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Design / View Styles
« on: February 04, 2015, 12:45:15 AM »
I'd like to know what you all think about particular styles of viewing I see often in roguelikes:
Map View
1) 80x24 tiles on the screen, and 80x20 or so of them are devoted to the 'static' world. The map doesn't move with the player. Instead the player moves within the static map. It is an older style, and you can find secrets easier in this way because of a large blank section on your screen. Rogue and Nethack use this.
2) Something less than 80x24 for viewing a map that moves instead of the player actually moving. In this regard, your @ is stationary relative to the screen, while the map moves in reverse style. Secrets are much harder to find because you never know if you are at the center of the current map or not. Likewise, maps can be much larger than just 80x21 or so. Crawl uses this.
Menu View
1) Some amount of stats at the bottom of the screen, taking up entire horizontal lines. Easier to read out lots of information at once, and maximizes map view, but many different stats listed tend to mush together.
2) Stats are displayed on the left or right side of the monitor, map on the other side. With a shorter vertical column, many stats can be displayed at once, and does not feel cluttered. Problems arise though when length of display stats do not fit. Full sentences are not possible.
Dialogue View
1) One or more horizontal lines, sometimes at the top of the screen, sometimes at the bottom. Full sentences, and multiple sentences are completely ok, but multiple lines are either broken up with required 'carriage returns', or blocking the map view, or just the line buffer is quickly emptied.
2) Short 'sentences' squeezed into a requisite space on the left or right, beside the menu stats. Full sentences could take up the entire buffer, but short messages are easily displayed.
What are your thoughts on these systems? Which are better? Which are easier to read from? Are there any alternatives to any of these particular readouts?
I am asking this because I am currently developing a roguelike myself. I have the map view as 60x24 on the left side of the screen, and a menu as 20x24 on the right side of the screen. I have no room for horizontal dialogue right now, unless blocking the map view, which I find as a small problem. So I am just seeing what you all thought about this particular situation
Thank you for any responses
Map View
1) 80x24 tiles on the screen, and 80x20 or so of them are devoted to the 'static' world. The map doesn't move with the player. Instead the player moves within the static map. It is an older style, and you can find secrets easier in this way because of a large blank section on your screen. Rogue and Nethack use this.
2) Something less than 80x24 for viewing a map that moves instead of the player actually moving. In this regard, your @ is stationary relative to the screen, while the map moves in reverse style. Secrets are much harder to find because you never know if you are at the center of the current map or not. Likewise, maps can be much larger than just 80x21 or so. Crawl uses this.
Menu View
1) Some amount of stats at the bottom of the screen, taking up entire horizontal lines. Easier to read out lots of information at once, and maximizes map view, but many different stats listed tend to mush together.
2) Stats are displayed on the left or right side of the monitor, map on the other side. With a shorter vertical column, many stats can be displayed at once, and does not feel cluttered. Problems arise though when length of display stats do not fit. Full sentences are not possible.
Dialogue View
1) One or more horizontal lines, sometimes at the top of the screen, sometimes at the bottom. Full sentences, and multiple sentences are completely ok, but multiple lines are either broken up with required 'carriage returns', or blocking the map view, or just the line buffer is quickly emptied.
2) Short 'sentences' squeezed into a requisite space on the left or right, beside the menu stats. Full sentences could take up the entire buffer, but short messages are easily displayed.
What are your thoughts on these systems? Which are better? Which are easier to read from? Are there any alternatives to any of these particular readouts?
I am asking this because I am currently developing a roguelike myself. I have the map view as 60x24 on the left side of the screen, and a menu as 20x24 on the right side of the screen. I have no room for horizontal dialogue right now, unless blocking the map view, which I find as a small problem. So I am just seeing what you all thought about this particular situation
Thank you for any responses