Turn-based RPG UI

So this is where I'm at.

I'm not sure exactly what to do with the turn-based UI yet, no ideas have come to me. I need a way to choose Attack, Defend, Special, Item or Move and I'm thinking of doing something less in the way of Final Fantasy type dialogues at the bottom, but I don't know how to weigh the pros and cons of different UI styles. Hopefully I will get a stroke of inspiration soon, but I dunno... nothing's jumping out at me.

 

I've always been somewhat partial to a circular menu that pops up around your character.

However, I highly recommend you don't let yourself get sidetracked by this. You need to get your game up and running and fun to play as fast as you possibly can, to retire the risk that (a) it's not actually fun at all, or (b) you run into some insurmountable technical issue.

Where exactly you put your UI buttons has neither any impact on the fun, nor much likelihood of being a big technical problem. So throw them up there in whatever way is convenient, and move on to the next challenge.

 

Agreed with all, however I've only been thinking about this since hours before making this post, so I think I'm okay for time. I agree with the circular menu because it feels like it's part of the action, and since this is mouse controlled, things laid out in a circular fashion makes total sense.

Thanks Joe.

Edit: Also the look of the buttons have a minimal impact overall, but how the menu system is laid out can either be traditional dialogues or something else. And at the time of posting this I didn't have a feel for which was best in this scenario.

With a circular menu, it will be one that automatically positions the buttons by dividing the space up across the number of commands. I can make it grow the buttons and increase the alpha to 100% when you mouse over, and also the buttons can have numbers 1-9 so that in later battles you can kind of auto pilot and find the rhythm and play a little more effortlessly.

It should be fun, Joe, have faith mon

 

When an artist wants to paint something they usually use a 'reference' image.

When making anything, it's always better to start with a reference work.

Blank pages are stupid and tedious. Pick a few screenshots from games that you like and use those as references.

If you're using final fantasy as a reference, then do that. You can tweek to fit your specific taste later.

 

Well, the question isn't really what to make the interface look like. The question is what kind of UI am I even going for, dialogue-based, or the circle of commands thing, or something entirely different.

I find it odd that the answer from the game design forum is "don't bother thinking about it, just do whatever you can fix it later" while there are 4,000 page threads about theoretical game design ideas that don't even make sense.

 

If it's a TBS/RPG like FFT then I think a bar showing the turn order is almost a must.

Also, you should add bars behind the text.

 

yeah, otherwise it will just be impossible to read.

I plan on making a rectangular bar on the right hand side showing turn order, with red accents for enemy units and green for your units.

all I have to do is make a single CommandSlot object that can get it's icon and stuff from a prefabbed command. Once that's done I just need to make a slot for every available command the unit has.

it'll be cake gents

 

Absolutely - because bs'ing about hypothetical game mechanics is way more fun than nitty gritty ui stuff

Everything said and done, I've wasted more time on GUI/UX than any other part of working on a game. A lot of that is because I really sucked at UX design and didn't really know how much I sucked at it.

UX is it's own very specific discipline. I've learned to (begrudgingly) really respect it as it's own skill set.

Honestly, if you want to make progress, pick a reference game and work from there. If you don't have a background in UX and you don't want to deep dive in seriously learning the discipline, it's the only way to get good results.

YMMV, maybe I just really suck at UX, maybe you have more of a talent for it. But I've found it to be endlessly difficult to do a good job on. At this point, I am much better than I was and can work from looser references... but man did that progress take a lot of hours. Lots and lots of hours.

 

I don't understand what the fundamental difference between a "dialog based" and "circle of commands" UI is. Do they not work the same exact way? Press the attack button, your character attacks. This isn't exactly TPS vs. FPS, where the game design itself changes based on what you choose (in b4 BoredMormon).

That sounds like literally nothing but "what the interface looks like."

Have to agree with Joe that this isn't related at all to the functionality of your game. Not that spending time on it's a bad thing, but it just seems tangential.

All that said, I don't really have an opinion on the design. The standard list type never bothered me.

 

No.

 

It's a black art, part intuition, part experimentation (and luck). And most people dump on it, but games are nothing but user interaction. All high-end products have between good and out-of-this-world UI, and in many cases products live (or die) on usability,

Just look what happened when Unity changed forum software.