radiant]

Well, it works, but if you do one you really really need keyboard support.

Anyway. Personally I don't really like the fact that the LucasArts GUI takes up one-third of the screen. So I'd prefer a customized Sierraesque one. But this is really a matter of taste. I found that for short games you can easily use a single cursor mode; my experiment with a 30-verb GUI was fun but put off several players.

[Gamer_V]

Left mouse button: Interact
Right mouse button: Look

Very simple, it's harder to miss something, and you can focus more on the other aspects of the game. (Many games with more cursor modes don't have every interaction with everything anyway)

[Akatosh]

I liked the GUIs of DiscWorld Noir and Runaway best - they're quite similar to what Gamer_V wrote - but the Sierra-Style GUIs are cool, too.

[Ali]

I've always disliked the classic Sierra GUI. Likewise, I'm not a huge fan of the SCUMM interface, though it has greater nostalgic value for me.

I find those GUIs to be awkward, particularly Sierra, the buttons are over-large and I hate having to choose a cursor mode just to walk somewhere. I like a verb coin because they're neat. I can see the added flexibility that a GUI with more options would provide, but I never find them to be either as flexible as an IF interface or as efficient as a verb coin.

Perhaps the ideal GUI for me would be a verbcoin that altered dependent upon context. Like the interface in Return to Zork, but more effectively realised.

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

I love LSL7's GUI.

It's got the commands most likely to be necessary to use with a certain object AND it's got the text parser.

[Anym]

You might want to check out this thread at the Popular threads board.

Personally, I'm fine with any "reasonable" (SCUMM bar, verb coin, context-senstive one-lick,...) GUI. Two things that mildly bother me in many AGS games is a lack of reaction when going over a hotspot with the mouse (like the Sierra games, but unlike the LucasArts, Revolution or Adventure Soft ones) and the use of large mouse cursors without a clear indication with which pixel to aim with (like many, but not all, of the Sierra games).

Perhaps the ideal GUI for me would be a verbcoin that altered dependent upon context. Like the interface in Return to Zork, but more effectively realised.

Like the ones in Touché or Lure of the Temptress?

Addendum: Hehe, re-reading the thread I linked to, I just realised that Ali already stated his (low) opinion of the Lure of the Temptress one more than two years ago.

[Radiant]

Right mouse button: Look
Very simple, it's harder to miss something

People will miss that the RMB does stuff

I like a verb coin because they're neat. I can see the added flexibility that a GUI with more options would provide,

Interesting. I find those really annoying, because you have to click, move, click again in order to do anything. Or worse, click - drag - release.

Somebody will likely point out that you have to do the same in LucasArts GUIs, but that's not actually true because they have keyboard support. I never click on the bottom panel except sometimes to access inventory, which is why I don't see the need for it to cover 1/3rd of my screen.

[zabnat]

I feel that the verb coin in CMI has maybe been the perfect adventure game GUI for me. Although last time I player CMI through the coin did not pop up even once. That's because I used keyboard to interact and talk. So I would say that the most important thing would be keyboard shortcuts and sadly those seem to be missing in most of the AGS games, even when they would be trivial to implement.

[mätzyboy]

I just thought I'd point towards a topic in the Popular Threads section where quite a lot of people already have ventilated their thoughts on the subject...

*points* ---> http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=15845.0

Edit:

Never mind. I checked the thread first, but Anym's pointing towards the thread I thought of was to discreet for me to notice...

[CodeJunkie]

I like the use and look GUIs too, most of the others are too cumbersome.  I liked the way in Discworld you could drag the inventory window so you don't have to keep closing and opening to change items, something very common and very irritating in AGS games.

I liked the Lure of the Temptress GUI the most though, and in fact my game in progress uses a context menu.

SCUMM is ok for me as long as each command has a keyboard shortcut, dragging the mouse backwards and forwards is no fun at all.  Of course, most games with a SCUMM GUI really don't use some of the commands enough to justify having them there.

The Verbcoin was ok too, but I got bored waiting for the coin to appear each time and often forgot I can use it on inventory items too.

The default AGS 4+ action cycling cursor mode is not a very good choice.  I challenge you to find one person that clicks the iconbar at the top to change action.  You usually have to think twice to make sure you've got the right cursor mode, and the last inventory item used just gets in the way.  With a simple two-action interface you don't need to recognise anything on the screen to work out what you're doing.  Don't think that two-action games are easy though, my ideal game would have a big inventory (like Discworld) and cool minigames.

[markbilly]

I always "grew up" with the Beneath a Steel Sky set up, and it always seems really intuitive. Lucas arts classics are good too though, the GUI almost adds to the charm.

[Dan_N]

I prefer LucasArts, I like LucasArts a lot more than Sierra, even though their GUI takes up half the screen.

But what I'd do... left click - walk / look; right click - interact, or something similar, with a small inventory/iconbar down at the bottom.

[Nostradamus]

I like the default GUI best. It's easy and it's the fastest. Right click scrolls the commands\icons and left click applies the current command. (Sierra style)
I don't like verb coins. I don't like clicking a few seconds and only then move the pointer to the action I need every time I need to do anything.
The lucasarts GUI is as other said nostalgic and sentimental but not as easy cos you have to go to the commands all the time (or use the keyboard).
I vote for Sierra GUI.

[Ghost]

For me it's Lucas Arts, trimmed down. I like to have my actions and my inventory laid in front of me, always visible- like having all my tools rolled out while tinkering on some puzzle. It's true that these GUIS clutter up the screen, but you can easily create a SCUMM interface that is a bit smaller these days. I did so for my WIP, and now it takes 40 pixels of my 320x240 screen.

I hate GUIs that pop up with a special effect or slow animation, and possibly dissapear after each click. The spellbook GUI in Apprentice, a game I really love, is such a one.

And by no means can a simple left click = look, right click = use GUI claim to offer the same complexity for puzzles. It reduced everything to use x on y. Radiant's MegaVerb was a great idea too, but a bit overwhelming indeed- but a step into the very best direction.

[Anym]

No offense, but shouldn't this discussion take place (or at least continue) in the already existing (and twice linked to) thread on the subject? What's the point of having a "Popular Thread" about a subject if it isn't the "definite thread"?

[ALPHATT]

Left mouse button: Interact
Right mouse button: Look

Just as you Gamer_V

[Dualnames]

Well, the best GUIs according to me Are the following:
DiscNoir
Curse of Monkey Island
Runaway 2

[GreenBoy]

It really depends on the game.

The lucasarts gui was fine for their comedic games.  But when it comes to something a bit more serious I think a simpler more intuitive interactive system is needed.

I recently purchased both "The Dig"  and "Full Throttle".  To me the digs interface works better than the FT one.  The FT verb coin kinda forces your mind out of the experience.   Though maybe Im just biased seeing as I didnt think that much of FT.

[bicilotti]

No offense, but shouldn't this discussion take place (or at least continue) in the already existing (and twice linked to) thread on the subject? What's the point of having a "Popular Thread" about a subject if it isn't the "definite thread"?

Saw that, in my defense I can say the topics are slightly different (very slightly, indeed), alias "waht do you expect" (fast, reliable, few clicks, etc.) vs. "bestest" (actual implementation). Let the gods and the mods decide! 

Returning to the topic, I'm a fan of LucasArts games so my vote goes to SCUMM, but I also enjoyed the GUI of "7 days a Skeptic" (aka right click on the background object makes the inventory pop up and then you choose the item to use on that object).
I feel Sierra GUI to be cumbersome as someone else said!