Tooltip or interact menu preference

[ihl86]

Hello everyone,

I am in the works of developing a VN in RenPy with open world/sandbox type exploring.
When there are characters in the world with which you can interact in this type of game, it's nice, to maybe get an idea who they are before you click on them.
I've seen two ways of doing this, both with advantages/disadvantages in my mind, so I was thinking of seeing what the general preferences is as I can implement either way.
1. There is a tooltip/hint displayed somewhere on the screen (usually the bottom) when you hover over that character. If you click the person, if there is something to talk about you get the talking/choice menu
2. There is an interact type of menu (like in Fashion Business for people that tried it) where when you click on a person you can choose observe or talk. If you choose observe, you get kid of what you get in the tooltip but more like the Mc's thoughts about them with the say part of RenPy. If you choose the talk, you get the same talking/choice menu as above.

As I said, it is kind of the same thing in the end, but I think, if you get hundreds of interactions in the end (since it's open world) maybe the way it is done matters for players. (I can implement in either way)

If there are other ways to do this, please feel free to mention and I can include them if I can implement them without too much hassle.

 

[Abhai]

most probably there will be complains either way, so just do as you personally consider the most fitting/plausible for your game.
i would say, highlighting characters you can interact with, and hints if it is just to observe, or talk, or whatever.
ps
almost forgot the first thing - damn, why it has to be a sandbox

 

[ihl86]

most probably there will be complains either way, so just do as you personally consider the most fitting/plausible for your game.
i would say, highlighting characters you can interact with, and hints if it is just to observe, or talk, or whatever.
ps
almost forgot the first thing - damn, why it has to be a sandbox

Thank you for your response.
The highlighting of characters/objects you interact with is already implemented as I feel ease of use/access is very important in a game like this.
With the game being a sandbox, maybe it's more of a hybrid, I think.
The idea is that there is one main story to be told and explored but I don't want it to be just choice based.
So with the open world, you can explore the story at your own pace, with some of the order decided by you. There are also side stories that can be explored or not, based on preference.
I am also thinking , if the game has enough people liking the story of implementing an option at the start that reduces the tasks/grind to a minimum and focuses more on the story.
The game also has a female MC which I know is also a hard no for some people although I can't understand why. Since it is not a dating simulator or fuck what you catch type of game. But a story driven one.

 

[moskyx]

I'd say tooltips as it saves some clicks, as long as players know that's the game's info system. Highlighting those objects as Abhai suggests and making that tooltip quite visible (better a nice pop-up that doesn't interfere too much with the background than a small line of text at the bottom of the screen) should do the trick

 

[ihl86]

I'd say tooltips as it saves some clicks, as long as players know that's the game's info system. Highlighting those objects as Abhai suggests and making that tooltip quite visible (better a nice pop-up that doesn't interfere too much with the background than a small line of text at the bottom of the screen) should do the trick

Thank you for your response, I am also thinking now that I can put a preference if the tooltip appears on the screen (maybe next to mouse cursor) or at the bottom, since it is easy for me to do it that way and people can choose which type of tooltip they prefer.

 

[moskyx]

Thank you for your response, I am also thinking now that I can put a preference if the tooltip appears on the screen (maybe next to mouse cursor) or at the bottom, since it is easy for me to do it that way and people can choose which type of tooltip they prefer.

I said that because some games don't tell players they have tooltips available and they are displayed in a status bar which is always present, so it happens that sometimes I just don't pay attention to it as I'm focused in the "game-screen" and don't notice those minimal text changes when I hover a character, so I just miss that info or only notice this hints/tooltip system after several minutes of gameplay, which is not user-friendly. So yeah, making that tooltip visible next to the cursor is OK. Just something you can't possibly miss when hovering

 

[Loganfin]

Given the option, I always prefer to be able to click on something to then effectively pause the game and read what it has to say. When you hover with the cursor, I find it can be less responsive and harder to get to work properly.

 

[Guntag]

Both seem good, so maybe just make the easiest one for you.

 

[probably_dave]

I think it depends on the complexity of the interactions. If, when interacting with the character, it's usually just 'Talk' with the occasional 'Give X to complete quest' then I think a tooltip is fine. However, as soon as it gets more complex, I think the second option of a context based interaction menu is better (for example, you could bring up the characters profile card, list out quests she's given you etc). Just try and avoid the default ren'py menu.

For me, the key point (especially with the second option) is to make it easily identifiable if, when clicking the character, something new is going to happen. Having a tooltip, it can easily get missed, especially if it just constantly says talk. One simple way of doing this, is rather than using tooltips, you could highlight the character (a bit more work on the images front, but it's usually fairly simple to achieve with photoshop). You could then color coordinate the highlighting to show what the interaction would be (green=new, grey=nothing new, purple=quest, etc). This, if done right, can help convey to the player what to expect while clicking, without having to 'concentrate' on reading stuff.

Another option is to change the mouse icon (this tends to be the most popular in point-and-click style) games.

However, most of this depends on what information you are trying to pass to the player.

 

[ihl86]

I think it depends on the complexity of the interactions. If, when interacting with the character, it's usually just 'Talk' with the occasional 'Give X to complete quest' then I think a tooltip is fine. However, as soon as it gets more complex, I think the second option of a context based interaction menu is better (for example, you could bring up the characters profile card, list out quests she's given you etc). Just try and avoid the default ren'py menu.

For me, the key point (especially with the second option) is to make it easily identifiable if, when clicking the character, something new is going to happen. Having a tooltip, it can easily get missed, especially if it just constantly says talk. One simple way of doing this, is rather than using tooltips, you could highlight the character (a bit more work on the images front, but it's usually fairly simple to achieve with photoshop). You could then color coordinate the highlighting to show what the interaction would be (green=new, grey=nothing new, purple=quest, etc). This, if done right, can help convey to the player what to expect while clicking, without having to 'concentrate' on reading stuff.

Another option is to change the mouse icon (this tends to be the most popular in point-and-click style) games.

However, most of this depends on what information you are trying to pass to the player.

Thank you for your response.
I was thinking in the tooltip just to give information about the character. Like current knowledge of who that person is. This would be the equivalent of picking from the interact menu the observe icon or something.
In case of the tooltip, the talking menu would happen when you click a character (if there is anything to talk about, if there isn't, a say statement would clear that there is nothing to do there). In case of the interact menu, selecting the talking option from the interact menu would give the talking options.
It's a good idea with the highlighting of different colors. I was planning to highlight them anyways, but just highlight or not, when hovering over. It would not be too hard to do different highlight options.
Do you know of any games that do this? I am wondering if it's not a little tiresome after some time to have all this color variance on screen when hovering over characters (especially if there are more than two in scene at some point).
As this is my first game, I am checking other games to see what I like or not, in terms of interface and gameplay and think what would other people like for ease of access.
As I believe with most of these games, the final purpose is to experience the story and/or images as smooth as possible.

 

[probably_dave]

In that case I think the tooltip makes more sense then a complex menu system. I would suggest looking at changing the mouse icon however, as this is the most common way of showing these type of actions, not necessary in adult games, but in the games industry in general.

Do you know of any games that do this?

Not off the top of my head no, however, it's a common tool in UI design. The simplest I can think of is a Tactical RPG where enemies are red and friendlies are green. It does rely on a lot though in the type of look and feel you are going for in the game. A highlighting method would work well in a cyberpunk type game but maybe not as well in a medieval type game.
As with any UI design, try and research as much as possible, not just in the adult games industry as there are common themes which players are used to. Once you've done, experiment with different proto-types and try and get feedback.
Of course, this takes time away from the other developments needed for the game and unfortunately, good UI and UX design is often overlooked. Searching on youtube for UX/UI design gives plenty of tips and tricks to what to look for. These will usually list out what is known to work and what is known to not work

 

[ihl86]

In that case I think the tooltip makes more sense then a complex menu system. I would suggest looking at changing the mouse icon however, as this is the most common way of showing these type of actions, not necessary in adult games, but in the games industry in general.


Not off the top of my head no, however, it's a common tool in UI design. The simplest I can think of is a Tactical RPG where enemies are red and friendlies are green. It does rely on a lot though in the type of look and feel you are going for in the game. A highlighting method would work well in a cyberpunk type game but maybe not as well in a medieval type game.
As with any UI design, try and research as much as possible, not just in the adult games industry as there are common themes which players are used to. Once you've done, experiment with different proto-types and try and get feedback.
Of course, this takes time away from the other developments needed for the game and unfortunately, good UI and UX design is often overlooked. Searching on youtube for UX/UI design gives plenty of tips and tricks to what to look for. These will usually list out what is known to work and what is known to not work

Thank you again for your thoughts and feedback.
I have played so many games where the UI is heavy or not helpful that I don't want that for my game.
I don't want to spend ages drawing and creating the perfect screen elements but I want it to look nice and be as simple and non-obtrusive as possible. So that the game experience is focus on the story.
I think that if you can't obtain a great UI (As I don't have experience in Photoshop other than minimum I don't think I could attain that without a lot of hours put into learning) my primary goal is to design a UI that at least doesn't take from the game.
The cursor change is again a very good idea, I will look into it if it is something that can be done in a decent amount of time in RenPy/python.
I am now at the programming stage, that was why my poll designed to answer a programming question. So if I will go with the tooltip in the end (that would be the programming implementation) and when I will get to the UI part I will look into how to make it as good as an experience as possible without spending an insane amount of time on it.

 

[Loganfin]

Thank you for your response.
I was thinking in the tooltip just to give information about the character. Like current knowledge of who that person is. This would be the equivalent of picking from the interact menu the observe icon or something.
In case of the tooltip, the talking menu would happen when you click a character (if there is anything to talk about, if there isn't, a say statement would clear that there is nothing to do there). In case of the interact menu, selecting the talking option from the interact menu would give the talking options.
It's a good idea with the highlighting of different colors. I was planning to highlight them anyways, but just highlight or not, when hovering over. It would not be too hard to do different highlight options.
Do you know of any games that do this? I am wondering if it's not a little tiresome after some time to have all this color variance on screen when hovering over characters (especially if there are more than two in scene at some point).
As this is my first game, I am checking other games to see what I like or not, in terms of interface and gameplay and think what would other people like for ease of access.
As I believe with most of these games, the final purpose is to experience the story and/or images as smooth as possible.

For me, character cards are HUGE! The quality of life of a game is improved massively when they're included. Even if its just a static picture as a background and nothing fancy, let me see who she is, where I stand with her, and what I'm supposed to do next.

 

[ihl86]

For me, character cards are HUGE! The quality of life of a game is improved massively when they're included. Even if its just a static picture as a background and nothing fancy, let me see who she is, where I stand with her, and what I'm supposed to do next.

Yes, I plan on having character pages for important ones.
A notes page where you can find important information you may have missed from dialogs.
Hints implemented as well, in case you don't want to bother at all with figuring out the dialog or the notes.