Hey all, a buddy of mine and I have been working on hero/pvp arena map since August of 11. So far we have most of the core game play added and we're working on polishing up the graphics a bit (also trying to work out this annoying team placement bug grrr). Anyways, this is a UI I have put together for the map, it's still in Alpha stage but I would love some feedback on what I currently have.
I will be the critic, so as to put your mind to work.
IMO, the best thing about a custom UI would be that it could either free up space, or provide better, more organized information in the same space. You have a hint of both going on, which is good; but only a hint. The space saved is chunky, so it doesn't offer much more viewing screen. The dialog backgrounds have no boarders and are also "chunky". Not a smooth look.
Health and Energy are important things in most games. You should double the size of them and maybe fancy them up a bit. It actually took me about 5-6 seconds of searching to find them.
Maybe you should try putting all of your dialogs in a row down the side, rather than across the bottom? It would take away some of the thoughts of "okay, this is the normal UI, but a little different"; without having to change too much.
Map top left, abilities under that; vitals bars under that, running horizontally, inventory under that (bottom left corner) then put a solid background behind the whole thing; or even create a portrait behind it, say a skybox or something; and boarder it off. Try to smoosh them all to the side more; to allow for as much map visibility as possible; but without making it look ugly.
I sure do appreciate the feedback guys. I do agree it does feel a little chunky so I am playing around with different types of layouts for it. The top right corner is a mess and is just there temporarily because we havent triggered a "Tab" key scoreboard and what not. I will approve upon what I have got here and post another picture in the future.
@Snyderguy
I have done so in the new version
@Scorp
Yes I have, the only problem I have had was with the inventory panel, which I am going to completely re-do anyways.
Its merely a .DDS image that I personally customized so that the inventory would appear to be on top of it. It has a cut-out clear background where the inventory is giving the illusion that its built into the actual picture. Yes, it is a regular inventory, and no I did not use any triggers (other than to just create the dialog image)
More important than cool looking custom UI is consistiency. Your current UI practically has none. Every place seems to have a different theme (red/blue at middle, metallic thing on left, pretty blank on right and those dialogs on top right). Everything should try to look same.
Also placement of inventory is very bad. dont leave 50% space to left corner, rather center the invetory to make it look better.
Also mana and health bars look rather small and those statues very big compared to the bars.
I think it needs lots of work. I might even prefer having minimap on top right/left. adding invetory to some button and having just skillbar, hp/mana showing. Its just an idea since it might be hard to get everything (minimap, skills, inventory) look good together....
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Hey all, a buddy of mine and I have been working on hero/pvp arena map since August of 11. So far we have most of the core game play added and we're working on polishing up the graphics a bit (also trying to work out this annoying team placement bug grrr). Anyways, this is a UI I have put together for the map, it's still in Alpha stage but I would love some feedback on what I currently have.
Appreciate the criticism ;)
Pretty good, might wanna put a border on the minimap though,
I will be the critic, so as to put your mind to work.
IMO, the best thing about a custom UI would be that it could either free up space, or provide better, more organized information in the same space. You have a hint of both going on, which is good; but only a hint. The space saved is chunky, so it doesn't offer much more viewing screen. The dialog backgrounds have no boarders and are also "chunky". Not a smooth look.
Health and Energy are important things in most games. You should double the size of them and maybe fancy them up a bit. It actually took me about 5-6 seconds of searching to find them.
Maybe you should try putting all of your dialogs in a row down the side, rather than across the bottom? It would take away some of the thoughts of "okay, this is the normal UI, but a little different"; without having to change too much.
Map top left, abilities under that; vitals bars under that, running horizontally, inventory under that (bottom left corner) then put a solid background behind the whole thing; or even create a portrait behind it, say a skybox or something; and boarder it off. Try to smoosh them all to the side more; to allow for as much map visibility as possible; but without making it look ugly.
Just some ideas, that may inspire better ideas.
Skype: [email protected] Current Project: Custom Hero Arena! US: battlenet:://starcraft/map/1/263274 EU: battlenet:://starcraft/map/2/186418
Get rid of those ugly dialogs in the top right corner. They can look so much better. Also, scale health and mana bars up to at least double size.
Another note; did you test the UI across different resolutions and aspect ratios?
I sure do appreciate the feedback guys. I do agree it does feel a little chunky so I am playing around with different types of layouts for it. The top right corner is a mess and is just there temporarily because we havent triggered a "Tab" key scoreboard and what not. I will approve upon what I have got here and post another picture in the future.
@Snyderguy I have done so in the new version
@Scorp Yes I have, the only problem I have had was with the inventory panel, which I am going to completely re-do anyways.
How did you get the picture behind the inventory ? is it a regular inventory? or did you use triggers to get it there?
@zaysite: Go
Its merely a .DDS image that I personally customized so that the inventory would appear to be on top of it. It has a cut-out clear background where the inventory is giving the illusion that its built into the actual picture. Yes, it is a regular inventory, and no I did not use any triggers (other than to just create the dialog image)
More important than cool looking custom UI is consistiency. Your current UI practically has none. Every place seems to have a different theme (red/blue at middle, metallic thing on left, pretty blank on right and those dialogs on top right). Everything should try to look same.
Also placement of inventory is very bad. dont leave 50% space to left corner, rather center the invetory to make it look better.
Also mana and health bars look rather small and those statues very big compared to the bars.
I think it needs lots of work. I might even prefer having minimap on top right/left. adding invetory to some button and having just skillbar, hp/mana showing. Its just an idea since it might be hard to get everything (minimap, skills, inventory) look good together....