There usually comes a time in every game progress when you ask yourself if the control scheme is correct. I am at that phase. I have been working on the examine system for the game. When you approach something interesting a '!' will appear above your head, you then press a button and can examine it. In the first dungeon this can be used to talk to prisoners in their cells. See below-
But I currently have this examine control to CTRL and to read through the conversations you press space. I KNOW this needs changed. What's throwing me a bone in this lot is that Space is the bottun for attacking. Normally I would set the attack and examine/talk to the same key, but this game is different sense you'll be moving quite a bit and it would essentially mean you can't attack if you were standing on a place where you can examine something.So what do you guys think?I'm thinking this-Arrows=WalkSpace=SwordCTRL=Examine/Talk/Read Through ConversationsEnter=InventoryShould I use the class Z & X format perhaps? Input is much appreciated!Also, I'm looking for a music composer. I'm thinking a soundtrack that would be a cross between 'The Last of The Mohicans' soundtrack and Ronnie James would be ace :) Actually that mashup is giving me goose bumps already!Beta should be out soon BTW, I wanna finish the prison level completely. And all I've really got left is the boss battle!
That actually sounds much, much worse than I expected. Make the HUD simple and easy to read. That's the most important idea to remember for anyone trying to make a HUD for a game.
I'm guessing this is your first time sitting down trying to make something legit, so I'll take the benefit of the doubt and give you a few pointers:1. ALWAYS PUT NUMBERS INTO VISUALS. Nothing is more irritating for a gamer than just looking at a quantity and having to work with it. It just jars you out of any sense of atmosphere. What is there to gain from keeping it just a number? You can keep the number display, but please, for the love of fuck, use a healthbar as well. Don't be lazy now. The only exceptions are things which go down one-by-one or that you need to count piece-for-piece, like ammunition, or mana in certain systems. And even then, visuals never hurt. If the numbers you're dealing with are in the single digits, though, then it's just redundant to use visuals.2. NEVER CHANGE THE COLOR OF TEXT. EVER. This fucks readability like a powerdrill fucks a sheep. It's never a good idea to make any amount of text that someone's referring to frequently be anything besides black, white, or one consistent color that's also consistent with the HUD. Again, it's just jarring, and nobody likes a jarring HUD.3. CONSISTENCY AND LEGIBILITY. HP is a number, but Energy is a bar? Why the fuck is that? The point of a HUD is that it's supposed to be simple to read, especially for people new to the game. Just make it all consistent, so it's easier on the eyes. That way you can easily glance, at a moment's notice, at the corner of the screen, and not have to do any mental work to know what the fuck is going on. But, at the same time,4. DON'T INSULT THE PLAYER'S INTELLIGENCE. That's a huge no-no. As a general rule of thumb, assume the player has played many games before, and could guess what does what from looking at a screenshot, without having you point it out to them in words. When you look at a painting of a rose, you can generally guess that it's a rose, not because there's a huge neon arrow pointing towards it saying "ROSE," but because you know generally what roses look like. If, however, you're describing a function unique to the game, it's okay if you make it all a bit more obvious. Same thing with specific names; weapons, for example, can be kept as text. Just don't use words for basic numeral variables, or things that just make the player go something like, "No shit my name's Fred, Fred's the only playable character in the whole fucking game."Twinzermancer takes a break and comes back with good advice. :')
But seriously, that HUD in its current state could use some improvement. Like Panzer said, numbers are hard to read fast, when a bar that's half-full (or half-empty) can quickly convey that the player doesn't have a lot of health. Besides that, the font and coloration are kind of ugly.Wat.
WAAAAAAT.watDude, dude. Dude, just use fucking visuals. I just said don't use numbers. The energy bar is fine. Just make a healthbar above it, keep a number there if you want, make sure the energy bar is a different color or something, maybe if there's a common color for energy-consuming actions (blue for example) you could use that.Also, dear sir, there is a "z" in "Panzer." I do not care if English is not your primary language, it's a bloody proper noun, and it's not like you can't find the proper spelling anywhere; it's stamped all over my fuckin' comments. Sorry to flip, just be careful with how you spell people's names; it's a matter of respect. You got that, sHeppperd?oh okay you were confusing me haha But yeah that's a bit simper to what I was interpretting what you were saying. Also the HUD needs a border like the text box I can see now.
But yeah, I've actually been making stuff for a long time but HUD has just never been my specialty.Also English is my native speaking language but I'm just a hasty typer…I've been making stuff for a long time too man; but, well, let's just say only recently have I actually started working legitimately. There's a huge difference, and not to assume, but I could imagine it's the same way with your work; I'm sure your first games certainly didn't come out anywhere near as decent as this one seems to be capable of.
Without a doubt. Like very large number of people, I spent my first year or so in the fangame rut.
I certainly didn't. I never did anything with fangames or clones or any of that cut-n-paste fuckery.
I mean, I think at one point I sort of made a parody of the Bible with the Jebus Loves his Pancakes Series, but fortunately the host website pruned the original file ages ago, and the computer it was all stored in is somewhere in a landfill right now, the hard drive burnt to a crisp. That, and the game was kind of shit-on-purpose quality; I just ripped a bunch of first-image-results off google for everything.Kilin posted the reason I don't use arrow keys with spacebar anymore. these days i use WADS for movement and JKL for action keys. it's even German-keyboard-friendly!