Help screen

[TwinMoon]

Hey y'all. I've been working on a help screen to go with my game.
I was going for a loose & chaotic look. But is it funny chaotic or confusingly chaotic?



If you click the button in the top-right you'll get the next screen:



The coloured lines are meant to resemble a marker pen.
I've been told my choice of colours is generally bad, so if you could tell me what you think about them, it'd be real helpful.
(Also, any criticism about my custom-coloured LucasArts style GUI is also welcome.)

[Questionable]

It's a little busy and the line going to inventory just bugs me (don't ask me why, i've no idea.) I love it, though; looking at each object in turn I get an easy understanding of what everything does. Ideally the purpose of each key press will be explained when it is required. I understand what everything does, but it's a lot to keep in my head, I need to know what it does in-game and why I'll need to do it. So a tutorial or interactive "how-to play" would be helpful, unless, of course, as the game progresses I will be told to do something and it will be explained how to do it at the first encounter... which is how most modern games do it.

I really dig this though. I can hone in on what i'm looking for, it answers all my questions and it's not bad looking. Being cluttered probably can't be helped much and other than that, I see no glaring problems.

[Matti]

the line going to inventory just bugs me

Yeah, me too.

Ideally the purpose of each key press will be explained when it is required.

I don't really like it that way, especially since I guess not every key press is required.

I understand what everything does, but it's a lot to keep in my head, I need to know what it does in-game and why I'll need to do it.

Well, as I've said I'm sure not every key that has a function actually needs to be pressed in the game. But it's nice to have many keyfunctions. So for those who prefer using the keyboard rather than using the mouse too much, it's a very useful image for knowing what can be pressed for which result... and those who prefer using the mouse could just look up some important or practical keyfunctions like load/save etc...

I think it's not too confusing but practical. Even the colors are okay, It's just the blue color that doesn't really fit the brown/yellow background.

[TwinMoon]

Thanks for the comments guys.

I updated the image in the first post: made the line to the inventory shorter, made the blue lines a little bit more purple so the don't curse that much with the brown, (and removed the tab key which for some unexplained reason was there.)

Ideally the purpose of each key press will be explained when it is required. I understand what everything does, but it's a lot to keep in my head, I need to know what it does in-game and why I'll need to do it. So a tutorial or interactive "how-to play" would be helpful, unless, of course, as the game progresses I will be told to do something and it will be explained how to do it at the first encounter... which is how most modern games do it.

As I'm making a graphical adventure, I won't be doing it like those modern games
Seriously: It's not an RTS, so you can press those keys in-game and see what they do. This help screen is intended as a reminder so you won't have to remember all those keys.
I did intend to do a one-room tutorial at the beginning of my game to explain the basics to people who've never played adventure games (as if they'd start with mine ) so I'll take your comments into account.

[TerranRich]

Honestly, at first I was a little taken aback, but after a mere few seconds, I realized I rather liked it. Good job.

It's chaotic, but not so much that it's confusing. Love the keyboard help screen.

[Mr Flibble]

I was also overwhelmed when I first looked at it, but then when I started to read it, it felt like a magazine or diagram with new information for me to jump to in every corner. Despite being chaotic I wasn't left worrying if I'd missed some hidden tool tip in a corner somewhere. I like it.

I also like the rough circling of the items as if in marker pen, it's a nice effect.

[TerranRich]

Oh, wait! I noticed a problem with the keyboard. The F1...F12 keys are inconsistent. For example, there are only two keys between F1 and F5 when there should be three.

Also, you really should accommodate those with laptops whose keyboard designs are compacted tightly and the Num Pad is basically all but nonexistent. Perhaps use PageUp and PageDown for game speed instead, etc.

[TwinMoon]

Thanks for the positive comments guys. "Overwhelming at first, but liking at after a while." Just what I was hoping for!

Oh, wait! I noticed a problem with the keyboard. The F1...F12 keys are inconsistent. For example, there are only two keys between F1 and F5 when there should be three.

I left them out because the F1...F12 keys are wider than the keys with only one character on them. It looks better when they're left out, trust me

Also, you really should accommodate those with laptops whose keyboard designs are compacted tightly and the Num Pad is basically all but nonexistent. Perhaps use PageUp and PageDown for game speed instead, etc.

Not owning a laptop, I didn't realise. Thanks, I'll add those and update later this day.

[TerranRich]

I get what you mean about the F# keys. It doesn't really matter, just thought it was a mistake. If it was intentional, that's fine.

And yeah, on laptop keyboards, the PageUp/PageDown keys are very close to the Enter key, or the arrow keys... it would make perfect sense for them to be used for game speed control, and they are easily accessible on desktop keyboards as well.

[Dualnames]

Hey y'all. I've been working on a help screen to go with my game.
I was going for a loose & chaotic look. But is it funny chaotic or confusingly chaotic?


If you click the button in the top-right you'll get the next screen:

The coloured lines are meant to resemble a marker pen.
I've been told my choice of colours is generally bad, so if you could tell me what you think about them, it'd be real helpful.
(Also, any criticism about my custom-coloured LucasArts style GUI is also welcome.)

Well, I really think the style is good. Plain and simple so you don't confuse the player with graphics. However, I do find this a little too much, why not create an in-game tutorial instead of this screen. I have done the same thing..

[TwinMoon]

Took a bit longer than expected, but I updated the images in the first post.

- Added PgDn & PgUp to be used alongside - and + to accomodate Laptop users
- Added mousewheel to scroll through verbs
- Added Tab button description (since there'll be more than one playable character in my game, it seemed like a good button to use)

So, anyone got any beef with it now?

[TerranRich]

Hmm. While Tab is used by most games for the Inventory (since it's the same as pressing Ctrl-I), I can't see any other key that would be better suited. Other than that minor nit, everything else seems good. Kudos on the PgUp/PgDn accommodation.

[TwinMoon]

Thanks TerranRich!

why not create an in-game tutorial instead of this screen. I have done the same thing..

I won't do it instead of, but I'll do both.
What game did you create an in-game tutorial for?

[Dualnames]

Thanks TerranRich!

why not create an in-game tutorial instead of this screen. I have done the same thing..

I won't do it instead of, but I'll do both.
What game did you create an in-game tutorial for?

Hitchhiker's Guide To the Galaxy..

[TwinMoon]

Oh yes, I see it now.
The previous demo I played didn't have the tutorial yet.

This one still doesn't, btw 

[Dualnames]

I could send you a beta if you want to see part of it, but I still haven't fully tested it, but 80% of it works fine.

[Trent R]

The first screen doesn't bother me, but the keyboard one seems too busy to me. Perhaps if you split the commands per page in half, and have a total of three. (Does that come across correctly?)

As with the colors, the only one that bothers me is the pink. It's just annoying to look at. You could also try darkening the green. The blue is just fine because it is very subdued already.


~Trent R
~Sirus Squire