I'd greatly appreciate some GUI C&C

TerranRich · Fri 15/04/2005 19:46:14

Yup, this is, I believe, my second time ever posting in the C&C forum in my 3 years on this forum.

I figure, to make this game the best I can, I need outside feedback. This game, called SouthCoast City, will be an Urban RPG. That's the best phrase I can use to describe it. It's kind of like an adventure-esque RPG set in an urban setting, with some inspiration from Grand Theft Auto and a Flash game called Sim Day & Night.

Tell me what you think:

It was done entirely in PhotoShop with some "borrowed" external images (but they're so little that nobody can even tell). So what do you think? Should I change something around? Is it too cluttered? Too sparse in places?

By the way, the city background behind the GUI Overlay is just for testing purposes. I'll be using prerendered 3D backgrounds for this one.

GUI Legend:
SCC Symbol: This is the game's logo. When clicked, it will lead the player to the Options control panel.
Envelope: Mail! If this is on, the player has mail at home.
Plus-Sign: Health symbol (first-aid), displays player's health, in %
$ Sign: Money the player has. I maxed out all stats to see how much space this would take up at the most
Beer bottle: Player's Blood Alcohol Level, used to determine drunkenness (for use in fights, etc.)
Bandana: Player's Respect from the city, like in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, shows how much people respect you
Thumbs-Up: Confidence level. I couldn't really think of anything else to symbolize confidence.
Graduation Cap: Intelligence level.
Winking Smiley: Charm/Charisma level.
Dumbells: Strength level.
The curly brace signifies that those three stats contribute to...
Purple Man: Total Personality level. Used for job promotions and flirting with the ladies.
TAC: Temporary Alcoholic Confidence. You know how people can get cocky and brash when they're drunk and do stupid things? Yeah, this is how much stupidity the player can possiibly act out.
Broken Heart: Damage to the player. There is a relationship between Health and Damage (Damage lowers your Max Health level)

The white clock face will be filled in with a graphic symbolizing what time of day it is (basically a slice of the clock will be a certain color, depending on if the player has slept the previous night or not, etc.).

. · Fri 15/04/2005 20:11:41

Nice realy nice

Cant wait to play South coast city

I realy like blood alcohol level and total level

TerranRich · Fri 15/04/2005 20:15:31

Oh, also forgot to mention, the "separate" tabs (Damage and TAC tabs) will retract as needed. For example, if there is no damage, that orange tab will retract and be out of the picture, as will the TAC tab. Just so people know, most of the time you'll only see the dark green GUI.

Sam. · Fri 15/04/2005 21:07:46

looks lovely.

Can i ask, will it be made using photos, or some of that 3d rendering we know you're so good at.

TerranRich · Fri 15/04/2005 21:18:55

Quote from: TerranRich on Fri 15/04/2005 19:46:14By the way, the city background behind the GUI Overlay is just for testing purposes. I'll be using prerendered 3D backgrounds for this one.

Sam. · Fri 15/04/2005 21:25:22

gah. you wins.

Haddas · Fri 15/04/2005 22:51:29

I think the current shade of green should be changed. a little darker methinks. The letter looks kinda blurred against it. For me atleast

stuh505 · Fri 15/04/2005 22:58:45

The layout is pretty nice, but the colors of everything are too random; right now, it lacks unification. The colors in all of the icons should match with the color scheme of the GUI backgrounds and text. All of the text and numbers should follow a logical color scheme too.

Some more specific comments:

You might try replacing the health with a bar. The bandana and thumbs up are very unintuitive...I have no idea what they are supposed to represent. The scholarly hat, smiley, and dumbells must represent character attributes -- knowledge, social skills, and strength? At least that's my guess. If these are character attributes, I don't think they belong on the main heads up GUI...static data should go on a non-static GUI because you don't need to see it all the time.

InCreator · Sat 16/04/2005 00:12:06

Hah, It's great!

But I'd change the green color of the big bar to something else, less distracting from the indicators&stats.

This color should be less saturated and calm so other things would stick out more.

TerranRich · Sat 16/04/2005 01:02:37

stuh505: See, that's the thing about the icons. I don't really know WHAT to use for icons for certain stats. The bandana and thumbs-up, as I stated in the text below my picture, are Respect and Confidence, respectively. What would you guys suggest for icons for those stats?

As for the icons lacking unification, I agree. I could find some way of having them all the same color. The text, I agree as well. I could change all of the numbers to a dark shade of the GUI green.

I thought about replacing the health number with a bar, but then I started thinking about how it would be implemented in AGS. I could use a RawDraw function of some sort, I suppose. Yeah, I could do that.

As for the static-ness of certain stats: the character stats aren't as static as you'd think. They can be easily changed (increased by going to school/studying/working out/flirting) and aren't very time-consuming to do so. I think I should leave everything up on there. But what do you other guys think?

InCreator: What would you suggest for the GUI color? Perhaps a less saturated green? Should I make the "sub-GUIs" closer to the green? Or are the sandy and brown colors close enough?

Evil · Sat 16/04/2005 01:20:39

Well, I don't know what you programing skill level is, but you could try something like this.

http://www.chronetal.co.uk/gta/

It's a GTA map editor. There are a lot out there, but this is the best I've seen yet.

stuh505 · Sat 16/04/2005 02:31:04

Implementing the health bar would be extremely easy. Raw draw functions aer a bad idea because you can't manipulate them and you dont want to be doing lots of raw grabs and restores...plus it wouldnt look very good.

Instead, make the GUI transparent over the health bar area...then you can display a graphic overlay there, and overlays will naturally occur with a Z order below the GUI. So you can just move the overlay back and forth.

As to the icons...well maybe you could just use words? If you took out the character attributes from this gui you'd have more room

TerranRich · Sat 16/04/2005 02:34:53

That's a great idea stuh505, about the graphical overlays. That'll work

As for the character attrbutes, I'd like the player to be able to view them at a glance. Maybe it could be a drop-down GUI that appears when the mouse is held over a certain spot? I'll see what I can do. Thanks.

Darth Mandarb · Sat 16/04/2005 03:08:34

I did a quick paint-over ...

I thought the icons were a bit distracting, so I tried something different. Thinking along the longs of RPGs:

- shifted some things around
- changed the TAC to the beer bottle w/ lightning bolt

Another idea:

I've always been a fan of GUIs with transparency. I'm envisioning the GUIs 'sliding' off the screen when not in use. Then maybe the space bar (or any other key) would bring them back. In this way, you have the whole screen for the game.

Anyway ... just some ideas. I actually rather like what you have/had. I just added my own spin to the mix! Hope it was helpful!

TerranRich · Sat 16/04/2005 03:21:14

Wow. Your GUI designs just blew mine out of the water! :o

Here's what I have so far, after alterations from suggestions:

But Darth's just...wow... Now I want to use yours! I'll give it another spin. I totally forgot about font outlines and could utilize that in the design. Thanks, Darth!

InCreator · Sat 16/04/2005 03:22:50

I'd suggest something like dark blue/cyan/brown or similar.
Maybe dark green would fit too. Current one just catches eye too much and feels somewhat non-neutral/too important to look at though it's just a gui. I may sound really weird here, but there's no other way to describe my feelings while looking at the gui.

I tried with dark yellow(orangeish) tone and it did look better, though this cool winking smiley there didn't stick out so nicely anymore.

I'd show a paintover if my damned machine wasn't compiling lightmaps my new counter-strike map for last 4 hours, thus blocking everything else

EDIT: New one is alot better.

TerranRich · Sat 16/04/2005 03:47:13

Evil: Why did you suggest a GTA map editor? I'm just curious. It looks good, but I'm lost as to what it has to do with my GUI?

InCreator: Point taken. If the new one below is still too distracting, I'll try a darker color.

Hmm?

Also, I want the player to know that Personality (purple man) is derived from â€" or at least has something to do with â€" the above three stats (Intelligence, ~~Charm~~Appeal, & Strength). I conserved even more space in the top main GUI while reorganizing things and utilizing Darth's bottle-and-bolt icon (but my own). What do you guys think now? (By the way, I've changed Charm to Appeal for certain reasons â€" specifically, Appeal will be increased by your possessions (car, house, etc.) so Charm doesn't really apply. "Appeal" covers both Charm and how people look at you. They both factor into Appeal.

)

Evil · Sat 16/04/2005 03:57:01

I assumed that your game would have similar qualities of a GTA game. Just though it was something cool you might want to look at or concider. :/

I do like the new GUI though. Much better.

Peter Thomas · Sat 16/04/2005 05:56:04

I think this looks fab. Everything's functional and pretty clear. The only thing that needs any explanation is the "tac" icon, but then again, you'd need to explain it no matter what image you used...

I'm still a bit lost as to the white clock face; I didn't quite follow your explanation. But at the moment, having two clocks looks a bit strange.

Everything else looks fine to me.

stuh505 · Sat 16/04/2005 16:20:28

Try having an icon for your character's face next to the health. When you mouse over the icon, a GUI slides out showing the static attributes while you keep your mouse hovered there. I definitely think those should not have icons, esp if they are on a dropdown...because it doesnt matter if they are bigger.

As for the non-static attribtues which I'll refer to as conditions (respect, drunkeness, etc), Darth did a good job of making those icons look like they go together via the outlines. Your black outlines help too but it doesn't work out as well as it did on Darth's GUI.

I think you should free up more space by not saying 50/100...and just say 50% instead. Because it still looks too cluttered.

I changed my mind about the respect confidence I think you should go back to icons so they take up less space...but make it so that perhaps hovering over any of the icons displays the text word of that icon.