GUI design

User:Gaspard: There's more than one thread at the Forums now that deals with the PARPG GUI. So let us try and summarize things here.


 * The one dealing with the Inventory/Barter GUI:
 * And the general GUI design and "feel" thread here:

What's a GUI ?
A GUI, short for Graphical User Interface, is (in the case of PARPG and other computer games) a type of user interface which allows the players to interact with the game world. A GUI offers graphical icons, and visual indicators, as opposed to text-based interfaces, typed command labels or text navigation to fully represent the information and actions available to the player.

Just the important points to keep in mind when designing the GUI for PARPG

 * it should be kept simple - this has been pointed out at the Forums
 * avoid cluttering
 * it should not distract from the actual gameplay
 * optimally it should ADD to the actual gameplay by reinforcing the general "feel" of the game

What should be featured in the 'general' GUI
If someone has a more correct or a better name for it then please do point it out to me. By general GUI I mean the one that you see all the time while walking/fighting/interacting with NPCs and the game world

indicator types: (I consider the following sort must-haves with the importance level in <> brackets; all this of course depending on whether some of the features will be used in the game at all)
 * health bar - placement such, that you have an overview of how your character is doing
 * ammo left/max; for a melee weapon/melee the indicator would be blank or display a dash or n/a
 * action points < their use not yet decided in the mechanics forum
 * armor class ? - if it varies with how many action points you have left at the end of a turn (like Fallout, as I remember), then it might need a place on the GUI to provide for a more tactical approach, otherwise I wouldn't care for that, you can always look it up on the Char screen/Inventory
 * moneybag - could also act as a button to the Inventory 
 * thermometer - shows the cold level or character cold protection/resistance vs cold ratio
 * information screen - gives you the feedback about your skill uses and combat and maybe item and environment descriptions.

various clickables:
 * skills (stealth, lockpick, steal, first aid, traps) - I usually use shortcuts for these (1;2;3;.. of F1;F2;F3.. etc) so I do not see a good reason why it should clutter the general interface, the shortcuts could be edited in the Options menu
 * Inventory / Inventory button
 * Inventory quickslots (in Arcanum there were the general quickslots that had certain keys assigned to them (1;2;3... to be exact) and you could place either an item or a skill into the quickslot (I also used it to save Inventory space by placing huge items into quickslots that were not in use, in Arcanum every single item would disappear from the Inventory itself in that case)) 
 * Map - marginal importance to actually feature a separate button, depends how useful the map in the game is in general (in fallout games I never used it, in fallout 3 a bit more) ? TAB is the common shortcut
 * Character Screen button
 * the Options menu - also it's usually the same as pressing ESC or in some cases F1. So minimal in size and marginal in placement.
 * the Diary/Notebook/Goal List interface - this one I'd merge with the Map interface. It would all come up with a punch at TAB and then there would be pages like one for area/world maps, one for goals/quests, one for rumors/notes, one for maybe stats for your kills and karma

What GUI designs other games have used
The first links were provided by User:Lamoot at the Forums, feel free to add your own with comments

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/12/Hearts_of_Iron_Screenshot.jpg
 * Hearts of iron:

http://static.filefront.com/images/glooeisuip.jpg http://www.dailyraider.com/vg/pc/hoi2/56.jpg
 * Hearts of iron 2:

http://www.sg.hu/kep/2001_10/commandos2_bemutato_02.jpg <<< worth a look
 * Commandos 2:

http://www.battleclinic.com/images/battlepix/03c5ba3a169841da5222af0ddbb87d67.png http://images.bit-tech.net/content_images/2007/09/world_in_conflict/b069.jpg
 * World in Conflict:

http://www.deafgamers.com/earth2150lostsouls5.jpg http://www.deafgamers.com/earth2150lostsouls6.jpg http://www.deafgamers.com/earth2150lostsouls4.jpg http://www.deafgamers.com/earth2150lostsouls1.jpg
 * Earth 2150:

http://images.bit-tech.net/content_images/2008/03/warhammer_40k_dawn_of_war_soulstorm/b37.jpg
 * Dawn of War:

http://marksman-gaming.info/media/images/reviews/ss1/review_ss1_003.jpg
 * Sudden Strike:

http://pcmedia.ign.com/pc/image/article/957/957886/codename-panzers-cold-war-20090227075500619.jpg
 * Codename Panzers:

http://www.phantasia.nl/blitzkrieg/images/screenshots/Mission_interface.gif
 * Blitzkrieg

http://www.talvisota.net/screens/shot0016.jpg
 * Talvisota: Icy Hell (note to self: very cool reference screenshots)

http://www.talvisota.net/screens/shot0093.jpg

http://www.talvisota.net/screens/train_guns.jpg

http://www.talvisota.net/screens/shot0102.jpg

http://img.gamespot.com/gamespot/images/2005/131/920457_20050512_screen005.jpg
 * Cuban missile crisis:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/01/Hammer_n_Sickle_game.JPG
 * Hammer&Sickle