This week we will talk about the Graphic User Interface (GUI), namely about the graphics that players will have mainly to deal, about its evolutions and some of its characteristics.
In wider terms, for creating the GUI we are using a system that could result pleasing (to the eye), but always considering that “beauty and functionality” must be the two spirits whose GUI has to consist of.
Because of our pop and cultural references for the game realization, and with the post-apocalyptic setting of “Redemption – The Third Era” world that has a deviant technology if compared to contemporary historical course, we decided to think in these terms for the design and realization of our GUI.
Basically, the game graphics mean to do a representation, even if partial, of our Setting. Also for this reason the various game screenshots are a representation of some parts of it, such as the racial cities. Our goal is to allow the player to breathe the Setting through the common use of the graphical interface.
The frame and the backdrop, the latter consisting both of bricks and of various racial representations, are the basic scheme in which we decided to move for creating our GUI. While keeping the style set on these specifications, however we decided to give a more complex variety to the game trying to change the furnishings depending on the functional needs and making them instantly recognizable according to the scope.
The motion is one of the main aspects we focused on, because it’s the means needed for the graphical interface to achieve credibility. However, we soon realized how the continuous movement can, in the long run, become boring for the players, especially if the same animation is repeated too many times. This led us to show the scenes comprehensive of movement only in the first time they are called for each rendering. In further uses these scenes are shown in their final version, thus avoiding excessive redundancies. On the other hand, other movements are necessary to space out the various aspects of the game, such as the overall view of a group of cards and the view of a single of these cards. Also these animations are thought to have a graphic impact resulting at once both pleasant and fast. The existing structures were instead designed to be adherent to the art of the possible: each structure is something that has been obtained by recovering waste material. The necessary parts were then subtracted or added to the main structure in order to achieve the desired effects.