Best practices for a GUI-centered (menu driven) game?

I would like to know what would be an optimal way to organize a menu driven game in Unity. I mean games akin to Management style (Football Manager itself is a good example). Basically almost the entire game would be made up of GUI elements.

Any tips?

Thanks in advance!

 

If you decided to draw GUI from scratch, then I could recommend you to make your own analog of Rect class (for example CenterRect), which always will place rectanlge at center of screen.

See my implementation of such class bellow:

Code (csharp):

1.  
2. /// <summary>
3. /// Centered Rectangle
4. /// </summary>
5. public class CenterRect : PosRect
6. {
7.     public CenterRect(float x, float y, float horizontalOffset = 0, float verticalOffset = 0) : base(x, y, horizontalOffset, verticalOffset) { ; }
8.     public CenterRect(Vector2 size, float horizontalOffset = 0, float verticalOffset = 0): base(size.x, size.y, horizontalOffset, verticalOffset) { ;}
9.  
10.     protected override Rect GetRect(float width, float height)
11.     {
12.         return new Rect((width - _width) * 0.5f + _horizontalOffset, (height - _height) * 0.5f + _verticalOffset, _width, _height);
13.     }
14. }
15.  

Base class

Code (csharp):

1.  
2. public abstract class PosRect
3. {
4.     protected float _width;
5.     protected float _height;
6.     protected float _horizontalOffset;
7.     protected float _verticalOffset;
8.     protected Rect? _container = null;
9.  
10.     /// <summary>
11.     /// Default constructor
12.     /// </summary>
13.     /// <param name="width">Width of the rectangle</param>
14.     /// <param name="height">Height of the rectangle</param>
15.     /// <param name="horizontalOffset">Offset along the horizontal direction</param>
16.     /// <param name="verticalOffset">Offset along the vertical direction</param>
17.     public PosRect(float width, float height, float horizontalOffset = 0, float verticalOffset = 0)
18.     {
19.         _width = width;
20.         _height = height;
21.         _horizontalOffset = horizontalOffset;
22.         _verticalOffset = verticalOffset;
23.     }
24.     /// <summary>
25.     /// Alternative constructor
26.     /// </summary>
27.     /// <param name="size">Width(x) and height(y) of the rectangle</param>
28.     /// <param name="horizontalOffset">Offset along the horizontal direction</param>
29.     /// <param name="verticalOffset">Offset along the vertical direction</param>
30.     public PosRect(Vector2 size, float horizontalOffset = 0, float verticalOffset = 0)
31.         : this(size.x, size.y, horizontalOffset, verticalOffset)
32.     {
33.         ;
34.     }
35.  
36.     /// <summary>
37.     /// Sets offset of the rectangle along the horizontal direction.
38.     /// </summary>
39.     /// <param name="offset">Ofset value</param>
40.     public void SetHorizontalOffset(float offset) { _horizontalOffset = offset; }
41.    
42.     /// <summary>
43.     /// Sets offset of the rectangle along the vertical direction.
44.     /// </summary>
45.     /// <param name="offset">Ofset value</param>
46.     public void SetVerticalOffset(float offset) { _verticalOffset = offset; }
47.  
48.     /// <summary>
49.     /// Sets root container
50.     /// </summary>
51.     /// <param name="groupRectangle">Rectangle of the root element (GUI.BeginGroup)</param>
52.     public void SetContainer(Rect groupRectangle)
53.     {
54.         _container = groupRectangle;
55.     }
56.     public void RemoveContainer()
57.     {
58.         _container = null;
59.     }
60.     public bool IsInContainer()
61.     {
62.         return _container.HasValue;
63.     }
64.  
65.     /// <summary>
66.     /// Returns centered rectangle
67.     /// </summary>
68.     public Rect Rect
69.     {
70.         get
71.         {
72.             if (!IsInContainer())
73.                 return GetRect(Screen.width, Screen.height);
74.             else
75.                 return GetRect(_container.Value.width, _container.Value.height);
76.         }
77.     }
78.  
79.     protected abstract Rect GetRect(float width, float height);
80. }
81.