This week I focused on designing and creating UI elements:
Some of these are familiar elements of an RPG interface, like the HP and MP “orb” containers. It’s unlikely that we’ll keep this exact setup forever, but it’s still cool to see it all put together. Even if it’s just a single frame of a single screen for now!
We also discussed the game’s icons. We know that skills, weapons, armor, items, materials, and more will be represented by square icons, but we also need to consider what style to use to render them. Merrix noted that no-lineart styles seem to be what’s usually used here, but I strongly prefer working with outlines… so we were at a bit of an impasse. Eventually I suggested we try my usual drawing style but with colored lineart, and created this rough example:
(Here it is much smaller, to give more of an idea of how it might look in-game…)
Even this draft-level version looks pretty decent on various backgrounds, and I’m really glad about that. I really like this style either way, but it’s going to be nice to have an excuse to get more practice in it.
At the other desk: Merrix made progress in the design side of the project. particularly the skill system. So now, beyond having just a variety of animations for a single base attack, we can slot in different moves like weapon skills, heals, spells, and more, and they’ll do something different. This is really important, since we want the gameplay to vary a lot between classes, and a big part of that will involve a player balancing their loadout of skills and moves. It’s the same kind of “customize your experience” that we both loved in Diablo and other games. And it is pretty cool to see it come to life in our game.
That’s about all we’ve got for this week. We hope you’re safe and well – and we hope you’ll return next week to see what we’re up to*!
(*It’ll be game dev. Always game dev.)
-Peri