[Bjorn]

Description

This contest will take one week, from now (Monday 28th June) up to and including Monday 5th of July. Entries should be images showing the GUI of your game, preferably showing also how it operates and interacts with the user. These images do not have to be screenshots of a working implementation, you are free to realize your ideas using a graphics program of your preference without doing any programming.

When referring to the GUI, I mean the ingame displays of information and menus. The part shown while playing is sometimes also called the heads up display, or HUD. I don't mean the GUI of your editor or other external tools.

Participating

Upload your entries to a website (or add them to one of your projects on RPGDX), and place them in this forum thread using the bbcode img tag. Additional explanation about the images is appreciated.

Comments by (non-)participants are allowed. When all entries are in, I'll make miniatures and post them all seperately in a new thread, where we'll also do voting for nicest idea/design.

Rules

- You don't need to subscribe to this competition or anything, just post an entry to participate.
- While it is allowed to add short animations or working executables showing the GUI, images are mandatory and should be included as well.
- You are allowed to base your design on previous work, but make sure you reference what you had when you started.
- Multiple entries are allowed per participant. It is also allowed to improve your entry after user comments, as long as it's done before the competition deadline, 5th of July.

Good luck everybody! :-)

[Ninkazu]

Could have picked a better time...... I'm in Illinois right now and won't be back until the 2nd. Oh well.

[janus]

Just a quick mockup using some ideas... not sure if I like it. I'd appreciate some feedback!



Basically, you equip items to each key. Weapons are used by holding down the key and using the arrows to select a target, and then releasing the key to use the weapon. Normal items and things like shields are simply used by pressing the key.
I'll probably mock up the equipment menu and stuff next.

[biggerUniverse]

[Rainer Deyke]

I don't like hold-and-release style keyboard interfaces. It's too easy to accidentally release the key too soon.

Other than that, the system might work if there is a relatively small set of items that is commonly used. If I have four items that I want to use and only three keys, I constantly have to equip and unequip items.

[white_door]

The genre is action rpg, with simple zelda style combat and some sneaking thrown in for fun. You may equip different items, like weapons and traps. However unlike with Janus' mockup I only have two equipment slots in my design.

The other elements of the GUI, like the main menu (as shown) are accessed by using different items in your inventory.

[DrunkenCoder]

I know this is off-topic but white_doors screenie is soo cute!
_________________
If there's life after death there is no death, if there's no death we never live. | ENTP

[Rainer Deyke]

Here's a preview of my entry. There's a lot to be done, especially in the appearance department, but I think the basic concept is solid. I'm mostly posting this now for feedback. The images here are half size - click on them for the full version.

The basic concept of the game engine is to have the sophistication of a PC rpg with the look and feel of a console RPG. Everything can be controlled with six keys: four directional keys, an action key, and a cancel key. In addition there are various shortcut keys. The game can also be controlled with a gamepad, and I'm planning on adding mouse support. On to the screenshots:



This is the main screen. Please escuse the sprites which were shamelessly stolen from Final Fantasy 6. Use the directional keys to move around. Bump into npcs, treasure chests, and other entities to interact with them. Pressing the action key brings up a menu of actions, pressing the cancel key takes one to the game menu.



This is the game menu. Use the up and down keys to select a subscreen (menu on the left) and the right and left keys to change the active character (menu on the top). Pressing the action key activates the subscreen, pressing cancel takes one back to the main screen.



This is the inventory subscreen. Press up and down to choose an inventory item, press left and right to change the active character. Pressing the action key brings up a menu of things to do with the selected item - see the menu in the center of the screen. In the actual game this will be accompanied by a description of the item. Pressing the cancel key takes one back to the game menu.



The equipment subscreen works much like the inventory screen. Pressing the action key brings up a menu of inventory items that can be equipped in the active equipment slot. It is possible to equip items both from the equipment subscreen and from the inventory subscreen, but the equipment subscreen is necessary for unequipping items and gives an overview of which items are equipped.

[mandrake_meep]

white_door-> that GUI is inexplicably cool.

[janus]

aieeee, why are all the entries using 6pt font? I can't read any of them!

[white_door]

My font is actually smaller than 6 pt... I think its the smallest possible bitmap font you can make. (most of the lower case are 4x5, the largest capital might be 6x5, I think.)

I find the image zoomer extension for firefox is useful for viewing things that were designed to be seen at a lower res.

[Rainer Deyke]

In my case it's a temporary situation. I tend to use small fonts for proof-of-concept mockups because that makes things easier for me - no need to worry about text going outside of bounds.

[Bjorn]

[Rainer Deyke]

The ripped graphics aren't there to look good - they're there because I need some sort of placeholder graphics (facing in different directions, with animation) to test the engine. I could have created my own placeholder graphics, and I could even make them look halfway good if I invest enough effort in it, but it's all going to be replaced anyway when I start working on the real game (and hopefully find a real artist), so why bother?

[Bjorn]

I also think it's harder to find an artist to replace ripped graphics than it is to find an artist to replace crappy programmer graphics. But that's just based on thought, not on experience. Why bother? I was just pointing out an aspect I didn't like about the screenshots.