Tips for all wannabe game developers, compact and useful

[Girm Ork]

Your UI/UX design is suffering. Don't let that hold back all the hard work you put into your 3D world. Spend some time or resources on designing an intuitive and complimentary interface that doesn't contrast so harshly.

Yeah, I agree, UI sucks. We are a small team without anyone with UI/UX experience. I'll check out those GDC talks.

Do you think that using non-transparent clear white color is the main problem? Or maybe the white+pink+yellow palette combination is just generally not good?

 

[Kinderalpha]

Yeah, I agree, UI sucks. We are a small team without anyone with UI/UX experience. I'll check out those GDC talks.

Do you think that using non-transparent clear white color is the main problem? Or maybe the white+pink+yellow palette combination is just generally not good?

When I get some time I'll play and check it out. From the screenshots I see a couple problems at a glance.

• Health and other bar look okay. They're just extremely small and out of the way. While playing, you have to draw your attention way out of the field of view to look. Maybe think of other ways of conveying health instead of a bar?
• The chat box doesn't need to be transparent. In my opinion, transparency is lazy. Having an actual graphical element there would be a lot more fitting. The chat box entirely contradicts the pallete of the rest of your UI and looks super out of place. Also, pink background on white text makes it awful to read. A warmer color with white text would be better suited.

I see what you're probably trying to do is keep things small and out of the way. But that begs the question of, should you even have it to begin with? Should make you reconsider the design entirely when you think about it. Like the button in the bottom left. Totally in the corner out of the way. Well, if that's a suitable place for it, how important is it really? Because you would think something that important should have more attention.

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In total, 90 minutes of listening and watching. But you will be a lot more confident in this realm of things. Hopefully these talks help. They do a wonderful job of essentially just looking at successful designs in comparison to not so successful designs. Anyone could do that and find something that works. But they took the time and leg work of doing it for you, and also provide professionally backed advice. It's really good.

 

[Girm Ork]

When I get some time I'll play and check it out. From the screenshots I see a couple problems at a glance.

Thank you very much, very practical advice, I'll try to redesign those elements.

The chat box doesn't need to be transparent. In my opinion, transparency is lazy. Having an actual graphical element there would be a lot more fitting.

Can't agree with you here. The game is not a visual novel, this chatbox is needed to print some messages during the "action" mode. So, imagine a situation when the player is reading something and moving at the same time. With a non-transparent chatbox, he could easily fall from a cliff or step into a trap.

 

[Kinderalpha]

Can't agree with you here. The game is not a visual novel, this chatbox is needed to print some messages during the "action" mode. So, imagine a situation when the player is reading something and moving at the same time. With a non-transparent chatbox, he could easily fall from a cliff or step into a trap.

Well think about it for a second. You want the player to read something, but also want the keep the player in action mode. Doesn't that sound off to you? Like, those two goals conflict with each other. Instead, why don't you have the dialog appear little subtitles? Or maybe, the dialog appears over the head of the character speaking. Lastly, maybe make the box solid but not as large.

Or on the contrary, pause the action to allow the player to engage in that dialog if it's that important. Again, haven't played yet. I might have better solutions in mind. But all of this is just suggestion. I don't think there's inherently wrong ways to do it. I just wanted to share my perspective. I'm totally fine with agreeing to disagree

 

[snookums.d.panda]

Okay, a little thing I'm noticing more than I would like so I feel it needs to be mentioned: If you plan to have text input in your game (names or what have you), don't forget to impose a character limit!

Spoiler: Character Limits are your friend!

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That may sound like common sense to a lot of you, but as I said I've noticed it enough times for it to be talked about.