Hi Ado!
> I really like your idea of navigation, it should be
> simple so that player can jump into game right away
> virtually without any learning curve. Semi transparent
> menu sounds great to me and all collectible objects of
> course could be animated. Inventory window can be
> stylized view of Odd's backpack and the items should
> be nicely organized. I think when it comes to this
> type of game the interface neatness and simplicity
> should be our priority. We want players to be involved
> in the story and not try to realize how to do this and
> that and having too many problems with the navigating.
I couldn't agree more, and that's basically what Ulf and I have been
saying too - simple and easy to use so that people don't get annoyed.
We've also been talking about the inventory and that it could show
something like a cross section of the backpack. If you have time, please
make an image of what you were thinking for the inventory, maybe with
some items in it as examples!
> I have to say that I really love your idea of object
> combining. It is something that I haven't even seen in
> the newest adventure games. This is definitely
> something that we have to discuss.
Yes, I think it would be great if we could accomplish that all actions
available through the player interface will have effect. That way, we
get away from the dreaded "try everything on everything"-strategy, and
hopefully the player will feel that the game is more controllable. The
drawback is that we might be providing too much help in the
combine-items-puzzles. But frankly, I think such puzzles are pretty
boring anyway! Maybe this forces us to come up with more ingenious
puzzles instead.
Another drawback might be that players aren't used to it, so when they
want to combine items, they go to the inventory and try to combine from
there, only to find that it doesn't work. Ulf and I were talking about a
compromise, where the player had to select an item in the inventory so
that Odd holds it in his hands, and only then, the combine action would
appear in the menu. But how would we represent graphically that he holds
something in his hands in a way that looks good and doesn't require too
much animation or programming work?
> All right: the action icons. I REALLY like your idea
> of abstract use of icons and I also wanted to
...
> is making sense to you.
I agree here too. In fact, what I was thinking was more like that the
icons shouldn't become too complicated (with arrows and stuff) just for
the sake of descriptiveness; a simple and clean icon is better even if
it alone doesn't describe exactly what action it symbolizes. But I guess
my woodpecker and straw were a little to far away. So - as concrete and
descriptive as possible while keeping it clean and simple. I guess
that's what you were thinking too.
> All right, I created this image what should be EXAMINE
> icon. I created them using Photoshop and illustrator.
> Now what do you think. I kind of prefer illustrator
I don't know really... I like them all! I think they should be in
colour, so the grayscale icon is out. And I was picturing a transparent
background, but that depends much on what the menu looks like. Now that
I see the icons, I still want them to be 64x64, but it might look silly
to place such large icons vertically in a Windows-style menu. Maybe some
kind of palette? Ulf suggested that the icons could form an arc or a
circle around the item. I like this idea, but might be difficult to
combine with textual descriptions. Maybe a small text fits underneath
each icon? Anyway, it would be wonderful if you put together an example
of what you think the menu should look like!
/Jerker
