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[Feedback Friday #61] - Dec 1, 2017

Discussion in 'Game Design' started by Gigiwoo, Dec 1, 2017.

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  1. Gigiwoo

    Gigiwoo

    Joined:
    Mar 16, 2011
    Posts:
    2,981
    I'm dreaming of a game, for the holidays! Just like the ones we had last year.... Feedback Friday #61 is OPEN until Dec 29th - that's a full month of games for the holidays! Happy Holidays my friends!

    XMAS Feedback is closed. FF #62 will open on January 12th.

    ---

    Want design feedback for your new game? Then you've found the right thread! Post here to get precious player feedback. Discuss until we lock the thread to start the two week break.

    How To Ask For Feedback
    • Show - Pics, videos, or best of all, a playable game!
    • Be Concise - Who's got time for Wall 'O Text? Less is more
    How To Give Feedback
    • Be Positive - Finding redeeming qualities in the worst of games, is in itself a game
    • Focus On The Design - Not the designer
    • Be Specific - "Your game sucks!" is for nubs
    What To Show
    • Minimally Viable Product (MVP) - Core game play >>> everything else
    • How To Scope Small (Unity tutorial)
    Gigi

    [PS - Feedback Friday #60 is here]
     
    Last edited: Dec 29, 2017
  2. White_Mouse

    White_Mouse

    Joined:
    Jun 22, 2015
    Posts:
    22
    Greetings.
    My game prototype, working title One Screen Space Sim, wants to become a mostly text-based, Elite-inspired space trading and fighting game.

    Questions I want to ask will affect development in an incredibly major way, so I have to ask them as early as possible. That means no meaningfully playable build is available at the moment.

    I will begin with a screenshot to put my further questions into better context.


    Visual Design and Presentation:
    - Is such a high contrast, bloom-ed look a strain on the eyes? Is black and white color scheme better than rainbow of differently colored panels?
    I love it, personally, and am willing to push it in direction of "old/Sci-Fi CRT-monitor", similar to what you can see in Alien and 2001:Space Odyssey(absolutely stunning computer screen design, my personal favourite).
    But my eyes are loving eyes of a creator, I might be greatly biased.

    - Are there ways to improve star system list, on top-right panel?
    It feels incredibly bland, "boring spreadsheet"-like to me. But the only alternative I see would be a literal star chart, which I'm reluctant to implement, as it would break text-only aesthetics. Adding visual elements to it seems to only make it look worse.

    - Is button design("SELL", "BUY", "Speed controls/A-B-FIRE") any good?
    I am completely infatuated with asymmetrical, common-pivot for different sized words, style.
    But would future users share my feelings? Are there guides for that sort of fancy word arrangement?

    Game Design:
    - Is simplification of key gameplay elements a good way to energize a somewhat boring space trading genre? Am I making any blatantly wrong assumptions? Which of those elements look good and which are too gimmicky?
    My goal here is to lower complexity of tactical decisions, while increasing their density and increase importance of strategic decisions, without drowning players in numbers.

    For example:

    Binary Trade - one of 3 base types of stations, "Industrial Station" buys raw materials and sells product. But there is only one input and one output, which is supposed to speed up decision making and shuttle-runs between buy-low and sell-high stations.
    This also means that a production chain cannot be contained in just a few star systems and player will have to visit quite a lot of different stars, moving "up the industrial food chain", from outskirts, to centers of civilization.

    Other two types of stations are selling lists of upgrades and ships. But wouldn't eliminating those and making ship upgrades and ships themselves into goods, produced by top-tier stations, play along with simplicity without sacrificing functionality theme?
    I feel like this element alone can turn "galaxy" into something more structured, logical and less of another word for "random encounter generator".

    Limited Travel Choice - player does not get to free roam across galaxy, but travels to semi-random systems. To counter that, player has a very limited amount of "bookmarks", allowing him to travel to few chosen systems at will, but making exploration an excursion into unknown. Number of available "bookmarks" can be upgradable.

    Limited Opportunity Awareness - typical "galactic news" systems provide player with information on random opportunities, like high demand for goods or combat opportunities. But what if I restrict amount of news player can receive to fixed amount of "message slots" and add a system of random spam, filling up those slots with time? This will turn fairly passive reading into Spinning Plates situation, where to achieve maximum efficiency player will have to keep attention up. Another possibility for upgradables. Possibility to differentiate star systems by level of news coverage/spam density.

    Limited Situation Awareness - additionally to standard radar range, radar update frequency might be limited. Furthermore, even act of radar usage can be constrained by "energy usage" or negative reactions from NPCs, adding element of risk and reward to age-old mechanic, making it into a mini-game by itself, creating tension and paranoia for player. A bit of a "Submarine in Space"? Upgradable, of course.
     
    rogueknight and Gigiwoo like this.
  3. Sluggy

    Sluggy

    Joined:
    Nov 27, 2012
    Posts:
    960
    In terms of design I would say it is definitely a little on the bland and disjointed side. The font is pretty classy but there appears to be no purpose or harmony to the color sceheme. It should be more meaningful and consistent. You might consider using an online color scheme generator if you not that familiar with color theory. For inspiration in use of both color and shapes, the perfect thing I can point to is Star Trek's classic LCARS UI. It's simple, looks sleek, and allows for a little artistic flare without removing the text-only feel you are going for. As for the bloom, I like the idea but it might be a little too strong in that example.

    Another thing you might consider is using simple, single-color icons in place of some text. TextMeshPro makes this super easy to setup and use. An example of use would be if you had a table of destinations that the player could travel to displayed as a list, it might have an icon to designate each entry as a planet, versus a moon, versus a space station, etc. Tooltips are another great way to provide additional info without taking up precious space. Going with the previous example, using tooltips for the icons would allow curious and inexperienced users to instantly determine what each icon means without having to go through trial-and-error or constantly looking things up in some giant key table.

    Edit: One more thing I thought of - I do like the use of the strong vertical and horizontal lines on the right side. Especially the ones used on the 'A' and 'B' firing modes (which I assume are toggles of some kind?) You might consider making that a more prominent feature throughout the design.
     
  4. White_Mouse

    White_Mouse

    Joined:
    Jun 22, 2015
    Posts:
    22
    Thank you for your reply, Sluggy!
    I crammed both colored and uncolored versions into single screenshot. But I agree on lack of purpose for the colors. It looks pretty when all backgrounds are filled, especially with tonemapping, but it doesn't say anything useful.
    I will definitely look into that, thank you.
    I forgot about it completely... This is a great reminder, and this style works with bold condensed fonts. However I'm worried about it being specialized for dark fonts. Unity is problematic when font sharpness is required and my early experiments showed some white bleeding onto black letters giving them untidy, dirty gray look.
    It's too exaggerated, yes. I used it mostly to make white text whiter, as it was grayed out due to scaling. Perhaps I should use it selectively. Differentiation between active and inactive buttons is a possible use.
    I agree. I aped EVE Online's contact list layout for the prototype and it seems that icons cannot be replaced with letters without loss of clarity. Icons + tooltips will spare me from necessity to stuff a tiny UI element with dozens of characters.
    Those are supposed to indicate interactivity, "important decision buttons". I don't want to make my UI to share an annoying feature of light, text-centered interfaces, where there is no way to say if a line of text or picture is interactive, until you click on it.
    Toggles, yes. Primary/secondary weapon. Another limitation to force choice onto player. And a little nod to classic NES controller design.
     
  5. Gigiwoo

    Gigiwoo

    Joined:
    Mar 16, 2011
    Posts:
    2,981
    Happy Holidays to all. See you next year!
    Gigi
     
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