in-game design

in-game design

Postby xapantu » 07 Mar 2010, 17:03

Hi,

I am currently improving the theme Tech and I would like to change the in-game design.

This is a mockup of my idea :
gameplay.png


Maybe it isn't very beautiful but it is more a concept than a real mockup.
Do you like ?
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Re: in-game design

Postby qubodup » 07 Mar 2010, 17:36

I'm not sure, but you probably mean the player info layout? (I compared to http://usf.tuxfamily.org/wiki/File:Screenshot3.png )

It does look better than the old version, but it cuts off a piece of the levels, so they are kind of a waste of space then. I think it would be better to have the player info in boxes, like you made it in the mockup, but placed in corners, so they leave more level space.
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Re: in-game design

Postby kizzobot » 07 Mar 2010, 18:05

Yeah one thing we all (the smash community) hate about Melee right now is how the heads up display (HUD) gets in the way sometimes of the characters. This is unfortunate in Melee because, well, you can't change it.

So when I think about what I would like USF to be in the future, I would say that it would be ideal if the HUD could be displayed by the users however they wished (custom, in other words), as I believe, no matter what kind of HUD is chosen, they should all be displaying the same information (percent, number of lives, etc.) in some way. Of course, when you abstract things a lot, you have to account for it, and so I don't recommend implementing this really cool customizable HUD this time around (first release), but I do recommend a HUD that does not obstruct view of the match.
Last edited by kizzobot on 07 Mar 2010, 18:30, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: in-game design

Postby qubodup » 07 Mar 2010, 18:15

Another idea: make the maps customize the HUD. So the level designer can decide where the best place is. If there is no HUD placed, choose some default for it. This will only work if there is a maximum of players I think. Is 4 players max?
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Re: in-game design

Postby kizzobot » 07 Mar 2010, 18:56

qubodup {l Wrote}:Another idea: make the maps customize the HUD. So the level designer can decide where the best place is. If there is no HUD placed, choose some default for it. This will only work if there is a maximum of players I think. Is 4 players max?


Just with regards to the count of characters - I like to think about USF as being unlimited in a lot of ways, and so ideally there wouldn't be a max count of characters that could play at a time. Of course, why would you have 1,000,000 CPUs fighter each other, and you? But, we shouldn't restrict something like this arbitrarily, ideally, I think.

I have roughly the same feelings about a lot of other parts about USF: characters, items, and stages come to mind. Each of these things should be created by players, and so there will eventually be thousands of combinations of them. The same variety can be extended to higher level aspects of the game as well, such as physics and gameplay rules. In that case, players could create different ways that smash is played. For example, each game in the Nintendo series (64, Melee, Brawl) is just 1 way to play smash, and one criteria by which we can differentiate these ways is, for example, by how air dodging is done/performed. In Brawl, when you air dodge, you only have one option, which is to continue on in that same trajectory - the same trajectory as the one you would have been if you had not air dodged, and just continued moving normally; Whereas in Melee, when one performs an air dodge, you have 2 options, which are to either 1) influence the trajectory you go in by using the Dpad, or 2) not do that (influence the trajectory you go in), and so just stay in the same place for the duration of the dodge.

To help give more of an idea, there is also lots of common ways that smash is played, that extend across all 3 game series - those being things such as shields, rolling, dodging, and jumping. Every character in ever installment can do all of those things, but my point is that USF should have the option of not being like that. Someone might like different styles of play within smash, like not playing with shields (shieldless matches), or with enhanced rolling, or whatever. A lot of what I'm saying is related to the "special" options in Melee, such as Stamina Mode, and Giant Mode, and Invisible Mode, and all that. I guess when I'm talking about the different ways to play smash, a good analogy would be the gameplay modes - just different ways to play the same game.
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Re: in-game design

Postby qubodup » 07 Mar 2010, 19:04

kizzobot {l Wrote}:Just with regards to the count of characters - I like to think about USF as being unlimited in a lot of ways, and so ideally there wouldn't be a max count of characters that could play at a time. Of course, why would you have 1,000,000 CPUs fighter each other, and you? But, we shouldn't restrict something like this arbitrarily, ideally, I think.

I agree, there should be room for a one-against-a-horde mode :)

So.. how about having the stats directly above the player character? Health bar and live count (number or icons..)
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Re: in-game design

Postby kizzobot » 07 Mar 2010, 19:15

qubodup {l Wrote}:
kizzobot {l Wrote}:Just with regards to the count of characters - I like to think about USF as being unlimited in a lot of ways, and so ideally there wouldn't be a max count of characters that could play at a time. Of course, why would you have 1,000,000 CPUs fighter each other, and you? But, we shouldn't restrict something like this arbitrarily, ideally, I think.


So.. how about having the stats directly above the player character? Health bar and live count (number or icons..)


Yeah that would be good too (never thought of that) - it could one of the many options (top, bottom, left, right, top of character, below character), and maybe even vary the options further, such as only displaying the percent above/below a certain number, or never ever displaying the number of lives [ b/c either 1) the player might feel comfortable keeping track of something like that themselves, and thus do not need a visual indicator, or 2) the player might feel better playing under the assumption that they are always on their last life ; ) ].
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Re: in-game design

Postby aspidites » 07 Mar 2010, 19:50

I especially like the idea about above the player. Even better, I think it would be nice to have an option that allows you to automatically hide this info if you aren't near the player, or, do things a la first person shooters, and have it only displayed if a certain key is pressed.
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Re: in-game design

Postby xapantu » 08 Mar 2010, 19:54

So, make an option to display lives if the character above it would be great ?
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Re: in-game design

Postby tshirtman » 08 Mar 2010, 23:23

maybe we can bind the display of those informations to a button. Or we can use a bar like xapantu proposed but place it top or bottom depending on the place of the characters… we can use a semi transparent white circle background under each one… and move a bit left or write any of them if a character is too near…

just some thoughts…
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Re: in-game design

Postby qubodup » 09 Mar 2010, 00:28

xapantu {l Wrote}:So, make an option to display lives if the character above it would be great ?

Yes. I think. :)

Slightly related, a HUD discussion for violetland: http://groups.google.co.uk/group/violet ... f0ffec7f63 also check out the files that have "HUD" in them (the ones at the top curently) http://groups.google.co.uk/group/violet ... &sort=date
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