New UI Improvements, New Weapons, New Buildings!
Here we are! The first draft of the player ingame interface! Following the general idea of the game, I want the player to have maximum possibilities with the simplest gameplay and controls possible. So I've designed this first draft of a multifunction pause menu, with all player skill levels and equipment/inventory options at the same place. And I also worked on new weapons and buildings.
New Weapons and Buildings
I just added new animations for the player to create a new class of weapons : BIG two-handed weapons! I started with a very big sword, because I realised I wanted to feel more powerful while I was fighting a droid last week. You can't hold a shied with these weapons, but you can parry some attacks with it. I also started to implement magic weapons, which will consume quickly your energy according to your magic level.
I also worked on several buildings, but I still have a lot of work to do. The idea is to let the player evolve in a real open-world, which means you can visit every house, tower, castle you see. I'm very glad my 3571 Comics was so graphically simple as I can design very simple models and increase FPS : each room you can visit is as much vertices as the exterior of a building. I need at least 15-20 different building at first to create satisfying random maps. I also started to write a script which will spawn random furniture, mobs and loots in the buildings.
Player Interface
In order to design the most simple window possible, I've forced myself to clamp the height and the width of the window, and I choosed not to use tabs or multipages menus in order to let the player acces data or inventory pressing only one key.
By pressing Escape key at any moment during the game you'll be able to:
- Pause the game
- Save your game and exit game
- See you currently equiped items
- Examine each item stat, like power or durability by simply pointing it
- See your how your combat skills change in realtime as you change weapons, armors...
- See your carried inventory and equip/unequip any of your items
- See all your current character XP levels
I like how the small size of the window let you still see game view, and it forces me to use very ordered elements and only what I need, keeping design style sober and efficient. I think I'll give a more Sci-Fi touch to the graphic design, but I'm pretty happy with the ingame user experience this window gives. I think time you need to choose items, check your progression or craft items is reduced, increasing real playtime.
Next steps :
- I think unfortunately I have to add 1 page ( not more! ) to create the crafting window that the player can open with a "BUILD" button on the main pause window presented here. And I also need to add hunger and thirst indicators, and a mouse sensitivity cursor for better confort.
- I improved the runtime shortcut UI on the bottom of the screen a lot. This lets the player know at any time health, energy, water and food levels. it is currently like this:
Thanks for reading! More coming soon!