Your favorite interface

[Simonsez128]

Hi there,

I am currently researching for a cool interface. I don't know if I can create something really new, yet what I want is to make it as comfortable as I can. It's gonna be a regular interface with inventory and four mouse modes (as well as about 4 additional modes that will be available later in the game). Yet I want to keep the screen clear as much as I can, thus a static inventory is ruled out.

So, what I'd like to know from you all is: What cool interface functions do you like best? Which game's interface seemed the most perfect and comfortable to you?

Hope you have some cool ideas on your mind
thanks

EDIT: Corrected typo in thread title.

[Bombadil]

My facorite interface is SCUMM, because is all at hand and you don't have to open things to look the inventory but you say you don't like it...

I think it'll be cool to do something new. I've been thinking and you could make an inventory like the Discworld's series one, but with the Sierra interface.

[Simonsez128]

I'm sorry, never played the Discworld series. Could you describe the interface to me a little? I'll try to take a look at Discworld and see what can be done

[qptain Nemo]

As I said before, IMHO, really good interface should be using keyboard a lot but of course with mouse. Examples are old Legend games like Eric the unready, Gateway, later Legend games like Death Gate, Shannara, and very comfortable for me was Broken Sword 3.

And nearly to ideal interface in Breakdown. There is classical point-and-click Sierra-like interface but you can switch between actions by keys a,s,d.

[GarageGothic]

captain Nemo touches on something I've been thinking about asking people:
If each cursor-mode has a keyboard button attached to it (like in the LA games), would you prefer that the buttons were related to the actions L=LOOK, T=TALK, P=PICK UP etc., or would  you rather that they were arbitrary but close to eachother (ASDFG or ZXCVB etc.)?

[DragonRose]

Favourite ever- that would be hard to answer. So oftern the interface only works because it fits in with the rest of the game. The Sierra GUI wouldn't fit in with Maniac Mansion, for example. There's too many variations in MM for a simple "USE" icon to work.

However, I can tell you what I've hated- single click interfaces, such as in KQ7, Torins Passage, GK2 and the Myst games. If I want to look at the lever- which, to me, would seem like a good idea- I don't want to pull it instead.

As a caveat to that, I did like the interface in The 7th Guest, if you'll consider that an adventure. As you moved the single cursor around the room, it changed to show you what it would do. A beckoning finger meant that the you would go to a new screen, an eye meant you would look at something, a book meant you would read, etc.

If you let me know somehow what will basically happen when I click my mouse, I'm happy.

[strazer]

If each cursor-mode has a keyboard button attached to it (like in the LA games), would you prefer that the buttons were related to the actions L=LOOK, T=TALK, P=PICK UP etc., or would  you rather that they were arbitrary but close to eachother (ASDFG or ZXCVB etc.)?

I prefer related keys but I see no reason not to use both.
I will probably do it like this:

Walk + 1
Look + Examine + 2
Interact + 3
Talk + Speak + 4
UseInv + 5

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

I fell in love with the LSL7 interface.

[GarageGothic]

Great idea strazer - I was so daft that I hadn't even considered more than one button per function 

[Radiant]

If you're just using a view interactions, the Sierra interface is very good, and it leaves the most room on the screen for pretty graphics.
If you want multiple verbs, the Lucasfilms one is excellent; you can go up to at least fifteen verbs without cluttering up. However, for a Lucas GUI it is very important that you implement keyboard controls!
Personally I've never quite liked single-click things like QfGV, nor do I like verbcoins (because the click-drag-release movement gets on my nerves, but with a decent keyboard alternative it would be very workable).

I second Strazer's idea about multiple keys per action. Also basic stuff like Esc=controls, Tab=inventory, F5/F7=save/load, etc.

[Simonsez128]

Hi there guys,

thanks for the great answers so far. So what I basically gather from your answers is that you want the different action modes easily available and that the actions you take on different objects are realistic. As of now I am trying to accomplish all of this the best I can. What do you think of this:

• Keyboard support, with keys from 1-5 associated with the standard commands, multiple keys possible
• Mouse wheel support for cycling through the modes (forwards and backwards)
• The active item is always ready for use, i.e. once you selected something from the inventory you can use it multiple times in a row
• Right-click opens up an inventory menu which has also buttons for switching modes (for looking at inventory items and performing certain other actions - I wanna keep all options open)
• Four additional mouse modes available later in the game like teleporting and so on.
• When the mouse hovers over an interesting item, hotspot or character, a message appears next to the mouse cursor explaining what it is and what action you will perform with it in the current selected mode. That way you can not just "look at keyhole" but rather "peek though keyhole". I have solved this with property values. Anyone wanna have a look at the code, see here: http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=6240.0
  

That's all as far as I have come with scripting and ideas so far. I just tried to collect ideas I liked in adventures I played so far (not that many unfortunately) and wanted to hear what other people especially liked. So keep the answers coming Thanks again for the responce so far!

[Radiant]

Sounds very good.
The only quibble I have is that cycling mouse cursors (right mouse button, or mouse wheel) gets annoying if you have more than, say, five cursor modes. IMHO Gabriel Knight suffers from this, and so would your game if you add the four 'special' modes later on. Especially as by that point the player will be used to the earlier number of commands, and for instance would know to right-click three times to get from 'hand' to 'eye'. And now it would be seven instead.
If the commands are rarerly used, you shouldn't put them in the right-click sequence, just under the hotkeys and in the GUI.
(it could be argued that SQ's nose icon doesn't belong in the right click sequence either)