2D Graphics

[action9000]

2D graphics:
To anyone who has played the game so far, the menus are pretty ugly, there is no interface to speak of in the game, no real eye candy at all! We need people who are willing to fix that problem!

I'm posting up pictures of our current game, pointing out what will need to be replaced with nicer graphics:

First of all, the Main Menu:


The Host Game / Character Select screen:


Join Game screen:




The main game world will need quite a few graphics later on but I'm still working out the details on that.  Here's what I know so far:

[Mumbling]

Moving the text box is a good idea, to me .

Though.. I don't think I'm a good person to do this.

Edit: What about the 'loading graphic' screen?

[SolarThreehorn]

Just an idea i think...
Swap the map/compass and chat around,  :huh: might be better but It is up to you

[action9000]

Edit: What about the 'loading graphic' screen?

I was going to mention that in text but I totally forgot because *somebody* was rushing me!  

Ya, we will need a new loading screen, too.  Thanks for the reminder.

Swap the map/compass and chat around,  might be better but It is up to you 

I'll think about it.  I'm just so used to having a game like this laid out as I show in the picture that changing it much would feel weird to me.

[Mumbling]

Edit: What about the 'loading graphic' screen?

I was going to mention that in text but I totally forgot because *somebody* was rushing me!  

Ya, we will need a new loading screen, too.  Thanks for the reminder.

Swap the map/compass and chat around, might be better but It is up to you

I'll think about it.  I'm just so used to having a game like this laid out as I show in the picture that changing it much would feel weird to me.

Ah I'm sorry  :unsure:

To me the compass looks on the right place

[action9000]

Ah I'm sorry  

LOL, 's okey.

To me the compass looks on the right place

I agree, I think it seems pretty 'natural' where it is.

[Sky]

Those are screens at their original size, right?
Is this an all-in-one picture or are the "Back", "Start", etc. an own picture?

[action9000]

Those are screens at their original size, right?
Is this an all-in-one picture or are the "Back", "Start", etc. an own picture?

The background is one image:
The Main Menu text is another image
Start is another image
back is another image
etc.

We don't have to do it that way but the more seperate we have the images, the more customization we have when/if we want to change things.

As for the size, no.  The original size of the images are in the zip file of the game itself.  

However, we must consider the fact that players will not all be running the game at the same screen resolution.  The size of the images needs to scale to fit the screen.  My program will handle this, so no worries.

Basically, I need images as big as you can get them to me.  The game supports resolutions as high as 1920x1080 (1080p) right now (we can go even higher if we really want but it requires dual DVI or multiple video cards to effectively go any higher in widescreen, so I limited the game to 1920x1080).

Basically, if the background images are 1920x1080 and the other images to whatever scale you want them to be to make it look pretty, my program can scale them as needed to fit any resolution.

[Sky]

Alright.
I'll go to work then. ^^

[action9000]

Alright.
I'll go to work then. ^^

Awesome!

No rush at all, by the way!  I have basically an infinite number of things I could be doing before I need graphics.  It just needs to happen eventually so I thought we could get a head start on it. B)

By the way, Sky:
The graphics I have for the menus are just ideas.  If you have a clever idea for a menu layout, please feel free to get creative!  My menus are about as basic as I could get, for testing purposes.  You don't have to make the menu layout anything like what I have above.  I just needed *something* to test the game with.

[Sky]

Ok. I will take my time then.  :
Maybe I can come up with a cool layout. Hmm...

[action9000]

Ok. I will take my time then.

If I'm done programming the rest of the game before you're done the menus, I'm going to tell you to hurry up though!
fair warning!  

[Kor]

I guess you'd both have to work more hand in hand then.

[Sky]

I'm working on it.
How's this for the loading screen and the main menu:



The characters in the loading screen could be the playable dinosaurs or the gang.
And on the 2nd pic, instead of "Main Menu", it could be the title of the game and the spot above "Host Game" could be a welcome sign.
Though, it won't be that customizable, but still possible.

Still don't know how the other menus should look like. Hmm..

[Kor]

Those look very nice.

[Sky]

Here is another idea I just came up:
If you use many different loading screens, maybe we could use pictures as instructions.
Like "Press Spacebar to jump from a spot to another" and a picture of a dinosaur doing so appears.

[Mumbling]

Very nice ideas sky. It really looks nice! wow  :^.^:

About the loading screen tips/help thing it's a good idea too. They do that in more games

[Coyote_A]

"Character Selection Screen" can looks like a large field, somewhere in a Valley, where all previosly created characters are standing and waiting to be chosen.
And while creating the character, the player, for example, can see the results of his customization like a reflection in the water, of the character, he's creating.

[Sky]

Yo, finished the lineart with base color:



The final pic might be finished tomorrow.

[Kor]

It looks very nice.