[WIP]KINGS THE GAME

[ndchristie]

The icons and gui in general need to be a whole lot less invasive I think.  the coins are huge, and the events are also enormous.  you'll need also to be able to easily identify who owns which town - since this can change it is far more important than the giant coins.  if all towns produce gold and all castles produce three food, that's not very urgent information after the first turn of the game.

Similarly, you have a very large space in three corners dedicated to portraits.  I realize that the portrait is mroe or less what you started with, but it's huge and you've got flags as well - a far more readable identifier anyway.  This space sucker is the reason you can only see one enemy at a time which is a huge drawback when it comes to strategy and simply moving the game along.

My suggestions:

• make the icons smaller and place them on the side of the towns, not centered.  this way they don't interfere as much with the image itself.
• don't show icons that are not immediately important.  For instance, your enemies towns do not need production represented.
• show all three enemies in the corner with flags only - no silly large portraits.  show diplomacy options for all 3 with the scores attached and most importantly a "current state" area (so you know whether you're already trading or at war).
• tuck those news icons half out of the screen, there are too many and they distract.  furthermore, have clicked events turn gray or disappear entirely.
• dump the unit window if the portrait is just some crossed swords, and display his stats floating next to him when clicked.
• try to make the grain icon more distinct, right now it looks like a lot of things.  you could cross two of them, maybe, or use the more traditional apples or meat-slab as they read easier at small scales.
• What does a tax collector do?  where is he built?  is it a unit or a building or just an abstract bonus?  it certainly doesn't need to be on screen 24-7, not that large anyway, try tucking it smaller or clearing it entirely unless selected.
• Use a more readable font.  Scripts from those days served two purposes: to decorate and appeal visually and to absorb time.  Being read was an afterthought maintained only by the holy orders and they, for the most part, already knew what was written.  The modern player cares more about reading at a glance than honoring god with poorly pixellated calligraphy.
• As i suggested before, treat towns and units similarly as they are important.  towns don't need to take the same priority but they do need to be clean and simple to look good.

[Titan]

@hotnikkelz
Your water looks much better and very professional, it is kind of dark for the style of my game i think. ill try fooling around with your water if you don't mind
this is how it looks with your tiles:


also you gave the village a much more cleaner and stronger contrast look, i really like it.

@fortunato
Contrast is what im lacking of! that's true, haha thanks.

@ndchristie
You really sound like a proper game designer!, really thanks for all the advice, some things you mention was the unfinished parts but other thing i do agree with and will work on.

[hotnikkelz]

Hmm glad u liked it.

Looking at it now, if i do a re edit of the water, i'd probably edit the saturation a bit to be consistent with the overall colour..also forgive me, cuz i haven't made tiles before in my life.....but when they're being tiled they don't mesh perfectly...meaning that I can see each water tile like a separate entity, so can you like adjust the edges so that each water tile meshes seamlessly, cuz i don't think i know exactly how to go about doing that hahaha. I will give it a try though. Glad u liked the village.

edit, here u go



Made it a bit brighter this time.....and i put them together to see how it looks

[Titan]

awe man your tiles are beautiful

i was just making my own tiles in this kind style, but since you just made them all repetitive i decided to compare the new and the old water tiles together:

i really like the new darker ones, it does make it look more of a rainy weather, while the old one has a feel of a Caribbean sea.
Does anyone think the beach is needed or should be replaces with some kind of mud?
 

[hotnikkelz]

not a problem.

Well, hmm, is it a pond, beach, lake? Depending on which it is, warrants a different look where water meets land.  As it is right now, it seems to me that it's like a huge lake and as such deserves a more muddy, fine sediment with probably some grass kinda. Naturally beaches will hit sand, and seas/oceans will hit gravel with darker sand with maybe some rocks....generally imo.

[Titan]

well basically i want to have only 1 type of water corners that could fit sea, lake, ocean...

from the beginning i was thinking of doing something like this http://www.gamershell.com/static/screenshots/2918/46649_full.jpg

or i might just stick with the beach...

[hotnikkelz]

if u stick with the beach then i'd say go with a darker colour for the sand as there will be too much contrast i think. Hmm, just test out different colours, post it here and we'll see which looks best I can't envision such things in my mind honestly haha.