07/18/2024: UI and Game Information

I'm back! Had to settle back in from Paris so work slowed down. But in the meantime I got more feedback from Castle Fractal, and so that led to me doing a lot of UI work.

I've been trying to avoid spending too much time on this, focusing on mainly getting a functional game, but I've been learning more and more that visuals DO matter for a game, not just for looking nice, but for conveying information.

• In the top center of the screen is the Score. By defeating enemies, you'll earn points; your goal is to aim for a high score.
  • Each enemy has a point value based on its likelihood at appearing, ranging from 100-300.
  • Defeating Bosses raises a hidden Score Multiplier, increasing how many points you earn through play. It felt weird not having Bosses give points at first, but you can think of any points from the Score Multiplier (as well as your Rank Up I talked about last time) as belonging to the Boss.
  • Additionally, you gain a Time Bonus for defeating enemies quickly. I used values from playtesting to determine how fast you need to be to earn the Time Bonus, and the bonus scales with the number of enemies in the room. This is here to prevent dillydallying, and to make Ranking Up Might Points valuable (remember, more Might Points-->More Power)

• On the left and right of the score are the Floor Number and Time. The former is just kinda nice to know, but also tells the player when a Boss is coming up, while the latter helps pace the player for a Time Bonus.
• Above the Might Points Meter is the Inventory Shoulder, showing where your current weapon is in the inventory. When you select a weapon, the Weapon Attributes and Abilities will appear above the player for a few seconds. Together, these make it easier to know what weapon you're switching to without constantly opening the inventory. These ideas are solutions to a problem that a playtester had when engaging with Weapon Strategy; they found it tedious to constantly check the inventory menu when trying to switch weapons and check what abilities they had.
  • This required me to adjust the Sheathe Penalty on Weapons--when you change weapons, the weapon you put away will lose Signature Charge. This is done to prevent players from storing a bunch of Signature Moves and instantly defeating Bosses in three seconds. Initially, it was 20% of current Signature Charge, with the "All Or Nothing D" and "All Or Nothing S" Weapon Abilities--which I didn't playtest in Combat Prototype 02--adding an additional 30% and 50% penalty, respectively. I reduced the All Or Nothing Sheathe Penalties to 25% and 30%, respectively.

Next time: Main Menus & Action Remapping.