Nope, I am actually not dead, contrary to popular belief (I have no idea if that’s true; I just said it for dramatic effect... did it work?), I’ve just been busy with other stuff.
…
I know the question now is: “Is the cow-girl event done?” and the sad answer is unfortunately no. I’ve not written for some time now. In fact, I’ve not done anything on the project for the past month or so (or more, I lost count).
But, as it stands, I’ve regained my interest in this project and I shall hopefully soon continue writing and finish the tale I’ve started. After one… small, tiny, almost inconsequential little thing:
Yup, I’m completely and utterly redesigning the entire GUI, and if there is one thing that is for certain, then that is that I’ve got NO clue whatsoever what I’m doing. This might take some time :P
For a bit more of an in-depth explanation, have another picture.
Now you might question the size of the buttons and their ability to display the respective text, and you are correct in that regard. And that is what I’ll use this newfangled contraption I’ve got for, namely a drawing board. I’ll draw icons :3
The purpose of this new UI is simply streamlining. Gone are the days of clicking a button to reveal a list of options, then picking one to have a popup-screen appear. Now, if you click either of the round buttons on the left (other left) side, the plan is to have a window zoom open that overlays the picture screen.
The compass will work by displaying the directions currently available, and by mousing over the circles you will get the information that tells you where you will be taken.
The three buttons below the health-bars will choose what information is displayed in the textblock underneath in one fancy way or another.
The sun/moon/8hr are radio buttons that will determine for how long you sleep when clicking the sleep button.
So, this is my pet-project of sorts. Since Tacoking is a lot more experience with coding, he will be helping me a lot to get this project up and running. The hope is that as I get more experienced, I will inherit the GUI-design aspect of this project.
So, any thoughts? Comments? Do you like it or does it look fugly as all heck? Why?
It’s still very much in the early stages, so any input is welcome :)
Echo out. out.. out… out…. out……….. out…………
Posts
HOLY JESUS CINNAMON TITTIES
ReplyDeleteYou used my logo
dohohohoho
In other news that looks crazy awesome Echo. Who knew you had a knack for design under all that verbage?
(Did you get the compass idea from Cursed? Have you or Taco played Cursed? Do you have any idea what I'm on about?)
Talking about rags suite (the program cursed is created in)? Kinda yes. I originally just drew the compass because I liked it and because it would act as a travel screen quite excellently. But then when I showed it to a mate of mine, he thought it looked too much like a background, and so I added the rounded buttons. And like the rags suite, they will not be displayed when not active (though they will contine a letter or two, I've just yet to add that piece of texture).
ReplyDeleteAlso, considering the shit-ton of games I've played since my birth, I was bound to have picked up at least some level of skill for designing gui's :P
Also, while the logo shall be used, it will be placed on a beveled button, and shall contain the credits if clicked :). IE, it, like the rest of the UI, isn't exactly done yet :P
Also, interesting tidbit. The GUI is programmed in WPF now instead of windows forms, and so it can be scaled anywhere between 800x600 and 1920x1200. Naturally, the aspect ratio is a bit fucked atm, but if we can find a quick solution to it, we shall add an aspect ration button or a wide selection of selectable resolutions of varied aspects. I hope to add support for both 4:3, 16:9 and 16:10. Time will show if this is feasible.
ReplyDeleteYeah I was talking about the RAGS suite. Cursed is the only thing I've played that uses it (GASP I PLAY ANOTHER GAME SOMETIMES I'M SORRY I FAILED YOU) so that was my example. Hopefully the creator of the engine gets the save import feature working because it's annoying starting over every new build.
ReplyDeleteI've digressed though.
Also while I have no idea what being programmed in WPF instead of windows forms means, but scaling is always appreciated. Especially if you support 16:9 because I have one of those weird monitors.
Glad to hear you're back on your writing kick though. I think we can all say we've been waiting patiently to open our farms for business.
How would this affect the theme options we currently have? How would the GUI change to match those? What about fast travel between major towns? (Will there be fast travel? Am I asking too many questions? How many licks DOES it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop?) What did you mock that up in? How are you going to go about rigging a paper doll up? Will I think of more questions? Will I stop treating this blog like a personal chat room between you, Taco, and Hawt? Tune in next time, nowhere near the same time, but definitely the same Pornarium channel.
I liked the travel destinations corresponding to the num pad keys...
ReplyDeleteIf you can keep that bit of functionality, I'll be happy...
@Kazard: That will be kept as I love that feature personally. Any old MUD player would! (not saying that you were, but I certainly was)
ReplyDelete@Nazca: WPF is a "new" way in which windows can render the GUI of an application. Frankly because I am horrid at UI's in general, I never wanted to bother learning about it. Echo has taken an interests in it and I really could use help with things of that nature. Since we've been working together since virtually the start of this project I happily accept the help :). As you can see, it's far nicer looking than a standard windows form (think of how Pornarium looks now).
Essentially we'll be able to do flashy graphical things that you wish a good UI could do...but I don't want to elaborate too much as it's Echo's project.
Fast travel is actually planned in two major ways:
1) Trains! Echo has already even written an entire train event that just needs to be implemented when there are places trains can take you.
2.) Magic: There will be teleportation spells! Let's not get too ahead of ourselves though, I don't want to promise too much when magic hasn't even been implemented.
That would explain why you wanted me to find you a train station.
ReplyDeleteYeah exactly Nazca, it's a really good event and it's 100% completed too :P, travel from North Pornicle to South Pornicle is somewhat pointless though and that's why I have yet to convert it to the event engine...though perhaps I will add it in anyways just to add more things to do. Echo did work very hard on it and I think it's a very good event.
ReplyDeleteBelieve it a huge chunk of the world is implemented, it's just empty so I have disabled the ability to leave Pornicle.
There is the Great Northern Highway (45 miles of road in 3 screens, it takes 8FP / 8HRs per screen to travel) with a place of interest at the end. There is the town of Drillhur to the West of Pornicle, the Farm to the Southeast, and a Forest to the Southwest. (roughly 30 screens that are sadly sitting unused at the moment).
^ oh yeah, and the most important part of that location ramble: There are a few train stations scattered along the way :P
ReplyDeleteThat would explain why you wanted me to find a farm and some forest as well.
ReplyDeleteLol, did you just think I asked for help with random images for the hell of it? :P
ReplyDeleteIt should also explain why I haven't used them just yet :P
Oh what about the elven village and that tower that's disabled currently behind the hedge? Or are those secrets for now?
ReplyDeleteNo I knew there was a reason but it's interesting knowing what their intended purpose was.
ReplyDeleteAh the mysteries of Pornarium :D
ReplyDeleteI guess we can't expect you to give everything away just yet.
ReplyDeleteMake sure all actions, travel directions, info screens, and item screens have hot keys. Also an option to map hot keys would be nice, or at least a non-numpad version for us laptop users.
ReplyDeleteHmm aside from hoping you do a dark colored theme too one thing I'd like you to tinker with is the sun/moon/8hour/sleep buttons. 9 times out of 10 you reach for sleep immediately after traveling and travel immediately after sleep, so it's a bit irritating to have them totally across the screen from each other.
ReplyDeleteSuggest swapping action buttons with travel, or finding a way to move the sleep down with travel.
looks great
ReplyDeleteAnd if you made it somewhat customizable(mainly the colour) it would be awesome.
Great work!