Eternity Avowed - Obsidian's first person action-RPG in the Pillars of Eternity setting - coming February 18th

[Roguey]

Skeuomorphic UIs have to be designed for multiple resolutions and no one can be bothered with that especially when a console is the lead platform.

 

[Butter]

Skeuomorphic UIs have to be designed for multiple resolutions and no one can be bothered with that especially when a console is the lead platform.

Sounds like a skill issue.

 

[Roguey]

Sounds like a skill issue.

It's a "Is this worth the time spent on this?" and that's a near-universal no.

 

[Vyvian]

I wonder if the similarities with The Outer Worlds will continue and I find a sword or bow in the first area that never gets replaced the entire game.
In TOW I honestly found a gun doing the first quests and never found a better one the entire way through.

 

[Butter]

Sounds like a skill issue.

It's a "Is this worth the time spent on this?" and that's a near-universal no.

Developers used to find time for it when they had fewer people and less money. Better explanation is that the developers who make disgustingly ugly characters also have no taste when it comes to making a pleasant UI.

 

[Roguey]

Developers used to find time for it when they had fewer people and less money. Better explanation is that the developers who make disgustingly ugly characters also have no taste when it comes to making a pleasant UI.

They didn't find time for it, they just designed the UI for one particular resolution and going higher (if the game would even officially support going higher) made it look like a UI for ants.

A few devs found time for it during the Kickstarter renaissance and then dropped it for the sequels because they realized designing a UI more than once is an utter drag (and were also porting these games to consoles).

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Sounds like a skill issue.

It's a "Is this worth the time spent on this?" and that's a near-universal no.

Because of the underlying skill issue.

 

[NaturallyCarnivorousSheep]

Iirc a lot of UI design these days is outsourced to like 2 companies.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Sounds like a skill issue.

It's a "Is this worth the time spent on this?" and that's a near-universal no.

If your game has the budget for full mo-cap and voice acting for a bajillion hours of cutscenes, it can afford a decent fucking UI that costs 00.01% of that to make.

I can forgive shitty UI from Illwinter or Dwarf Fortress. Anything with 3D graphics has no excuse for wasting their funds on other shit before a good UI.

 

[Roguey]

If your game has the budget for full mo-cap and voice acting for a bajillion hours of cutscenes, it can afford a decent fucking UI that costs 00.01% of that to make.

They could do it. They choose not to. Because it's not worth it.

 

[Gargaune]

Skeuomorphic UIs have to be designed for multiple resolutions and no one can be bothered with that especially when a console is the lead platform.

Well, yeah, but that's an explanation, not an excuse. "Good is hard so we made some crap instead", well shit, let me fetch my $70!


P.S. Also, I don't really think skeumorphics is the main factor here. Just 'cause it has a skeumorphic design doesn't mean those elements have to fill the screen at different aspect ratios, you can add decorative motifs to anchored panels and most users aren't going to notice the sharpness variation from scaling. More work, sure, but it's not a huge effort for a major studio, this is more likely a deliberate artistic choice.

P.P.S. Conversely, cutting down on skeumorphics doesn't save you from having to scale the UI properly. For instance, BG3 doesn't (or didn't, last time I tried it), and the controls page didn't display a scroll bar at my 1680x1050 resolution.

 

[Roguey]

P.S. Also, I don't really think skeumorphics is the main factor here. Just 'cause it has a skeumorphic design doesn't mean those elements have to fill the screen at different aspect ratios, you can add decorative motifs to anchored panels and most users aren't going to notice the sharpness variation from scaling. More work, sure, but it's not a huge effort for a major studio, this is more likely a deliberate artistic choice.

Bioware did something like this for kotor and it was really lousy.

 

[Butter]

P.S. Also, I don't really think skeumorphics is the main factor here. Just 'cause it has a skeumorphic design doesn't mean those elements have to fill the screen at different aspect ratios, you can add decorative motifs to anchored panels and most users aren't going to notice the sharpness variation from scaling. More work, sure, but it's not a huge effort for a major studio, this is more likely a deliberate artistic choice.

Bioware did something like this for kotor and it was really lousy.

Yeah this would look much better as generics slop.

 

[Roguey]

Yeah this would look much better as generics slop.

Looks fine to me.

 

[Gargaune]

Bioware did something like this for kotor and it was really lousy.

And Beamdog's done it with their Infinity Engine EEs and it looks just fine.

 

[Roguey]

And Beamdog's done it with their Infinity Engine EEs and it looks just fine.

Beamdog's UI looks incredibly cheap.

 

[Cryomancer]

I can forgive shitty UI from Illwinter or Dwarf Fortress. Anything with 3D graphics has no excuse for wasting their funds on other shit before a good UI.

The problem is. What count as "good UI" is a matter of taste, I like more minimalist UI. Other people like more crowded UI. For eg, for some AAA studios, the UI bellow is great.

 

[Gargaune]

And Beamdog's done it with their Infinity Engine EEs and it looks just fine.

Beamdog's UI looks incredibly cheap.

Compared to?...

 

[Roguey]

Compared to?...

That does not look cheap as in tacky, no.

 

[Gargaune]

Roguey, how about this one then?

I'm still avoiding the elephant warhorse in the room for now. Though I'm actually curious whether KCD's budget would match Avowed's even when adjusting for labour cost between the Czech Republic and California.

 

[Roguey]

Though I'm actually curious whether KCD's budget would match Avowed's even when adjusting for labour cost between the Czech Republic and California.

https://wccftech.com/kingdom-come-deliverance-cost-36-m-dollars/

Obsidian was only able to make something like The Outer Worlds for that kind of money and that was with Leonard and Tim, the Czech advantage is too strong.

 

[Gargaune]

https://wccftech.com/kingdom-come-deliverance-cost-36-m-dollars/

Obsidian was only able to make something like The Outer Worlds for that kind of money and that was with Leonard and Tim, the Czech advantage is too strong.

It's not a very useful figure here because the $36 million includes marketing, which won't scale. I recall something like $15-20 million development being bandied about back in the day, but no idea where or how solid it was. For what little it's worth, the most cursory skim of average programmer salaries would suggest a roughly 3-to-1 ratio for Prague versus Irvine, but I have no inclination to break down for different departments, positions and so on. And I haven't seen any speculation on Avowed's development costs yet.

 

[Damned Registrations]

The problem is. What count as "good UI" is a matter of taste, I like more minimalist UI.

I have good news! UI is so fucking cheap to make compared to the assets of AAA games, they could easily afford to make multiple types of UI and let the player customize it to his own liking. If they weren't managed by absolute retards that think modeling a single fucking tree is more important than the entire UI design for their game.

 

[Yosharian]

Skeuomorphic UIs have to be designed for multiple resolutions and no one can be bothered with that especially when a console is the lead platform.

Skaeuo-whatnow

What the fuck

 

[Harthwain]

I can forgive shitty UI from Illwinter or Dwarf Fortress. Anything with 3D graphics has no excuse for wasting their funds on other shit before a good UI.

The problem is. What count as "good UI" is a matter of taste, I like more minimalist UI. Other people like more crowded UI. For eg, for some AAA studios, the UI bellow is great.

...except the real UI for Elden Ring looks like this:

Spoiler

Which is fairly minimalistic.