Combat U.I.

[Zizka]

As a rule of thumb, it's never a good idea to discuss to many things in the same thread:


I need to have the equipment on both sides of the book since I have empty space there. Also, it would allow me to get rid of the tabs altogether. I've thought about cards (like above) but then I don't have enough space for the description unless I make a huge drawing for each item.

I'm looking for design ideas or art comments. I thought about adding a notepad just for the items but I think there would be too much clutter... I also need to add a spot for health and energy.

EDIT: Another try on the card but no:


Another possibility:

[Zizka]

1. Changed the general u.i. Monster and player both have a new spot in the book along with their health points.

2. Changed the energy and health logo for the player.

3. Drew a new logo for the enemy hp to fit with the chart.

4. At the moment, the left page feels too empty.

5. The possible roll outcome will now be displayed in green, it'll be up to the player to make the selection among what's available.

6. Moved everything to the left side to have some room for the dice on the right.

7. Cleanup the skull icon to make things less busy.

8. Changed the bindings in the middle to make them look better.

9. Moved the chart further to the right to avoid having the cursor in the middle of the book.

10. Added a coffee mug.

11. Made the first symbol, the bullet vest, for the dice.

12. Made the second symbol, energy.

13. Made the third dice, gun.

14. Made the fourth dice, noose.

15. Made fifth dice, horseshoe (for wild). Will likely change it later.

So I'm still looking for an icon for the sixth dice. Ideas?



The idea is that if you roll a minimum of 3 of a kind, you trigger the corresponding icon:

3x energy +5 energy
3x gun: trigger weapon damage bonus
3x bullet proof vest: prevent some damage based on the armor worn.
3x noose: this is the 'bad' roll since getting 3 of those doesn't trigger anything although it works normally for the chart.

the horseshoe is just a wild so having 3 of those doesn't trigger anything either.

I'm still missing one idea for the icon. So far I have:
Offense
Defense
Wild
'bad' roll
Energy
...
so the last one maybe could trigger a bad effect if you end up with 3x or more of it.

----

That's it for my notes for today.

[Zizka]

Bump!

[aeveis]

Randomly popping in here, I checked out the other thread that had more context on the game.

Some thoughts:
Do you have an idea of everything that you'll need for the UI? Might be helpful to make a flow map of possible options first, rather than deciding since there's extra space you should have equipment there. Especially since the decision of equipment has caused more problems for you to solve visually, like where to fit the description and the like. I would think of what info is really needed for the player to see and then format the art and the layout to that.

Basically organize and plan out the UI first and then make the art work for it.

Visually I think you've made good decisions in improving readability and everything looks pretty good - but if the layout changes that you may have to rehash things anyway, so I'm not sure if feedback on how things look will really help if the layout is not figured out first.

It feels like you are describing a lot of the game without much context - there's a lot of detail and it's a bit hard to parse and feels unfocused.  Might be better to make a devlog and just talk about one subject at a time, or perhaps a game design document of how you want everything to work. Otherwise I'm concerned there'll be a lot of churn - a lot of repositioning and revising of assets with an unclear design goal.

Hope that is helpful!

[Zizka]

Again I stopped dropping by when someone replies  .
That's the screen I dropped by to share:


You bring valid and interesting points, I'll try to answer to the best of my ability.

I'm pretty much done with the rest of the game design and it has already been coded in or is in the process of being coded. Right now, the biggest challenge is the combat.

As you can see from the previous screens, I've thought about a lot of different design ideas for the combat. The game is meant to replicate 'fighting fantasy'/choose your own adventure books. So battle uses dice.

Recent changes I've made:
a. I've dropped the idea of using cards, too clunky and cumbersome.

b. I've replaced regular dice with various faces on the actual dice.

c. The player rolls the dice and checks the chart (like in the example) to determine the outcome of the round.

d. The player can choose to re-roll any dice at the cost of one energy. So the player can re-roll 2 for 2 energy and 4 for 4 and so on. This is a risk-reward feature, the player can decide to take a change and re-roll the result he got.

e. The player can re-roll as many times as he wants but each re-roll sequence costs +1 energy. So far example, if the player rolls: 4,4,3,2,2,1, he could choose to re-roll the '1' for 1 energy. If he then gets:
4,4,3,2,2,5 he could try again but this time it would cost 2 energy and so on. ( I used numbers here to make it simpler to explain but replace the numbers with pictures).

f. All the dice are identical but I'm having trouble deciding on which sides I want.

g. I know I want a neutral side which has no impact on the game which is the skull.

e. I know I want the noose which is the negative side. It prevents the player from re-rolling that dice.

f. This is where I'm stuck, I don't have anymore ideas for the other faces of the dice. I've asked around multiple forums but can't get any suggestions.

g. I'd like to replace numbers by pictures (hearts and bolts). As you can see, I've done some experimentation in this attempt at different layouts and concepts.

Maybe a devlog would help about this particular issue since there's a of information to process both regarding the art and the actual concept, I'll think about it.

[aeveis]

Ah ok, that clears up some things.

What's the current theming with the dice or game and what are the current symbols? They look different from your previous symbols. Also, usually if a dice landed on a skull that would feel like a bad result, but may make sense depending on the theme. So far I see the skull, chains, bullet vest, gun, and you mentioned the noose. Previously you mentioned energy and horseshoe.

[Zizka]

Good questions! Allow me to answer to the best of my ability.

* The theme is horror.

The sides I have considered so far:

Skull: this is actually taken straight from Hero Quest, the board game. In the game it is meant to represent offensive properties. In a game about horror I figured it could be neutral enough nothing is set in stone.

Noose: the hangman noose. Prevents that dice from being re rolled.

Horseshoe: initially meant to be a wild meaning it can match with other dice to create combinations. I have since considered dropping it as I feel it is too powerful.

Brain (energy): meant to replenish the player’s energy. I don’t know to implement this in-game.

Chain: something negative. I don’t know what yet.

Gun: something offensive, I don’t know how to implement this.

Bullet vest: something defensive, I don’t know how to implement yet.

Core idea:
A. Risk/reward by risking rerolling dice.

B. Energy management. Rerolling consumes energy.

C. Energy management 2: getting damaged grants energy (adrenaline). Also meant to balance out negative rng outcomes.

D. Executing higher combinations requires energy. This one I’m not sure. Feels like it dampens the success of getting a good combination.

E. Some ideas to consider:
Continue to stray away from yahtzee as a mechanic. Work with symbols combinations for outcomes instead of focusing solely on pairs. Danger of becoming too complicated. Need to be careful about this.

F. Always be wary of overcomplicating things to solve design hurdles. Strive for simplicity and effectiveness.

[Zizka]

Alright, so I've reworked the whole thing so that it's more cohesive and more readable. I think now anyone can figure out what's happening at a glance.

[Zizka]

Newest version with explanations.

[Zizka]

I thought it was too cramped in the previous version so I've tried again:

At the moment there's a lot of empty space and I'm racking my brain to my all of the elements in place.