I feel that this project is going to be somewhere between old school ascii and "modern" graphical styles in the way how information is shown on screen in the main gameview. In traditional roguelikes you often have information packed in various status lines etc. which I guess become easier to understand once you get used to it. However it feels like mirroring that to a graphical roguelike isn't the best, or having packed information at all.
Graphical games can have icons to replace text, but in many cases it's worse. In any case, how much and what information is directly on screen is a matter of design which is harder than it seems. User interface design is difficult in all programs, not just in games. Luckily I've learned from my past mistakes and now adding something only if it's easier to have on screen all the time. But it's also a design decision, especially now when you have the space, assuming the gameview is small enough that space for stats etc. is available.
The design of "off-screen" information is just as important, and making it easy to access can remove the need for on-screen information.
No comments:
Post a Comment