MessyAcademy
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New GUI preview: Textbox elements!
🕑 Added 2022-02-16 19:47:44 +0000 UTCToday I'd like to share a early look at our finalized gui coming to the game later this year! ^^
This only covers the textbox elements for now, but we'll have other previews in the near future for other ui elements/screens. So let's jump right into what we're looking at and try to explain it!
(image 1): This gives us our overview look at the textbox ui, the new features and how buttons look, along with the portrait window area showcasing Miki as if she's in the middle of talking during the scene. Naturally within config settings you'll be able to change how transparent the textbox layers are in case you find it's too solid by default. We also included on the very right top corner a X button which will hide the whole textbox ui until you tap/click on the button again to pull it on screen again with ease! When pressing buttons, they'll become blue colored to reflect if say "auto" is turned on.
(image 2): Taking the same as the first image, this is just showcasing how the ui would look by default during a cg scene moment. We're unsure how the portraits would play into all of this yet, but this gives a rough idea on the overall visual look of the gui and how well it blends along with the sprite, cg, bg art visuals as a whole!
(image 3): Same as the 2nd image, but now we can see how things would look without the portrait being used. We're unsure yet how to handle the portrait fully, so feedback on visuals is always welcomed! ^^
(image 4): This preview gives us a taste of how the hide textbox feature would look in action! Once you've tapped/clicked the X button, it'd turn into a check mark and this is the only little bit of ui element displayed left during cg scene moments or whenever you feel the need to hide the textbox in fitting moments of the game.
(image 5): Here we have another scene, featuring Nova and Allie for difference. Ignore the "Miki" name seen as it'd reflect who is talking or monologue instead. We can see what things would look like with Nova in the portrait while possibly talking.
(image 6): Similar to image 5, but this is what we envision things would look like if we were to display Brandon's portrait mainly through the game, displaying his reactions to the moments during the game and while talking.
Our main concern right now is just how we'd want to handle the portrait section of the ui. We did a poll and some discussion months back on this very topic, which I believe many of you thought it would be better to display Brandon's reactions if anything. There's some natural visual concerns we have about doing stuff with the portrait in any fashion. <.<
One concern is that if we make use of the portrait to show only Brandon's reactions is that it might look odd visually when we have Miki, Erika or others talking and showing their name next to his portrait. It might become too distracting?
The other concern is similar, but if we were to show Miki in the portrait window while she's talking, then it flips to Erika right after, followed by Brandon and back to Miki, etc. While they're talking during a scene, it might become a bit too visually distracting in it's own right as well.. >.>
What we could probably do, is have a config setting to hide the portrait in general from being used for those who don't want to play with it displayed. The only problem to solve from there would be for those who do like the portrait, what kind of setup we should go with from above that'd feel visually good.
(Of course a little video demo of a conversation in action would greatly help decide, but just imagine Miki's portrait changing to Erika, then Brandon, then Miki and Erika again within about 30-40 seconds time depending on reading speed.)
We'd love to hear everyone's feedback on how the new gui elements are looking, as we can still make adjustments or additions! Feel free to mention your thoughts on discord or in the comments here, we really want to make sure we nail this ui as being very professionally clean, polished and well made! ^^
Artist Credits: ds-sans
Comments
Gopher
I would suggest at least having the option available if it isn't too much trouble.
Gopher
In that case it would be quite useful especially for people who have trouble keeping track of who's talking in certain scenes when the narrator switches quite consistently.
^^" I might've not explained it correctly, but mainly the portraits are as they're seen in the example previews, nothing more fancy about them or custom extra work being done to make new stuff. Simply for the first image preview, it shows Miki's sprite/expression that's seen on her full sprite on screen within that moment and then when Miki talks again, it'd show her portrait pop up again (instead of Erika or Brandon) With a new expression that matches what's also on screen. It's taking the existing sprites and displaying them down in that corner, no extra expenses or work needed. (Besides engine coding) With that in mind, I have heard mentions before with this knowledge being along the lines of "Well if Miki's portrait expression is the same exact expression as what's seen on screen in full already, what's the point?" Which I can also agree with to a degree. I will admit this exact thing has been done with many other visual novels as well, but I guess the real use of it to the player is that it's just a nice visual addition to be more visual with who is speaking during the game. (Of course it'd say "Miki" or "Erika" above the text when they're talking, but with the added visual of that little portrait area, it's well.. A bit more in your face visually and less need to move your eyes to above the main text being spoken.) It's really something where it could go off in many directions and different personal preferences, but I'm hoping to mainly figure out if it'd feel better to have Brandon's sprite/expressions used in that area 100% of the time to reflect his reactions during the game or if that portrait area should cover all characters, Brandon included for when character's are speaking. (Maybe monologue displaying Brandon as well.) Even if there's some who won't like portraits in either case above, we'll have a toggle setting in the config to turn that part of the gui on/off. So it's more so just figuring out what fans think would be the best method for going about portraits if enabled. :P
Gopher
Also I'm looking at it from an expense standpoint it would be really expensive to go that route as well with the Patreon you would be able to keep going awhile but expenses can add up, potentially drying up the Patreon money before you get all the work done so you would also have to be very careful how much detail you put into the portraits.
Gopher
Are there portraits planned for every character of you end up going that route? That would be the biggest factor I can think of I don't think they are a bad idea but if you don't intend to do it for every character it would be weird to look at. If not personally I would just leave the portraits out altogether.
Thank you! ^^ Yeah, it's been something requested for quite some time now. We're very happy to get that feature/ui element added in the near future! I imagine we can easily set it up in the config settings to toggle on/off the portrait for those who want it hidden while playing and easily pop it back on at any time without issue. We'll hopefully have a little preview video to display how a conversation moment among 3 characters would look with their portraits pretty soon enough to give a better idea for how distracting it could look for some. One thing we took down in our notes months ago on the topic was that there were some who weren't a fan of displaying character's portrait if it's just going to be the same expression as their full sprite on screen. (Instead many thought it would be better to only display Brandon's expressions/reactions since we're in his pov for most of the game, gives more life to the character but I can see it being a issue for some too. But the toggle should help for that. ^^ ) Just have to figure if displaying all characters portraits vs only Brandon's would be the best option. (A toggle option for something like that would probably be more difficult.) Thank you! <3 ds-san is really impressing me so far, my first thoughts was that just looking at these previews so far. It really feels better suited than how the ui currently pairs up with visuals in-game right now.
I love the use of the hide window!! I was kinda disappointed in older versions that it wasn't there already. How hard would it be to make the portrait toggleable like the text box? Also I like the idea of Brandon's thoughts showing on his face. :3 maybe only when he's thinking have his pop up, and or speaking. I don't think I'd mind the switching so much but I can see how some could find it distracting. Edit# Side note I love this new style.
