One thing that's neat about this system is that the save games are saved inside the dataset that you are using, which are copied over to your local application folder. What this means is that if you launch a mod, its save games will be separate from other mods. No worries or trying to remember which save works with which mods.
Here's a screenshot of the semi-final saving and in-game menu (I need to get a generic OK/Cancel button artworks, will commission that soon...):
Why do some (most) of your buttons have programmatically generated text but 10 don't?
ReplyDeleteI don't see the empty versions in the main texture atlas either, so um.... here you go?
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/7723772/button_blank1.png
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/7723772/button_blank2.png
Ah, those were from the early days when I first started working with my artist. I asked for buttons for main menu, and got those. Then eventually I realized that it's expensive to ask for buttons with text, which can be only used in one place, and started replacing those with buttons that have no text. Another benefit of this is that it also supports internationalization. I will add that when beta starts.
DeleteThanks for your blank button version, I'll add them and start replacing the ones with text on it with those. This was a low priority item for me, but since you noticed it, I'll work on this :)
Would it be difficult to include an option to change the font style? I'd love to play with something a bit more elegant than late-80's retro-futuristic.
ReplyDeleteThe underlying code supports different fonts as a hold-over from when I worked on the UI engine project. You can replace the font used by adding the font that you want to use in "Fonts" folder in the game's data folder, then modifying the fonts.xml to point to it, and the game will use that font. You can even specify font size as well. In the future, I plan on having UI be loaded from data files, with support for different fonts/styles for different controls.
DeleteI was having the same thought that a "Modern" theme would be nice so I messed around in Photoshop a little bit and changed the button bar on the bottom to a blue glassy look.
ReplyDeletehttps://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/7723772/main.png
Just replace main.png in the graphics folder if you want to see it in-game.
It's not much but I'm planning to change the main panels over to a similar look when I have time and see how it turns out.
Also, I modified two race portraits for a slightly more "rendered" look.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/7723772/space_hamsters.png
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/7723772/zero_people.png
The buttons looks nice! Space Hamsters, I don't really see any differences besides it being more dark and the background you can't see anymore. But the Zero People one looks like the lights are glowing. Nice effect!
DeleteI'm looking forward to seeing people's mods for the game like yours!
Thanks for the feedback!
DeleteThere's actually a lot of changes I made to both portraits. Dark semitransparent gradients we added to wall corners to simulate ambient occlusion.
Hampster and Zero People got gradients to simulate directional lighting.
Both got "glow" though for the hampster it was more subtle and mainly to gloss over the sharpness of the pixel art.
Hampster got a "Rim light" to make him pop off the background a little better.
Overall everything is meant to be pretty subtle as I was trying to achieve a more "filmic" look without burying the original art, "don't fix what ain't broke", right?
Hampster's BG is dark on purpose under the theory the pirate ships are dark & moody, but there may be a way to get that effect where the background is less dark (colored spotlights?).
So, thanks again for the feedback.
When I have time I'll see about reskinning the main panels.