I reworked an old gui that was originally intended for a first- person perspective game, took out all of the FP-specific buttons, and simplified it overall. I was wondering if you guys could crit this for me and give me a little advice. I'm generally happy with how it's coming along, although there are some things I don't like as well as others. :)
(http://web.bvub.com/~azaron_flare/320240gui.png)
EDIT: almost forgot, the dark area in the bottom right is for inventory display, the gray button beside it are to select between the two inventories. One is normal items, the other is rune stones. The "grayed out" button along the top row should show the active regular item, and the dark space to the left will show the currently active runes (up to 3). You should be able to use runes to take specific actions, such as combining "weaken" and "plant" will weaken or break plants, " etc. I know it will be a pita to code, looking for some more simple ways to do it. any advice there (through pm's if it's more appropriate) would also be appreciated.
The GUI looks pretty good to me and reminds me of some ancient RPG... Legend Of Ferghail I think it was called. You could simply add a small compass and you'd be there.
It's clean and functional, and the buttons look good too. I don't quite like the large arrow between rune display / rune inventory, though, a simple arrow would look better.
The whole rune idea sounds very, very interesting and offers a lot of "puzzle material". One thing that comes to mind is the GridInventory module, you might to check it out here:
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=28177.0 (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=28177.0)
I suggest it on the base that you might want to have a way to "drag and drop" the runes, and that could be done by having a "dummy" character who is invisible in game but displays his inventory as the "three runes" window, while the other displays the player's inv. GridInv allows you to put items from one inv into another, and then you could just check against a list if the right runes are (even in right order) in the "three runes" inventory. Sounds like a simple solution.
wow, Ghost. That's a good idea I hadn't thought of. Thanks! As to the arrow, it's actually a wand-type-thing. It's the casting button to activate the runes. It's actually one of the things I'm least satisfied with, so if anyone has any ideas on how to make it a little more likeable, I'm all ears.
I was bored, so I reworked your wand-thing:
(http://fc02.deviantart.com/fs17/f/2007/203/a/b/thing_by_masochisticcannibal.png)
Hope that gives you some ideas.
Cheers.
I had a go at the wand thing, too. The second one is a blatant ripoff of the magic wand from Willow. :=
(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/spell_buttons.png)
Looks nice :). I think it could use a little more contrast, but it's kind of hard to tell without a background inside ;). The "Save" and "Load" buttons are a bit hard to decipher.
Okay, I liked both of your suggestions for changing the wand, so I used a bit of both. I also added a VERY unfinished background so you can see it with some actual image fill instead of a neutral color. I'm fairly satisfied with how it's turned out so far, but I'd like to know if you have any suggestions.
What I've noticed so far: The gui seems a little bright for this particular scene (although it is unfinished), but I think it will work a little better for the later stages of the storyline where most of the action will take place inside an ancient stronghold. Maybe.... ;)
(http://web.bvub.com/~azaron_flare/320240gui-bg.png)
Since the bottom part of the gui has a golden border, I think you should do a similar thing with the top "Save/Load" part. Right now it seems kind of an abrupt transition from background to gui. Also, I agree that the top part seems a little bright.
And on a side note, that background is shaping up nicely. Kudos.
alrighty. I was trying something a little different with the top bar before, but it wasn't really working out, so I took your advice and made the top more like the bottom. It's still a little bright, still some tweaking there, but it's much more pleasant now I think. How say you?
(http://web.bvub.com/~azaron_flare/320240gui2.png)
Looks professional to me.
Cool. :) Thanks for the help, guys!