This week on Behind The Dice, we're showing off a bit of concept art and how the UI has evolved!
Here's one of the characters from concept days to what it looks like now! The original sketch captured the vibes the devs were going for, but you can see how much more personality and detail emerged in the final iteration. Those colours alone are so cool!
Check out what Dicealot used to look like -
This is at least a year old now!
It's giving old, medieval tavern vibes. I have no idea why I'm so reminded of my Old School RuneScape days looking at this.
From the devs:
Originally the game was supposed to be a much cosier, tavern themed roguelike. I wanted to do a full 3D tavern interior, angry mailed fist slamming against the table top when your opponent loses etc., but we basically didn't have the time to do any of that if we wanted to have a presentable prototype for publishers in any sort of timely fashion. So, the original UI was attempting to echo this initial vibe. However I don't think it landed, and we ended up with something that felt very ''generic medieval'' to me, which I was not a fan of.
We tried a few things, but through this process I also learnt that I am very bad at UI design, so I settled on something that would use a minimalist approach to the UI, allowing the character and dice art (the visual stars of the show if you ask me) to really shine through. There is always room for improvement of course, but I think what we ended up with allowed new retro-arcade vibes to blossom through the game, much for the better.
Pfff, bad at UI design? Who would have ever guessed? I love seeing the evolution of games from early days to what they look like now, and this one is amazing. As cool as the tavern theme is, this retro arcade style just feels so unique and special.
Reminder: We're at MegaCon Manchester tomorrow! If you wanna come by for some chats or to get yourself one of these cool Dicealot sets, be sure to drop by! We'd love to meet you guys:)
I've just noticed the dice in the picture and now it will forever irk me that it was so close to being an Albion's Road right there.
