![[us]](/mwf/flags/us.png "United States")
I think the current GUI in OC could use improvements, so I experimented a little bit.
You can only see the HP of your active clonk. A small flashing icon next to a nonvisible clonk's nametag could indicate when they lose health. The inventory supports two statically positoned slots for both the left and right hands. I'm not sure what kind of control scheme to use, though. Two independent buttons to cycle the left and right hands through all items in the backpack?
This is very much unfinished, just throwing something out there. I want to see someone take the reins and create a strict design document for Open Clonk that looks at the whole picture, especially as to how Open Clonk will look visually. The current (as far as i can tell as an outsider) approach of having people contribute individual assets with minimal central coordination isn't going to achieve the high quality and consistent visuals I hope we'll see in Open Clonk.
Gimp XCF
You can only see the HP of your active clonk. A small flashing icon next to a nonvisible clonk's nametag could indicate when they lose health. The inventory supports two statically positoned slots for both the left and right hands. I'm not sure what kind of control scheme to use, though. Two independent buttons to cycle the left and right hands through all items in the backpack?
This is very much unfinished, just throwing something out there. I want to see someone take the reins and create a strict design document for Open Clonk that looks at the whole picture, especially as to how Open Clonk will look visually. The current (as far as i can tell as an outsider) approach of having people contribute individual assets with minimal central coordination isn't going to achieve the high quality and consistent visuals I hope we'll see in Open Clonk.
Gimp XCF
![[de]](/mwf/flags/de.png "Germany")
To clean. Looks like a floor. Try to add some harder wood elements! (and maybe get rid of the Endeavour font, it really sucks)
![[ie]](/mwf/flags/ie.png "Ireland")
Hi there, appreciate your work. :)But for a start, don't base your designs on the current release version. Please download the newest development snapshot and have a look at that because the GUI and the controls have pretty much changed.
> I'm not sure what kind of control scheme to use, though. Two independent buttons to cycle the left and right hands through all items in the backpack?
Controls are a very crucial point. Unfortunately your design is outdated due to the current inventory handling (as I said, development snapshot). But my point is: Please don't try and rethink the controls solely based on GUI style. The current controls (speaking of the ones we currently develop and not what they are like in the last release) are under heavy testing but work quite well so far. The first thing we have in mind is how these work in the gameplay and not how a GUI element can display them. So designing something to show something (like inventory) and then think about how to control it, based on your design - that's not gonna work and probably the gameplay will not be fun.
The closest thing to a design document you will get is something like this: http://wiki.openclonk.org/w/Settlement_Design_Document (yes, I know, I called it Design Document ;).
The graphical guidelines I wrote there are for buildings only. And they are pretty much outdated by the designs Fungiform provided us with here in the forum. There simply is no such thing as a 'big plan' which someone could write down. Sometimes the (short-time) plan changes like Fungiform's proposals of building designs. Sometimes we need to rethink the controls and thus render the old GUI (as it is in the last release version) unusable. The more finished we get, the more sturdy will designs and systems become.
As for your design, first of all, there is a general agreement in OC to make it somewhat steampunkish. An element that is totally absent from your panels. Secondly, when seeing this these hovering panels pretty much remind me of a Smartphone App rather than a PC game. That was my first impression.
Hey Clonkonaut, thank you for the great response.
You're right, I did not take the time to understand the controls in the latest build (although I had downloaded the nightly and taken a quick peek). I'll play with the new controls more extensively and think about what sort of HUD would faciliate the new system.
I also did not realize Open Clonk will be steampunk-y, although looking at some of the recent assets they definitely have elements of steampunk. Steampunk provides a great aesthetic, notably more mature than Clonk Rage's style was (which may be good or bad). I'll revisse this significantly, now that I know what I know, although I'm not yet sure how I'll put the essence of steampunk into a GUI design. I have most of my graphic design experience in doing doing professional-looking / somewhat corporate website design, and really should leave most of that behind for a game like this ;).
Oh, and, I'm very glad to see that design document and apologize for implying no such work had been done. More of an iterative approach to designing it, then?
You're right, I did not take the time to understand the controls in the latest build (although I had downloaded the nightly and taken a quick peek). I'll play with the new controls more extensively and think about what sort of HUD would faciliate the new system.
I also did not realize Open Clonk will be steampunk-y, although looking at some of the recent assets they definitely have elements of steampunk. Steampunk provides a great aesthetic, notably more mature than Clonk Rage's style was (which may be good or bad). I'll revisse this significantly, now that I know what I know, although I'm not yet sure how I'll put the essence of steampunk into a GUI design. I have most of my graphic design experience in doing doing professional-looking / somewhat corporate website design, and really should leave most of that behind for a game like this ;).
Oh, and, I'm very glad to see that design document and apologize for implying no such work had been done. More of an iterative approach to designing it, then?
Something I notice about your HUD is that the colors are solid. This obscures the players view, for future reference you might want to consider making it transparent where ever possible, this gives the player view without losing the good lookin' HUD. In some cases transparency does make it hard to read, but thats kind of obvious.
![[gb]](/mwf/flags/gb.png "United Kingdom")
I'm not sure transparency is a good idea for what you have in mind. As you note, the whole thing is very likely to result in the player at times not being able to properly see neither the foreground nor the background. I'd favour just trying to make the HUD as compact as possible instead.
This is not to say that transparency is inherently a bad idea - for example, I think it is great for establishing a "layering": Making clear that something is rendered "on top" of the game world, not a part of it.
This is not to say that transparency is inherently a bad idea - for example, I think it is great for establishing a "layering": Making clear that something is rendered "on top" of the game world, not a part of it.
> You're right, I did not take the time to understand the controls in the latest build
Sorry if my words seem to be harsh on this point ;) I just want to prevent you from doing futile work. Because we had to remove the old HUD, we will now need something to show life and breath of the clonk :)
> I also did not realize Open Clonk will be steampunk-y
Yes, I admit, that's hard to find out. So far, it's even hard to see from the game itself ;) A nice steampunkish GUI could make the difference at this point!
> More of an iterative approach to designing it, then?
That's a fitting description. ;)
"Steampunkish" is a bit loosely-defined, too. We certainly aren't really that invested in the whole "steam" part. I think the core idea is something along the lines of that everything looks like a Clonk could have quickly hammered it together from some raw materials. Very low-tech and makeshift, cute in a way. You know, to hint at that Clonk is meant to be a fun game about building stuff.
I like the direction - though I'm hardly the guy you have to convince here. Personally I'd still prefer a darker, "dirtier" look - like the planks we had on the main screen in CR.
I like this. Though I think I would like it better if the outlines (the ~yellowish metal?) were darker ;)
![[at]](/mwf/flags/at.png "Austria")
That style kinda reminds me of a fancy construction site. Metal and gears and stuff. I think the old(er) style was so appealing (at least to me) because of the wooden parts.Considering we want a steampunk-ish setting, maybe some wood and brass would be a better setting?
The material composing the border and the two plates was intended to be brass, though it doesnt really look that way; there is no shine or anything to indicate it is brass.
[Edit] I also tested with the border being wood, but decided to prefer a single material instead of the two together.
[Edit] I also tested with the border being wood, but decided to prefer a single material instead of the two together.
Thanks for the feedback! Trying new stuff always is a good idea, imo. As the one who initiated and is mainly working on the current controls, I feel like I should also give some feedback on your approach!First off I have to agree with Nachtfalter. The texture really looks like a floor. As has been discussed a few posts above, it's also crucial that the UI doesn't obscure vision too much, while still beeing recognizable as something "in the front" that doesn't belong to the landscape. The current inventory is a fine example for that imo.
As Clonkonaut said, the Inventory-bar-thingie at the bottom is outdated. The Dialogue in the middle.. I'm not exactly sure what you want to do with it, but I guess you meant it to be the general artstyle of all UI elements? (Start-Menu etc.)
Now to the interesting part: The Clonk-Thingie.
So far it's still the same old one. The biggest difference is that I removed those health and breath-tubes, so the display there actually is the only one now.
Red flashing on beeing hurt is planned in the back of my head. ;)
Having only the portrait displayed will probably be kinda hard, if it's not a static image. I don't think we have the means to do that so far, and I'm not sure how important it'd be. ;)
If we reduce the display of non-selected clonks I'd start with the clonk-display itself, not the hp/breath-bar.
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