Robotroit: Yes those are my thoughts as well, but my ideas for the game include day progression which would of course change the direction and placement of the shadows. Of the two tents, which one do you prefer however? Would it be improved if I kept the light source top down and instead just individually shaded both sides? thankyou for your comment :]
Porque:
I guess in a way that the Diablo hud is very similar to the 3rd display composition, with the bars at the bottom and two equipments on either side. Also the character represented in the sprites is kind of different than the more demonic one represented in the previous HUD. I had the idea of the display transforming after the character did- I might still use details from that in things such as status screens.
(oh, now you're gonna animate that avatar huh? hehe har)
I was waiting for this one to reactivate.
This project seems more like just an art project than an actual game dev project. It'll take months of development to bring this game about. And look at how little time you have. Not to be a doomsayer, but how far have you ever gotten into creating a fully-featured game like this?
With all the final art being produced there needs to already be a thoroughly planned out design doc in existence, yet last I remembered some of the game's fundamentals were still up in the air, nowhere near ready for being recorded in the DD. Others here have much more valid experience with game dev, commercial even (just see their lamentations in the Off-Topic thread right now to identify a few). Maybe they can advise.
Your latest stuff. I agreem the HUD is big, I was surprised.
I assume it spans the width of your targeted resolution, which would be 320px X 240px. How is it going to work? What happens when the game world is overlapped by the protrusions on top of the HUD? When art crosses over into game art there's a painful need for functionality above all else, and right now it looks like a form-over-function situation goin' on here.
What does need to pop out and doesn't, are the weapons icons. Agreed, I like their pallets, so maybe you shouldn't edit them, maybe what you have to do is pushing a bit down the strength of the rest of the hud. When I see your HUD I first see the red bar, then the arm of the guy, then the rest of the purple hud and just after everything i can barely see the weapons. I think that should work differently, you may work a bit more on that. Should the guy in the middle have that much protagonism on your HUD?
Well, let's see some improvements :]
cheers and good luck from Argentina
(http://img682.imageshack.us/img682/601/deadbirdcrouchingtiger.png)
Top left of HUD, is that a closed eye waiting to open? Perhaps a toggle switch for some type of game mode, like invincibility for the player?
hey man if youre making games i think its not really so much important to get caught up in the end product look/feel right away. usually youll go through several iterations to get many aspects of your game looking the way you want it (or the way your boss wants it). if the HUD is giving you some trouble, use a simple, sensible layout at first, being minimalistic, and then move on to the rest of your game. things like HUD design may very well be influenced by the progression of your game's content, so sometimes its best not to commit to these things too soon. Spend that time on content content content! :)