Why no text spaces in games?

[e-disfunction]

I apologise for I am an interloper here . I am an ignorant reader & player who wants a better experience of your art but, alas, I don't understand something very basic .

Background: *Almost all* the interactive or visual games & VNs I have seen here have an extremely annoying, very large portion of the art constantly covered by a box --this box is usually used for text, save/load buttons, etc. --but it deliberately obscures much of the content in every game ! (... And removes the meaning of both the "interactive" and "visual" descriptors of the mediums/media. )
(Yes, a user can usually hide the box but then we can't read the words or interact with the game! )

Question: (I don't even know the best or correct qustion to ask !)
Why is that box there at all?!?
* or *
Why do creators constantly cover their art & pictures & text in their games & VNs like this?
* or *
Why don't creators include a black box at the bottom of their pics so we can see entire pictures, text, and tools while interacting with them?
* or *
or ... any other solution?

Does anyone actually know?

A flabbergasted & despairing enthusiast,
e-d

 

[polywog]

you can enable self-voicing in renpy VN

 

[e-disfunction]

you can enable self-voicing in renpy VN

How does this address my question(s) in any way, please?

 

[Saki_Sliz]

I would say there are two reasons for these issues: Compatibility, and technical limitation.

for compatibility, some users may be using older hardware, with smaller screens. A lot of games are designed around the 720p to 768p resolution just to allow those users to be able to play.

for technical limitation, most of us are hobbyists, most game makers (here) don't make game engines, but rather use a pre-made game engine or rather, frameworks. As a result, they may not be able to modify the User Interface to something more custom.

e-disfunction don't worry about polywog that is how they typically respond to things.

I also think most people design UI like that because it is already common and thus the illusion of popular or familiar. I myself prefer less information where possible, less clutter, but I haven't pushed the design beyond tech previews.

 

[e-disfunction]

I would say there are two reasons for these issues: Compatibility, and technical limitation.

for compatibility, some users may be using older hardware, with smaller screens. A lot of games are designed around the 720p to 768p resolution just to allow those users to be able to play.

for technical limitation, most of us are hobbyists, most game makers (here) don't make game engines, but rather use a pre-made game engine or rather, frameworks. As a result, they may not be able to modify the User Interface to something more custom.

e-disfunction don't worry about polywog that is how they typically respond to things.

I also think most people design UI like that because it is already common and thus the illusion of popular or familiar. I myself prefer less information where possible, less clutter, but I haven't pushed the design beyond tech previews.

Thank you! I believe I understand most of what you said.

But, why don't creators just add a black strip below all the pictures--the text & tools then fit (for whatever resolution) and nothing is covered?

 

[polywog]

How does this address my question(s) in any way, please?

If you enable self-voicing in renpy.

You must be registered to see the links

A robot voice reads the text to you. Allowing you to hide the text that you no longer have to read yourself.
If you're still confused, I can't help further

 

[e-disfunction]

If you enable self-voicing in renpy.

You must be registered to see the links

A robot voice reads the text to you. Allowing you to hide the text that you no longer have to read yourself.
If you're still confused, I can't help further

Thank you but I didn't ask for an incomplete workaround but rather why any workaround was needed at all.

 

[polywog]

Thank you but I didn't ask for an incomplete workaround but rather why any workaround was needed at all.

By default "closed captioning" is enabled putting text on the screen, allowing the hearing impaired to enjoy the game.
If you are not hearing impaired, you don't need the text on screen.

 

[Saki_Sliz]

But, why don't creators just add a black strip below all the pictures--the text & tools then fit (for whatever resolution) and nothing is covered?

I think the main issue with that is just, it's tradition.

I don't use renpy, the common VN game engine, so I don't know if users could put in a smaller image. If they can't then that black part is data that is still on your hard drive but doesn't do anything (wasteful). I am also sure that many devs will say, users would complain about not fully using the game screen (which I have witness) but its not like there is data on this to prove the point.

but ignoring the technical limitation, and the issue that we can't make everyone happy, I think the main issue is tradition.

A lot of these games follow the same format because the makers aren't programmers, they just use the tools that work. The tool is what created a lot of games (renpy and daz) which has made it easy to make high-quality games without getting a degree. as players learn this, it gets more people interested, who end up making similar games. They are similar either because of the same technical limitation, where the user isn't at a stage of development where they could customize the game more, or it is because players see these games, see how similar they are, and try to mimic them intentionally: either because they want to mimic the games that inspired them, or because people think that the format is a sort of standard, and they want to meet or match that standard because that is what most players expect now. It is like a self-fulfilling prophecy.

 

[RanliLabz]

Quick tip first: in Renpy, press 'H' on your keyboard and the textbox disappears for that shot... a useful tool in sex scenes I agree that it's annoying when devs include the quicksave bar at the bottom of the page as well, since it can all be accessed by pressing ESC, anyway.

As to why we all have the textboxes over the screen: it's for the same reason that most movies and TV shows with subtitles do - to maximise our use of the available space.

Most games are played on desktops and laptops - which have a landscape aspect ratio - while much of the content of these games would better suit a portrait aspect ratio (there's often a fair amount of 'dead space' around the focus of the scene). This means height is our most valuable resource, and can't be sacrificed to a permanent black box.

I make all my images at 1920x1080 (the standard), and keeping a black box suitable for the text to fit would reduce my available height to 1920x880 - a long, thin strip. Correspondingly, the dead space on either side would grow, and all images would be smaller. It would look awful.

If you speak a language like Japanese - which can be written vertically - the problem goes away and you canmake 1720x1080 images with a permanent black box for text at the side. This doesn't work for languages that only suit horizontal type.

Hope that answered your questions!... And use the 'H'!

 

[Faerie Dust]

I think the main reason for the awkward text over image is simply that the most popular engine (Ren'Py) has a large default textbox that covers all the bottom of the screen. Maybe most developers simply get used to it and never bother changing it. My workaround was shrinking the textbox size and temporarily hiding it during hot scenes.

 

[e-disfunction]

I think the main reason for the awkward text over image is simply that the most popular engine (Ren'Py) has a large default textbox that covers all the bottom of the screen. Maybe most developers simply get used to it and never bother changing it. My workaround was shrinking the textbox size and temporarily hiding it during hot scenes.

Was your workaround used as a creator or as a player of games?

 

[Faerie Dust]

Was your workaround used as a creator or as a player of games?

As a new developer using Ren'Py. Hopefully players won't need to press H all the time when playing my game.

 

[e-disfunction]

As a new developer using Ren'Py. Hopefully players won't need to press H all the time when playing my game.

Thank you!

Saki_Sliz and RanliLabz seem to believe this is difficult to do. How hard to do was it? Is your solution easy to replicate (or copy & paste)? Is there a free mod or tool available for users to use? Etc.?

e-d

 

[moskyx]

There are mods that make Renpy's dark textbox transparent, that way you only see the text. Basically you just have to copypaste them, but many developers just don't know or don't even think there's an easy solution.

 

[e-disfunction]

There are mods that make Renpy's dark textbox transparent, that way you only see the text. Basically you just have to copypaste them, but many developers just don't know or don't even think there's an easy solution.

Thank you!

As a further question (since you might know), is it not easy to append a blank background-space or border to the bottom of a picture? (In the 90s & early 00s, I thought every basic picture editor came with options for bulk-editing entire directories of pics in this way. )

 

[moskyx]

Thank you!

As a further question (since you might know), is it not easy to append a blank background-space or border to the bottom of a picture? (In the 90s & early 00s, I thought every basic picture editor came with options for bulk-editing entire directories of pics in this way. )

What would be the point of that? As RanliLabz have said, that would reduce the interesting part of the pic. And the transparency patch is a one-time thing because is just a change of the UI format. Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V and replace all, and done.

 

[e-disfunction]

What would be the point of that? As RanliLabz have said, that would reduce the interesting part of the pic. And the transparency patch is a one-time thing because is just a change of the UI format. Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V and replace all, and done.

How would appending something on to a pic reduce "part of the pic", please?

 

[moskyx]

How would appending something on to a pic reduce "part of the pic", please?

OK, it's not necessarily a reduction but a waste of potential size. You sure lose some height pixels that could be used to show more meat. And, depending on how do you add that black box, ratio aspect could be affected too, decreasing width

 

[RanliLabz]

Thank you!

Saki_Sliz and RanliLabz seem to believe this is difficult to do. How hard to do was it? Is your solution easy to replicate (or copy & paste)? Is there a free mod or tool available for users to use? Etc.?

e-d

The textbox is just an image that can be changed at will. e.g. I changed mine to a narrower version with a scifi theme for my main game, and have made several different ones for my Patreon-only spin off versions. It's not at all difficult - you don't need a mod! Even if you don;t change the base image, the size can also be altered in the code itself. Like Faerie Dust I regularly hide it (just type 'hide window')

The problem isn't the shape of the textbox - but how that would negatively affect gameplay.

EXAMPLE TEXTBOXES FROM MY GAMES:
From SpaceCorps XXX
From Project Gemini