Pak & Spring's Thread

[Springheel]

Here's another version of the thief that might work. Pose is a little stiff, but it's not that noticable.

 

 

There's also the prerender of the mage Odd posted. We may not have that model specifically, but we'll certainly have something similar (it's pretty generic) just like the thief. What do you think about using it?

[pakmannen]

The mage as in his avatar? If so, yeah, I liked it.

The other thief pose looks good as well.

 

Also, I dont want the images to change that often. Every 30-45-60s or something like that would be fine. Then you wouldn't get much repitition even if we only have say 10 images.

[Springheel]

Ok, I'll add the mage as well. That gives us at least seven. Why don't we leave it at that for now? We can always look for more things to add in as time goes on. Dram or BT might be able to make new prerendered figures for us in the future.

 

edit: btw, are we supposed to be getting the *menus* done by the May 31st deadline, or just the startup loading screen?

[sparhawk]

I would say, the startup screen, loading, and the first menupage. Also with the animations. IMO that should be managable, depending on how long the animations will take.

[Springheel]

Here's the updated psd file with the thief and the mage:

 

menu.rar

[Springheel]

Pak, here's my take on the settings menu screen. It has a scrolling area layed out (I don't quite like the arrows yet, but I'll play around with the flourishes some more). Each header under the main title takes you to a different menu (audio, etc). The one you have currently selected is underlined (and should probably be highlighted as well?) You can get back to the main menu from the bottom.

 

I'll contine to do the rest so we know what the layout should look like. We can always tweak the fine details later.

 

[pakmannen]

I'd like to get some cooler looking font in as well, something handwritten, but I know it IS slightly harder to read that stuff. Personally I don't suffer from this, and I have always thought old handwritten letters most enjoyable to read.

 

If you've played Benoit Sokal's games (Amerzone, Syberia 1 & 2) you've seen games who are not afraid of using unreadable but stylish fonts, heh..

 

I've got a few ones I'll post later

[Springheel]

There are some cool fonts out there, but I thought we wanted to use the classic Thief ones for nostalgia's sake.

 

Carelton = Thief to me when I see it, and since the rest of our menu is so unique, I personally prefer sticking with the font as a way to tie them together. Maybe an extra-cool font will change my mind though.

[pakmannen]

I like Carleton too. As you said, it IS Thief. I don't think it fits the parchment theme as well as it fitted the Thief games mechanical theme though.

 

Thief used J.D for parchments, and it's nice, but a little too cute for my taste

[Springheel]

I've tried with a few handwriting fonts, but nothing that I like yet. In the meantime, I'll keep working on the other menus.

 

Here's my take on the main menu and the controls menu.

 

 

 

 

If we want to break up the controls menu into sections like they do in D3 it will add a little bit of clutter under the current layout. There's no convenient place to put the various categories.

 

Oh, and that highlighted text should be the same colour, just got lazy trying to match them properly.

[pakmannen]

Is it possible not to break up the controls?

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And on a totally unrelated topic: () Here's a picture with 6 different handwriting fonts:

 

Also had an idea about how not to box stuff in, but still have the scrollarrows. You'll have to excuse the rather weird graphics I used.. was all I could find on my harddrive. (Yet another font is used here)

You get the idea though, have a line in the middle which both separates the columns and holds the arrows.

 

Another thing crossed my mind, now that we have the clock model Odd made (at least I think we have) maybe put it behind the title, ticking? (Otherwise a still image?) I haven't checked how this looks, so it might be crap.

[Springheel]

I'm not crazy about the fonts, honestly. I tried a bunch of handwriting fonts too, and they either didn't capture the right feel or they were too difficult to read.

 

Trying to fit all the controls onto one page is going to get quite busy--you'll need at least three scrollbars and separate 'boxes'. Plus, you haven't really left any room for other navigational buttons, like getting back to the main menu or to other Setting options.

 

Having the scrollbar in the middle is interesting. I'll have to mull that one over.

[pakmannen]

Oh, those weren't "real" concepts. I just copied the text to show off more fonts.. (I hope you didn't think that was how I intended it to look!)

 

As for having all controls on one page, that was in response to your comment about the submenus getting crowded. If we want to have all the commands on one page we should mend the list, not have three different ones on the same page. That would be stupid. I only wanted to know if it's even possible.

 

I'm not too fond of those fonts either, the best one is, in my opinion, the one featured on the last image and which the title ("Settings") is written with.

 

Edit - I edited my previous post (the one with the images) for clarity

[Springheel]

Oh, those weren't "real" concepts. I just copied the text to show off more fonts.. (I hope you didn't think that was how I intended it to look!)

 

I whipped off that response pretty quickly, but afterwards I realized you're a little better at layout than that!

 

What did you have in mind for the controls then, just one long list? That's much easier, but a little harder to navigate for the user. After living with the control version I did and moving things around slightly, I don't think it's that bad--busier than the rest of the pages, but still acceptable, IMO.

[pakmannen]

One long list is how it's usually done (Thief1/2/3 most other games) but I kinda like how Doom 3 did it. It's more clicks, but it's easier to find the keybind you're looking for.

 

I don't have a problem with having a sub-submenu. We don't even know if it's possible to have one long list. When we do we could ask people what they would prefer.

 

Also, I got a great idea for arrow art. The clock handles! Oddity modeled them after an image you can find easily on google. I'm playing around with it now, and I think it could turn out great. One of those handles would also make a great mouse cursor if we ever figure out how to replace it.

[Springheel]

Here's my take on the Load/Save screen. The onscreen options would vary depending on whether you were in the middle of a game or not.

 

[sparhawk]

A delete button is missing.

[Springheel]

Do we need a separate menu button for that? I thought the player could just hit the 'delete' key when the savegame is highlighted. In general, I'm trying to be as minimalist as possible with these menus to avoid clutter.

 

Once we settle on the basic options, I'll try some more variations on the 'flourishes'. Those arrows are starting to bug me (though I tried the clock hands and didn't care for them much). I have two new ideas in mind, one very minimalist and one tied more to the clock theme.

[sparhawk]

Yeah. Delete key might work as well.

 

As for the arrows. The menus look erally great, but somehow they don't look Thiefy. Shouldn't they be more mechanical oriented concerning the theme? This looks more flowery. Don't know how to express it properly.

[pakmannen]

I still think the clock thing is the way to go. I'll post some samples later.

 

Don't we need two screens for load/save? I mean you can both load a game and save a game while playing. I don't get how you're supposed to do that with your screen.

[Springheel]

That's why there's an "Open Game" button and a "Save Game" button. Maybe putting them that close to the bar makes them look like titles rather than buttons?

[pakmannen]

No I got that, but how would you save a game? Normally you type a name into a "save slot" and click save. Now there aren't any save slots, only loading slots..?

[Springheel]

You either click on an empty space in the list to type in a new save (perhaps I should add a line that says, "Empty Slot" or something like that to make it easier to see), or if you hit "Save Game" without selecting a specific slot, it would automatically open a new one.

[sparhawk]

No I got that, but how would you save a game? Normally you type a name into a "save slot" and click save. Now there aren't any save slots, only loading slots..?

 

We can do it as in T1/T2. The mapper defines a gamename and we use that to generate a savename out of it. Letting the player type it in is not so good, but I also don't like limited slots.

[Springheel]

(perhaps I should add a line that says, "Empty Slot" or something like that to make it easier to see),

 

Ok, I've edited the above image.