Need some advice for my game interface design

Monkey Archive Forums/Monkey Discussion/Need some advice for my game interface design

Rushino(Posted 2012) [#1]
Hello,

I am now at the beginning of starting the client of my game, however i need guidance about the interface design.

1- Which resolution should i use in my game or how would you handle the resolution in this scenario.

- Game will target : HTML 5, Android and Windows Desktop.
- Game playable entities are 32x32 on a grid based game.
- The GUI is small but fit for Android (fingers) so buttons are rather large.
- The game is intented to be used on a tablet mostly. I can't target small screens dues to the nature of the game which force you to see a big part of the battlefield in order to have a decent experience.

2- Also, should the GUI be custom like writting my own ? or should i use something already available there such JungleGUI, etc.

Personnally the only controls i would need are mostly.. (but additions are welcome)! But i believe there nothing easy to do regarding this since i never programmed any GUI before.

- Textbox
- Passwordbox
- Scrollbox
- Dropdown
- Buttons
- Labels

Thanks !


therevills(Posted 2012) [#2]
1. Because you are targeting tablets I would say target a resolution of at least 1024x768. Also, your 32x32 fits nicely with 1024x768.

But I would design the GUI per target, eg large buttons on a tablet and small (mouse clickable) buttons on the desktop.

2. Its up to you, do you need a feature full GUI or can you do it yourself with simple widgets?


Supertino(Posted 2012) [#3]
I tend to develop for my apps to run at 1024x576 (16:9) and then scale them (druggedbunnies : autofit) to what ever device, looks good on a 7" tablet (Nexus) and my 3.7" HTC Desire. I found buttons 100x100px a nice size for both tablet and phone.


Rushino(Posted 2012) [#4]
1. Nice infos guys. Good idea to design the GUI per target but HTML5 and Windows Desktop are almost the same i think they can have the same GUI. For android a custom one isn't a bad idea.

Ive heard about the 1024x576 (16:9) resolution and it seem actually nice. Sure you lost some space at the bottom.. but it is more portable and fit nicely a 16:9 ratio.

2. Well i think simple widgets are the best here. I don't even need to be able to move them. But that require me to code them and i dunno how hard this can be. I want my game to be optimal and i am afraid that right now using JungleIDE isn't a good idea speed wise.

Thanks!


Rone(Posted 2012) [#5]

2. Well i think simple widgets are the best here. I don't even need to be able to move them. But that require me to code them and i dunno how hard this can be. I want my game to be optimal and i am afraid that right now using JungleIDE isn't a good idea speed wise.


Note that a custom GUI will propably not run faster than junglegui, at least in html5 if mojo is used...


Rushino(Posted 2012) [#6]
Well. To be honest i want to use JungleGUI. But can you actually change the color of the GUI yet ? and make the textbox bigger ? Speed doesn't seem to be an issue anymore i tested on various targets.. i just have to keep things simple for now. Like one windows at a time, etc.


Gerry Quinn(Posted 2012) [#7]
They can be very simple. A button for example can be just a rectangle with a text string or graphic. You call Button.IsHit:Bool( mousePos ) for each button when a MouseHit is recorded in OnUpdate(). You call Button.Draw:Void() for each button in OnRender(). Anything else is gravy, and you can extend your button class easily to do more sophisticated things, like change the graphics for half a second after it is hit, move it, disable it etc.

My picpuzzle example in bananas has buttons that aren't even as complicated as that!

Simple GUIs are not hard when you have an OO language. GUIs can be made elaborate and flexible, but a game can usually get by with much less.


Rushino(Posted 2012) [#8]
Yeah i see what you mean. Ive looked at Challenger GUI 3 and its pretty decent. Really fast too. Doesn't seem to have been built with OO in mind through but still interesting since it fit in one file only.


ziggy(Posted 2012) [#9]
You can customize colors on junglegui.