Indie Call of Saregnar - a Betrayal at Krondor-inspired RPG

[Wayward Son]

I concur. That would be the best way.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

I am still working out bugs in the turn-based combat system, but now – dear bros – I would like your opinion on some other matter.

From time to time my brain starts thinking about the UI, and more specifically about how to present it to the player. The inventory, stats, encounter texts, etc. are examples of views that will be presented to the player while exploring the 3D world. What I am undecided about, is whether to show the views as small-ish windows on top of the 3D first-person view, or fullscreen views (essentially hiding and pausing the game in the background). Many old games did the latter and that's what I am gravitating towards. I'd like to know your opinion on the matter.

Why not have both? Focus on the latter, while adding some small windows to swap weapons or use items in a quick manner?

 

[barker_s]

First and foremost, the UI should serve the gameplay. If, for example, you want to have a strong adventure game element where the player would be using items on world objects, then a small window might be best. On the other hand, if you intend to have a lot of stats and info displayed in the inventory, then perhaps it would be better to dedicate a whole scrren to it.

Besides, I believe that the UI is one of the elements in gamedev that require the most iteration, so I wouldn't set anything in stone at this moment. Have a simple, functional UI that helps you with debugging, and only after you get the core features in place, tweak it to achieve the best feel/efficiency.

 

[Rhuantavan]

First and foremost, the UI should serve the gameplay. If, for example, you want to have a strong adventure game element where the player would be using items on world objects, then a small window might be best. On the other hand, if you intend to have a lot of stats and info displayed in the inventory, then perhaps it would be better to dedicate a whole scrren to it.

Besides, I believe that the UI is one of the elements in gamedev that require the most iteration, so I wouldn't set anything in stone at this moment. Have a simple, functional UI that helps you with debugging, and only after you get the core features in place, tweak it to achieve the best feel/efficiency.

I wasn't even thinking about that to tell you the truth. I am basically starting with BaK's mechanics, then expanding on/modifying them to the game's unique differences. I was referring more to my opinion that many old-school games used fullscreen UI primarily because of the low screen resolutions at the time. ?

 

[Rhuantavan]

Hey Bros! Just launched a Call of Saregnar development diary over at Patreon. It's all free, no need to become a patron or anything.

The first entry is the magic system. Feel free to comment and criticise.

 

[V_K]

From time to time my brain starts thinking about the UI, and more specifically about how to present it to the player. The inventory, stats, encounter texts, etc. are examples of views that will be presented to the player while exploring the 3D world. What I am undecided about, is whether to show the views as small-ish windows on top of the 3D first-person view, or fullscreen views (essentially hiding and pausing the game in the background). Many old games did the latter and that's what I am gravitating towards. I'd like to know your opinion on the matter.

I really liked the way UI worked in Event Horizon games. You had a small UI panel that was present on the screen at all times:

Then you can expand it into full screen by pulling the panel up:

But the most brilliant thing was that you didn't always have to expand it all the way. If e.g. you needed to access an item in the 4th row, or look at your stats, you could just pull the UI panel up slightly and leave it at that (couldn't find a screenshot for that, unfortunately).

 

[V_K]

The first entry is the magic system. Feel free to comment and criticise.

I didn't quite understand - will the game have fixed spells or some sort of spell-making system?
(cool beard, by the way)

 

[Rhuantavan]

I really liked the way UI worked in Event Horizon games.

I'm not familiar with the games, but I believe I have seen that kind of pull-up inventory before...

The first entry is the magic system. Feel free to comment and criticise.

I didn't quite understand - will the game have fixed spells or some sort of spell-making system?
(cool beard, by the way)

It's going to have pre-defined spells, which you'll have to obtain, but in order to use them, you'll have to have knowledge of the god from which the power comes from... it is a bit complicated and not quite set in stone yet. I'll see where I will take it once I start implementing the magic system.

The beard – thanks

 

[Rhuantavan]

Began some work on the UI today. Not sure of the direction I'm going yet, but except for the action icons at the bottom, far I kind of like it so far.

 

[Rhuantavan]

Decided the last UI just did not match the overall look of the game. So I tried to do a bit of pixel art instead.

 

[Wayward Son]

Looks great mang

 

[Rhuantavan]

Dumping here some pixely ui elements I've been working on in the past days. Pay no attention to the Betrayal at Krondor portraits.

 

[Guy de Incognito]

Dumping here some pixely ui elements I've been working on in the past days.

The pixel art is great but just make sure you're familiar with the scaling requirements ie that whatever pixel art you use, it needs to be scaled by integer factors otherwise it's going to look either jagged or fuzzy.

 

[Rhuantavan]

Yeah thanks I'm keeping that in mind. I'll likely have it scaled x2 in game to have it look pixelated.

 

[Rhuantavan]

Been assembling the world exploration ui. WIP, but getting there.

 

[CryptRat]

The buttons look great, very nice UI.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Keep up the good work, bruh!

 

[V_K]

Like the buttons, but not a fan of the trees. I think they'd look better if they were pure sprites, like in M&M.

 

[Rhuantavan]

Like the buttons, but not a fan of the trees. I think they'd look better if they were pure sprites, like in M&M.

I know, I'm still unsure what to do with them. Sprites, especially such large ones as trees, kinda feel weird when turning around. I've also been toying with low res models for trees, but couldn't bring them to look ok.

I would like to have some kind of shader solution for the polys of the tree which are perpendicular with you. Maybe to fade it in as the angle increases. Dunno.

 

[Naga]

Love it! Got this nice retro flair to it.
While I'd personally find it fitting to use simple, rotating sprites for trees, it does look weird if it is too evident. Since you can clearly see them in whole and other objects are actually 3-dimensional, I am unsure how to approach that matter.

 

[gaussgunner]

"Billboarding" is a common technique for trees. Just draw the trees as textured quads always facing the camera. Use invisible shapes to cast shadows, or just fake them with a ground texture. I don't know; I do 2D mostly.

Yeah, it's obvious the buildings and NPCs are 3D but trees aren't, but nobody gives a shit, especially in RPGs.

 

[Rhuantavan]

"Billboarding" is a common technique for trees. Just draw the trees as textured quads always facing the camera. Use invisible shapes to cast shadows, or just fake them with a ground texture. I don't know; I do 2D mostly.

Yeah, it's obvious the buildings and NPCs are 3D but trees aren't, but nobody gives a shit, especially in RPGs.

I did try to use billboards, but they really looked bad and obvious as they rotated with the player camera. I haven't given up on them just yet, maybe they just need some tweaking. The crossed billboards I use now look somewhat better, but depending on the angle. One way or another I will definitely fix them.

 

[V_K]

I think the problem is not just the way you model the trees, but also the way your enging blurs the texture on the perpendicular side.
Having more angles, like in Gothic, could also improve things.

 

[gaussgunner]

Maybe your standards are too high.

What if you only show the billboard that's facing the camera 45 degrees or less? (dot product < 0.707 in the XY plane, or something like that)

 

[Cosmo]

Been assembling the world exploration ui. WIP, but getting there.

What look do you see the final UI having ? Pixel-realism like the rest of the game (would be awesome) or slightly more cartoonish ?
Also not an ui comment, but this looks awesome, except for the 2-texture trees : rotating sprites would be less jarring IMO.