- Dec 21, 2017
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I actually removed the enlarging thing last update and the phone has been relegated to a single small bar under the left wardrobe. I have SOME plans for the sidebars, it's just a backburner thing. I plan to make it more dynamic, in the sense that you could modify it yourself, one button displays the avatar, one button displays the image grid, etc. This could remove the right bar entirely. But... That's a project for when I have time and/or money to have someone fix the css for me.I see 2 possible ways to deal with the menu problem.
1). Fit it all on the sidebars.
Streamlining them, slightly rearranging, and removing the redundant elements, all current stuff should fit on just one of them. The clickable tiles on the left bar do not need to get enlarged, as you hover over them, as anyway after clicking they bring the large picture onto the main screen. This should allow to shrink larger of them, and also would solve the issue with pop-outs blocking access to the smaller tiles on the right. The smartphone could also be cut down to a single button, which would bring a large pop-out with all functions on the main screen, when pressed. In the same way I would deal with the wardrobe, at least until I don't have a better idea and the time to implement it.
This should leave enough space to fit the player's silhouette on the left bar, leaving the right bar empty, except of redundant equipment buttons, which don't seem to have any extra functionality over the clickable tiles already on the left bar. After removing them, there should be enough space to easily fit all the menu commands on the right bar, still working for a mobile users.
And it's not, that those sidebars are really nice, they aren't, but they are less obtrusive than your current menu, and we have them in so many other games here, that many of us have just learned, how to ignore their looks.
2). Make the on-the-main-screen interface less obtrusive and much better looking.
If you are not able to design a nice on-screen interface (and I certainly would not be able to do so myself), then you probably should check some other similar games, and use their design as a starting point. One of the best, that I've recently seen, comes from Panacea. Looking at the screenshot from that game, that I will attach below, the only things, that I would like to be done in a more subtle way, are those 2 square marks "use" and "bed".
View attachment 751968
As for checking out Panacea, I'll go do that right now, thanks for the tip.
Update: Checked out Panacea, no thank you. that u.i. looks very "bubbly" and while that works for some, I doubt it would work well for me. Renpy and Sugarcube are very different you see, and implementing that kind of thing into my game would just be a nightmare. And before you ask NO, I am not converting this game to Renpy.
