Thursday, February 20, 2014
A Shooter Friendly Interface
I never mentioned how the HUD shown in the mock up isn't what the screen will look like at any given time. They way it's show in the mock-up is too cluttered. The real game screen only has your hearts, magic meter, pause button, and D-pad visible at all times. I just added all the things that could pop-up during gameplay to get an idea of size and placement for the GUI components.
The spell switcher, pixie teleport icons, and wallet only pop-up or slide out when you're using something related to them. The wallet slides out when you collect a gem, the pixies appear when you're teleporting, and the colorful spell switcher bar appears when one of the buttons below it gets pressed. The D-pad and spell switch buttons will be transparent in the actual game and the big spell cast button will be transparent when pressed or when you're unable to attack.
The D-pad isn't actually 4 separate buttons, but just a reference image. It will function much like the one for the "My Boy!" Gameboy emulator on Android. That D-Pad feels the most like a comfortable virtual joystick that actually works. I played the Legacy of Goku 2 on that emulator and the controls felt perfect. I want Unicorn Quest to have that kind of movement fluidity so I'll be coding the walking controls to work just like the emulator did.
There needs to be plenty of room on screen to see incoming threats and spot vulnerable targets. That's why essential HUD components are at the top and bottom of the screen which centers on Clover. I also made the spell cast button big enough for comfortable tapping because it's going to be used almost as much as the D-pad. Both of those frequently used components are on opposite sides of the bottom half of the screen so player hold the device like any controller and have room to see more action (and not their fingers).
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment