GR#129 - Labyrinth - RPG Projection Sprites and Tiles

[StarRaven]

I've been designing a new UI. I did the original frame mostly for fun and I didn't leave room for some important things, so I'm scrapping it. I don't have a lot of ideas, though. Here's what I have so far:

I like gigantic clunky UIs in case nobody can tell.

The ovals along the right side are for inactive characters. (I am thinking that if a character should die, the demon's hand can reach in from off-screen and scratch out the portrait.) The circle at the top left will be a place for a mini-map that will show which area of the house the character is in, and a bar nearby would name it (something like, "Second Floor -- North Hallway.")

And two new animations: picking up an item and using an item.

Shown with a test item (green notebook) and without. I haven't fixed those jaggies yet; I keep forgetting. Also, I am beginning to think that her arms are too short in the standing sprites, haha.

Just for fun, I found some concept art of the wall-sconce-monsters:



kab00m:
No promises, but I'm hoping to.

Edit:
Oh! Also I kept meaning to say...

...creating a few tile variants of the boards. Also, lengthening those a bit, perhaps just removing every other divide would look more floor-boardy.

I can't get the floorboards any longer; my tiles are only 16x16. I was going to try a vertical board, though -- maybe the perspective will make it look longer? Test:
vs

[kriss]

I like a lot the book animation ^^

The first time i saw your HUD, i immediatly thought about art nouveau !
Maybe you should take a look at thoses exemples

[kab00m]

If you don't use this art, let me try. I made a 2d engine in sfml c++.

[StarRaven]

If you don't use this art, let me try. I made a 2d engine in sfml c++.

If I don't end up using it, I'll slap a CC on it and put it on OpenGameArt. I'll let you know if I do. :3

[Mike]

It's looking really great so far.  However are you sure you want to add a minimap?  I'm all for naming the rooms but adding an actual functioning map seems a bit overkill.  The house can't possible be that big and if you add a map that helps orient the player it kinda kills the scary and mysterious house vibe.

For me this game(were it to become a game) is enticing because of not knowing what lies ahead. 

This is all just my opinion though.

If you do turn this into a game would you be using normal scrolling or screen to screen? I think that will be crucial decision.

[StarRaven]

Mike:
The house is pretty big, heh. Four floors and about fifty (admittedly mostly small) rooms. The design is intentionally maze-like, for both gameplay and story reasons. Having a mini-map doesn't mean you have to "know what lies ahead" -- there are a lot of ways that a game can challenge a player, but making it hard for them to find their way around is not one of my favorites. Still, I think "because I want one" is not really the best justification for why I've got a mini-map, so I'll give it some thought. If I scrap it, I might at least make it available via a map item that the player can pick up.

Now I might be severely biased, or I might be misunderstanding what you're talking about, but.... is screen-to-screen that thing that some of those Zelda games do, where the screen doesn't move until you get to the edge of it? I'm not a fan of that. It makes everything feel disconnected and it's a pain to run anywhere for more than a screen's length when you have to stop and wait for the screen to catch up to the character. That would really take away from the "running away from something that's trying to kill me" vibe, and the creep of the camera as you walk is crucial for a slow reveal. The game is primarily going to be stealth-based, without a lot of fighting. (Basically, if an enemy attacks a character and the character has the appropriate item, the character will kill the enemy. Otherwise, the character will take damage and run away if they survive.)

Anyway, that was a bit of a ramble! Keep those opinions coming; I definitely want to know what you think. How will I know if my design choices are solid unless I can justify them when people question them?

Bah, I hate posting a reply when I don't have any progress to show but I'm still working on this UI....

[Mike]

My reason behind those 2 choices is this.  If its screen to screen that means going to another screen can be potentially dangerous because the whole room will be visible and you'll immediately see everything.  Sort of a pop out surprise.  Could be good for horror type games.  My imagination for this type of scrolling is a bit limited sorry.

On the other hand if you use seamless scrolling you'll be able to use that to gradually reveal things.  Like maybe you can hear a sort of crunching sound further ahead but since the game has limited visibility you can't see directly in front you(because its a side scroller) and you'll have to actively get closer and closer until you can actually see what is making the noise.  Maybe it's a tree branch against a window maybe its a zombie chewing on some brains.  Who knows lol.

[StarRaven]

Yeah, that thing you said about seamless scrolling (crunching up ahead, who knows what it is? etc etc) is exactly what I had in mind. Screen to screen would allow for some shock scares, but it's not the effect I was going for. I might be thinking "wow it's horrible" but on second thought, it wouldn't be so bad if the screen was big and the whole room was viewable at once. (I'm imagining it on a small screen like the one I've designed already.)

I think my original inspiration for making a horror game was when I played Persona 3 and it would scare the crap out of me any time I got one of those floors with the Reaper on it -- it was fine at first because there were no monsters on it, but then I'd hear that clinking chain sound and I'd just go "oh crap." (And then I'd start running and suddenly I'd see that little blinking dot on the mini-map coming toward me that that was enough to start me running like hell in the other direction even without seeing it on the screen! The visual equivalent of hearing footsteps coming down the hall, I guess.)

[tehwexxl0rz]

I think my original inspiration for making a horror game was when I played Persona 3 and it would scare the crap out of me any time I got one of those floors with the Reaper on it -- it was fine at first because there were no monsters on it, but then I'd hear that clinking chain sound and I'd just go "oh crap." (And then I'd start running and suddenly I'd see that little blinking dot on the mini-map coming toward me that that was enough to start me running like hell in the other direction even without seeing it on the screen! ...)

DUDE I KNOW THAT FEEL!

(... The visual equivalent of hearing footsteps coming down the hall, I guess.)

RUN WITH THIS. That's a perfect analogy that begs to be taken literally! The mini-map can be explained as some kind of primitive handheld sonar device. (In my mind I can't help but imagine it being bat-themed.) Regardless of theming, I'd definitely vote yes on mini-map to help the player stay oriented without constantly having to pause to look at a map.

As for the smooth-scrolling versus screen-by-screen debate, why pick one? Smooth scrolling for rooms and hallways seems like the obvious choice with "screen-to-screen" breaks between rooms and staircases, etc.

[Facet]

New UI looks great; much more functional, the bit of legacy corner could do with the same spit and polish. I doodled a more structural and colourful example. I like minimaps for ease of navigation but also because they facilitate my tendancy towards completionism.

The sconce-creatures are going to be pretty hard to animate and for the player to read at that size without an introductory cut-scene or something and creative licence notwithstanding; real candles are a bit of an anachronism, no? Regardless, I love the idea.

What's to stop you using a larger (32x16?) meta-tile for the boards, like any other larger entity? I also notice you seem only to be using one or two pixel buffers for AA; the more shallow the curve, the longer the buffer, regardless of steps.

The Zelda-esque 'item get' is pretty sweet. I want more