Tell me honestly....

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

Honestly, I have to say I prefer the way FrankT arranged the icons to how Darth did it.  It now looks visually confusing whereas the score as a centerpiece (on the license plate) brought balance to the UI.  My advice would be that the grille is more than big enough to support 5 icons, just have the current ones follow the bend of the fender and place the inventory above them in the middle.  One variation you could try involves changing the inventory icon to an up arrow indicating that the inventory is 'under the hood':

[imgzoom]http://i485.photobucket.com/albums/rr218/ProgZmax/guiex1.gif[/imgzoom]

and then make the inventory gui actually look like the top of the desoto engine with a bunch of stuff thrown about inside (dead weasel, etc)...

I went ahead and softened the shapes in the headlights rather than just reducing them in size as I thought they otherwise fit pretty well.  I also doctored up the license plate a bit but you could make it plain if you want, my main recommendation would be keeping the points arranged in a license plate number fashion like I've done.  I'd also recommend removing the black circles under the fender as they are really dark and distract your attention away from the rest of the gui and serve no real purpose.  You can also safely reduce the size of the main icons without sacrificing clarity or usability, which will allow you to more easily fit your inventory icon (or an alternate one like in my example).  I like the gui overall even if it is a bit large so I hope this helps!

[FrankT]

Well, how about this: I put the score back where it used to be, got rid of the X button and moved the box over to the left, where it's still easily accessible.



And yes, the icons are coloured when the mouse goes over them, and pushes inward when clicked!

[EchosofNezhyt]

Maybe you can merge the help into the ? and make the ? options.

That way its symmetrical, If not it still looks good!

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

That's a good point.  You don't really need to make the about/help separate from the options.  That would free up a headlight for your inventory.

[EchosofNezhyt]

Also I liked the idea of the icons being colored all the time, You could leave them colored and on mouse over give them a outline or (My favorite) animated them, Fingers on the hand walk, Eye Blink, Hand Close, Mouth move.
Though its got polish now and doesn't really seem much more to change

[Darth Mandarb]

Meh... it's getting away from itself here.  I feel like it's losing the symmetry it needs to be easily readable.

If you want to put 5 icons in the "grate" area I would suggest changing the divisions of the grate to make it fit better.

Something like this (done extremely quickly and sloppily, just to show the concept):


NOTE: the inventory box I resized to make it more of a size with the other main options so you might need/want to re-pixel it!

These are just suggestions.  This just has a more "correct" feel to me.  Feel free to use/not use as you sit fit.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

As I mentioned in my edit, reducing the size of the main icons to fit them on there is preferable and as Darth has arranged them solves the problem of them being scattered around.  I still think you could put the about information inside the options menu and use that extra light for something else.  Its position in the upper corner would be good for an up arrow to hide the gui, for instance.

[FrankT]

I don't recall there being an About button as well as a Help button? (Or vice-versa, I'm not sure what to do with it yet.) But since you recommend these changes, I'll try to put aside some time to work on them. Of course, I'm not sure where the inventory item shadow is going to go......

[EchosofNezhyt]

The cogs and the "?"

[FrankT]

That's the Control Panel icon, and the Help or About (haven't decided which) icon.

[EchosofNezhyt]

Yeah, The suggestion was to remove the question mark and just add it into the settings menu so there would be space for your inventory.
Honestly though I like Darths version, I'd keep inventory in the center and then stick a back arrow unless you plan on having it slide out on mouse over.

[FrankT]

Well I dunno.... I'm thinking of switching to 320x200 resolution. 800x600 is too many pixels for me to work with. This of course means the interface will need a total overhaul.

[EchosofNezhyt]

Hmm. You could always just draw stuff less detailed. You have "MORE" to work with but you don't have to utilize it.
I love low res too though... Well if you do switch keep us updated on how the new ui is going

[FrankT]

So the change has been made. And I've decided to go for a simpler icon bar, more based on the older Telltale games.



You can't see it here, but the icons do glow when they're mouseover'd, and push in when clicked, too!
And oh yes, I also remade the subway map in low-res, too.

[FrankT]

Our character is now animated! (about time!)



Would you say that walk-cycle is consistent enough? It looks like the collar might be a bit flappy.

[CaptainD]

Richie lives! 

Looks pretty good to me.  There seems to be just a tiny "jerking" effect but I couldn't tell you why exactly - I'll leave that to someone with more talent!

To me there should be a tiny amount of movement in the as he walks.

[FrankT]

To me there should be a tiny amount of movement in the as he walks.

In the...?

[CaptainD]

Oops sorry!  In the hair.

[Snarky]

Is the limp deliberate?

[FrankT]

It might be. I used the older SCI characters as a template. They seem to limp a bit too.