6 replies to this topic

[Ica]

Bonjour mes amis!

 

Development on the Crystal Heart has been going well. Most areas and dungeons are already made, and the schematics for what's left are also basically finished.

 

The main obstacles right now are some technical things.

 

First, I must add some scripts to the game, hopefully the last ones I'll need. I'll compile all of them in a single notepad file.

 

Second, I'm still a little unsure on how to deal with the maps. I just added new and updated screenshots to the Quest Project, but the corner maps still aren't final. I'm thinking of using Moosh's Metroid Map script for dungeon maps and for the overworld areas either have a pre-set image of the area on the corner + spacebar map, or just have a spacebar map with no minimap. What d'yall think?

 

Third, there's lots of heavy work involving effects, new sprites and general set up.

 

And last, but not least, an enormous shift in strings. I've just now learned about the String Codex. With this, I've reached an impasse. I don't know if I should rewrite ALL the strings in the game to make it more polished. I'd be very nice if there was an easier way of doing this instead of having to set up every sing string manually, so I'm open to suggestions. 

 

Also, I'm considering changing fonts. I quite like the Classic Font and think it fits the quest's aesthetic. However, the quest has a lot of text and it might make more sense to make the change, specially if I'll have to rewrite everything.

 

Here's the current font:

 

 

 

And here's another option:

 

 

 

If i'm going to change it, it would be only for a font that allows more text to be displayed on screen.

 

I'm quite unsure about this, so let me hear your opinions!

And any and all shortcuts and tips to make this huge amount of work faster will be very appreciated!

 

Well, that's all for now.

 

See you lovelies <3 

Edited by Ica, 17 February 2022 - 01:04 PM.

[xanadude]

IMO, practicality > aesthetics, so I would use the smaller font. It fits the quest well too.

[Shane]

I actually think the smaller font fits the aesthetic also. There's already small font on the subscreen, and there's a lot of thin outlined sprites unlike the original Z1 with more bold sprites.

[Mani Kanina]

A lot of colour selection choices on your HUD are really weird. I know that's not why you made this thread, but I have to ask about it.

There's a lot of green text on purple background, I don't think there is a huge readability issue or anything, but it looks weird. Likewise there is a bright pink BG behind the A&B button letters, which also sticks out a lot and looks weird.


As for the font choice, I think that will come down to how wordy your quest will be. If you plan on having a lot of long dialogue segments then the smaller font might be advantageous, but both options look good to me visually.

[Ica]

Thank you for the input!

 

I'll be making the change to the Small Font! Luckly I won't change the content of most lines, but rather the shape. Still, I'm considering erasing ALL the strings to make things cleaner and easier, since i'm already at string 1770. It'll be a lot of work to make this change, so hopefully this will be final!

 

 

A lot of colour selection choices on your HUD are really weird. I know that's not why you made this thread, but I have to ask about it.

There's a lot of green text on purple background, I don't think there is a huge readability issue or anything, but it looks weird. Likewise there is a bright pink BG behind the A&B button letters, which also sticks out a lot and looks weird.


As for the font choice, I think that will come down to how wordy your quest will be. If you plan on having a lot of long dialogue segments then the smaller font might be advantageous, but both options look good to me visually.

 

I appreaciate the comment! 

I wanted to make the whole HUD background pink, but I didn't work for some reason. I don't know if that would look better or not.

 

I thought the green and pink thing worked well, but how about blue and pink? 

[Mani Kanina]

I appreaciate the comment! 

I wanted to make the whole HUD background pink, but I didn't work for some reason. I don't know if that would look better or not.
 
I thought the green and pink thing worked well, but how about blue and pink?

The font is made for contrast when using the shadowed versions, so any colours really work as long as there is enough contrast between the light colour and the dark colour.

You also generally use the BG colour field of the fonts, *usually* I set that to transparent as to be able to see the BG of the rest of the HUD, but even if you want a BG colour, it should probably be darker than the shadowed font colour.

Here's like, an example of what I mean, this one uses a light blue as highlight and a purple as shadow:



Pink to blue generally also works just fine:



But it's not as if green to pink, and pink to green *couldn't* work:



These wouldn't be my first choice when it comes to HUD font colours, but it's not like they can't work, as long as there is enough contrast there, and there isn't a sharp divide.


Really, I'd just say experiment till you're happy, hopefully some of this stuff is useful. The purpose of a HUD is generally to be easy to read even at a glance.

[Ica]

Oh, wow, thank you so much for the examples! <3

 

Now I understand how that looks a lot better ahhahahah

 

I really liked the pink to blue one! I think I'll go with that.

 

On my next update I might post the item menu to get your opinions on that! I say that I "might" do it 'cuz I also kinda want to keep secrets about the quest, so we'll see hahahahah

 

Thanks again!!!! :>>>>