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Other Announcements / Re: Which text roguelike has the best, most approachable UI?
« on: January 14, 2013, 11:42:39 PM »
You pose an interesting and not-to-be-overlooked issue. My solution, once I moved away from old-fashioned VTxxx series video terminals with a strictly text oriented RogueLike interface and over to Macs/Windows, was to present a pair of UIs that worked interchangeably. The idea being to let the player interact in a way that proved most comfortable to him/her. And thus hopefully draw in folks who might otherwise be leary of approaching the game because of perceived complexity and/or the (then) intimidation factor of using a computer.
The approaches were: (1) clicks on the game map area to perform functions and interact with what was presented, and (2) provide an array of text buttons below the map that could be clicked on or invoked via keyboard shortcuts. In earlier versions for strictly text based, I presented command words with the keyboard shortcut letter underscored. For example, Open for opening doors and crates.
Seemed to work out pretty well. Had non-gaming adults as well as 5 year olds saying it was easy to play. Me, I'd play by doing a mix of things, some via map clicks and other stuff from the buttons and keyboard.
There is a YouTube video that briefly demonstrates the game at this url:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s09El7ARRic
Note that I am not suggesting that any of my UI decisions are right for you. The intent is to emphasize the importance of the issue you expressed. Give a lot of thought to it. Experiment. My own fundamental philosophy was that a player should be fighting the badguys in the game, not fighting poor UI design. Struggling against a UI seriously impairs fun factor.
What will work best for you will of course be dependent on how simplistic or more advanced the design center of your overall UI.
Dave S.
The approaches were: (1) clicks on the game map area to perform functions and interact with what was presented, and (2) provide an array of text buttons below the map that could be clicked on or invoked via keyboard shortcuts. In earlier versions for strictly text based, I presented command words with the keyboard shortcut letter underscored. For example, Open for opening doors and crates.
Seemed to work out pretty well. Had non-gaming adults as well as 5 year olds saying it was easy to play. Me, I'd play by doing a mix of things, some via map clicks and other stuff from the buttons and keyboard.
There is a YouTube video that briefly demonstrates the game at this url:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s09El7ARRic
Note that I am not suggesting that any of my UI decisions are right for you. The intent is to emphasize the importance of the issue you expressed. Give a lot of thought to it. Experiment. My own fundamental philosophy was that a player should be fighting the badguys in the game, not fighting poor UI design. Struggling against a UI seriously impairs fun factor.
What will work best for you will of course be dependent on how simplistic or more advanced the design center of your overall UI.
Dave S.
Thanks for the welcoming!