Art Request. Game Menu Hud

[sparhawk]

So I was playing aorudn with the SDK this night and so far I had no success. But I think I figured out how to replace the original Doom 3 screen with our own, so if you guys could create a nice main menu screen, I would try to create a single player mod structure where we will put our mod in.

 

Anybody up to the task?

[Renzatic]

I was thinking about this while I was waiting on my pizza earlier tonight. I can't draw it, but I can throw about a few good ideas and do some mockup work.

[Springheel]

Yeah, I was trying to get the guy on TTLG who did the retro menu for T3, but apparently he's not availabe at the moment. Menus aren't really my forte, but I could try and lay down some rough sketches to get people's ideas turning.

[Renzatic]

I've been thinking about a cool way to implement the Fanmission selection menu over the last few. I got this idea when I was swinging around in my chair watching TV...I glanced over at the bookshelf and saw a collection of Sherlock Holmes short stories which got a few gears turning...

 

In a way fanmissions are alot like short stories, I thought, so I thought it'd be cool if we presented them as such ingame. Instead of having a big thrown together list of installed FM's display on some impersonal unstylized menu like UT maps, we could present them as chapters in a collection of short stories.

 

And this is what I came up with...

 

 

It wouldn't be that hard to implement either, in some ways it'd be similar to the way books are read ingame. Just have the installed FM's display down the list in alphabetical order and you're set.

Edited October 17, 2004 by Renzatic

[New Horizon]

Hmmm, I like that idea. Would you be suggesting that the entire Game Menu be a book and when you hit load game the book opens to reveal the available FM's? That would be very cool and original. Not to mention the book opening effect could be reused in game.

[Renzatic]

Dunno if it'd work for the entire hud, but it'd be worth experimenting with to see how it goes.

 

I think the book idea would go best for loading fanmissions and savegames, and the rest of the hud would be more akin to oldschool Thief. The hard part would be incorporating the two so they don't seem seperate from each other.

[Springheel]

We should probably try to keep some kind of consistency among the menus in terms of theme. These are the possible themes I could think of:

 

Book/parchment theme: The main menu could look like the index of a book with sub menus looking like separate chapters. Cool because we could replicate the art style of the T1/2 mission intros. Unfortunately this style gets overused a lot in fantasy games.

 

Steampunk machinery theme: Similar to T1/2. Cool because it sets the style of the game right away, plus you get to have nifty sound effects. May be difficult to avoid somthing too similar to T1/2, however.

 

City theme: Similar to T3, with sub-menus showcasing different city locations. Cool because it sets a tone and even gives glimpses into the Dark Mod world that would be consistant regardless of what FM you were playing.

 

Main Character theme: Main menu focuses on picture of our Thief in action. Cool because it showcases our protagonist.

 

Mixtures of these are probably possible, but we shouldn't have one theme for the main menu and a separate one for the submenus, unless it somehow makes sense to do so (a lame example is if the main menu has the city theme and clicking a library brings up the list of FM, then using a book theme for that menu might work).

 

I'm partial to either #2 or a combo of #3 and 4. I'd rather save the parchment theme for intros to each FM, personally.

 

 

We should also decide on what submenus we will need. What springs to mind for me is:

 

Start New Mission

Load/Save Game

Options (Controls/Audio/Visual/Gamplay)

Continue

Quit

 

I'll do some rough layout sketches tomorrow.

Edited October 17, 2004 by Springheel

[Renzatic]

If we were really ambitious we could do a nice 3D hud showing our Thief getting ready for a long nights work. Since Doom 3's frontend is already 3D it wouldn't be much of a problem to implement, but it could take awhile to do right.

 

Like you'd have the options lining the left side of the screen and you'd start out in the center of your apartment/hideout. Clicking start would have you walking automatically (and in first person) to the door, opening it, and pushing out into the black space beyond. Going to options, which would be where you set your controls, video options and other miscellany, would have you walk over to a workbench where the thief polishes and tweaks all his tools. Loading a game or selecting an FM would take you to a bookshelf where it'd bring up the book...similar to how we'd do it ingame.

 

Like I said it's ambitious, but it could be pulled off with a little work. I could do the map fairly easily, but we'd need someone to help with the programming.

[Fingernail]

Someone would need to figure out the GUI scripting language (it's a little like HTML crossed with C++).

 

But I love the book pages idea.

[sparhawk]

And this is what I came up with...

I rellay love it. Looks great! the only thing that I would like to have is also to display the size of the FM, and wether I already finished it (like in DarkLoader). We also will need some description to be displayed. The name alone is not of much help if you have 400 missions to select from. And I hope that, over time, we will get as much for our mod as for T1/T2.

[sparhawk]

Hmmm, I like that idea. Would you be suggesting that the entire Game Menu be a book and when you hit load game the book opens to reveal the available FM's? That would be very cool and original. Not to mention the book opening effect could be reused in game.

BUt we still need a title screen. Or does the user always have to go through the list? I think the title screen should show the last installed FM and allow to load it directly. Like it was in the original games.

[Fingernail]

The name could change colour if you completed it, or a little icon could be shown.

[sparhawk]

Someone would need to figure out the GUI scripting language (it's a little like HTML crossed with C++).

 

But I love the book pages idea.

I looked a little bit into that for the book HUD. When I downloaded the cdoom mod, they already have this main title, so it shouldn't be to hard figuring out how it wokrs based on that mod. Of course they only have changed the title screen and still have the same buttons is in original D3. I hope we can change these as well. But having a title screen is arelady a nice start to identify with our mod and it will already set the file structure.

 

I was trying to implement Springheels gallery as a starting point, yesterday, when I was playing aorund with the SDK.

Edited October 17, 2004 by sparhawk

[sparhawk]

The name could change colour if you completed it, or a little icon could be shown.

But you still need a button or something the user can press to indicate that he finished it. You can not base this on objectives alone, because I sometimes leave an FM unchecked when I want to play it again, to remind me that I want to take a look at it later.

 

Ah! And that reminds that I also would like to have some kind of rating included. This way it is easier to keep track of which FMs I liked and which not because some of them I wanted to play again. With Darkloader the only choice you have is to copy them in a seperate directory manually.

[Renzatic]

I rellay love it. Looks great! the only thing that I would like to have is also to display the size of the FM, and wether I already finished it (like in DarkLoader). We also will need some description to be displayed. The name alone is not of much help if you have 400 missions to select from. And I hope that, over time, we will get as much for our mod as for T1/T2.

I'm still working on it, but when I'm finished I intend for the mission descriptions and table of contents to be seperate. For the actual mission pages the left side will be dedicated to all the info and stats about the FM, the right side will be a couple of screenshots and the launch mission button.

 

I want to use Springheel's logo along the top (which I think should be the official title font), but I couldn't get rid of the glow and keep it from looking like total ass. So in the meantime I'm using that font as a placeholder. So Spring...think you can whip up a plain version for me to use?

[sparhawk]

I'm still working on it, but when I'm finished I intend for the mission descriptions and table of contents to be seperate.

That's fine. But still, at least the size and "Finished" status should be along with the title. Otheriwse you will have to click on each entry to see it.

[Renzatic]

I'll go with Fingernail's idea for the icon and see how that looks.

[BlackThief]

I love the book idea

 

Ah! And that reminds that I also would like to have some kind of rating included. This way it is easier to keep track of which FMs I liked and which not because some of them I wanted to play again. With Darkloader the only choice you have is to copy them in a seperate directory manually.

 

That would be really easy to add. Maybe we can make it like that:

 

If you haven't played the mission yet, then there would be no rating.

Edited October 17, 2004 by BlackThief

[Renzatic]

 

Something like this?

Edited October 17, 2004 by Renzatic

[sparhawk]

Something like this?

Yes. Looks really cool.

 

Now the only thing missing is the size of the FM. Like 20MB, 900KB and such.

[Springheel]

Like you'd have the options lining the left side of the screen and you'd start out in the center of your apartment/hideout. Clicking start would have you walking automatically (and in first person) to the door, opening it, and pushing out into the black space beyond. Going to options, which would be where you set your controls, video options and other miscellany, would have you walk over to a workbench where the thief polishes and tweaks all his tools. Loading a game or selecting an FM would take you to a bookshelf where it'd bring up the book...similar to how we'd do it ingame.

 

This has some appeal to me, but I wonder if it wouldn't get old after a while. Any animations would have to be very quick.

 

 

So should I be bothering to come up with concepts that don't use the book theme? Or does everyone want to go with that?

Edited October 17, 2004 by Springheel

[New Horizon]

Yes, I really love the book idea. I'm not sure we should display the Thief in action since we're a first person perspective game. It may lead the player on a bit in that respect. We do have that lovely Thief model... , but we'll get to see it on other Thieves thank goodness.

[Springheel]

What about a compromise? We show in-game art, but make it look like it's a book illustration. Something like this:

 

 

(swiped one of your thief pics for the example, oDDity, hope you don't mind)

[sparhawk]

What about a compromise? We show in-game art, but make it look like it's a book illustration. Something like this:

 

(swiped one of your thief pics for the example, oDDity, hope you don't mind)

Looks great! Will the colours stay this way or do we go for a darker theme? Something like the banner?

[Springheel]

Well, if it's parchment we should stay with a sepia tone, but we can always increase the contrast. I don't know if everyone is determined to go with a parchment theme or not, but that seems to be the consensus of the people posting.

 

I'd be open to other ideas, but like I said earlier, we have to be in agreement so that the various menus go together.

 

(I actually had envisioned something like a glowing clock face surrounded by machinery, with the menu options in the center of the face).

 

Maybe I'll do a couple very quick mock-ups of other theme possibilities.

Edited October 17, 2004 by Springheel