Pixel Joint Forum: Looking for Interface Ideas

Message

Hello Pixeljoint community,

I am reworking the ingame interface of my roguelike game and need some ideas for it. Currently I am designing the bottom "menu bar" as some kind of belt where a beeper shows game messages and the belt buckle contains some game information (health, stamina and if the player is standing, crouching or going prone). But I am not happy with it, so I thought you guys and girls might have some ideas or advices on how I could design this interface.

I applied a mosaic filter to the game view to lead the eye to the interface on the bottom (to avoid distracting). If you think that this is a bad idea I can redo that (or you can look to the corresponding game thread).

Things I would like to integrate into the interface:

- an inventory button
- a health bar and a stamina bar
- a window to display game messages
- a button to display the character stats (skills, attributes, etc. [maybe also quests])
- a button that changes (and displays) the player's posture

I highly appreciate any tips, comments and ideas.

EDIT: The game setting is based on the contemporary.

Greetings
BrightBit

Edited by BrightBit - 15 January 2012 at 5:47pm

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BrightBit Midshipman Joined: 11 May 2014 Online Status: Offline Posts: 98	Topic: Looking for Interface Ideas Posted: 12 January 2012 at 1:50pm
	Hello Pixeljoint community, I am reworking the ingame interface of my roguelike game and need some ideas for it. Currently I am designing the bottom "menu bar" as some kind of belt where a beeper shows game messages and the belt buckle contains some game information (health, stamina and if the player is standing, crouching or going prone). But I am not happy with it, so I thought you guys and girls might have some ideas or advices on how I could design this interface. I applied a mosaic filter to the game view to lead the eye to the interface on the bottom (to avoid distracting). If you think that this is a bad idea I can redo that (or you can look to the corresponding game thread). Things I would like to integrate into the interface: - an inventory button - a health bar and a stamina bar - a window to display game messages - a button to display the character stats (skills, attributes, etc. [maybe also quests]) - a button that changes (and displays) the player's posture I highly appreciate any tips, comments and ideas. EDIT: The game setting is based on the contemporary. Greetings BrightBit Edited by BrightBit - 15 January 2012 at 5:47pm
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Zeratanus Commander Joined: 03 December 2020 Online Status: Offline Posts: 576	Posted: 13 January 2012 at 9:29pm
	I think the mosaic's a bad idea - its important to see how the HUD works with the game display. As for the HUD itself - The Beeper is too heavy on the graphics, not enough on the text. Thin out the sides, make it longer, and shrink the bottom side with a smaller "Beeper" text. Keeps the same design ideas, but leaves much more room for the game messages. For health and stamina bars, I'd personally go for horizontal bars and put them next to each other. Im assuming the red and blue bars are what those are in the HUD, so i'd say you could do something like: •Stack the heath bar and stamina bar on top of each other and make them go horizontal instead of vertical - makes the player not have to look as far down to see those vital bits of info •Shrink the posture a bit so it can fit underneath the two bars. If there are only a few postures (like standing, crouched, and prone) you can even have the three illustrated beside each other with the current position highlighted Im not sure what to do about the inventory (Never played a rougelike game in my life honestly so i dont know what players expect) but I'd smush everything over so that it can take up a large area of the screen so they can see what they have. Get rid of all that space between the three elements (beeper, healththing, items) and use all that space for info. Right now its all wasted.
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BrightBit Midshipman Joined: 11 May 2014 Online Status: Offline Posts: 98	Posted: 15 January 2012 at 5:43pm
	Hi Zeratanus, thanks for your hints. I first made the beeper less heavy. You were right it looked better. Then I put those two bars above each other and made them horizontal instead of vertical as you suggested but I didn't like it. I would like to keep those bars vertical because I want it to be associated with the Diablo interface (in some way or another). The idea to use a belt as the container for my interface doesn't seem to work so I've redone the interface and this is what it looks now:
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