Developing a New Major

interface info starting on p. 232

talks about screenb layout (decide after you plan out the main gameplay)

main view in center of the screen is the game world – you have to decide if yu’re going to obscure it with overlays or just have it by a subset of hte window with menus on teh side/top

they came up with 9 typical screen designs on p. 235 -can use as the start for designing layout.

need a balance between the amount of game world visible and amount to feedback and controls — smaller your screen, the more important this decision becomes – decide what htey need to kow from teh core mechanics, what kinds of feedback needed for that kind of mechanics, do you need to display any warnings — feedback, controls, interface should be drive3n by gameplay, by what you want player to do

what player needs to know – where am I? what am I actually doing right now? what challenges am I facing? (could be text telling you to solve a puzzle or you could just see the monster coming to get ya)Did my action succeed or fail?Do I have what I need to play successfully? (resources they control and can use)Am I in danger of losing hte game? (health points, alarms, warnings) Am I making progress? What should I do next? (don’t have to hold their hnds but give them some clues about what htey can do next) How did I do (emotional reward for success – could be text, animation, sounds, score screens)

is there any additional/optional info you want to display (maybe on demand display instead of all the time) – maps, another view of hte world – could put it on the screen with overlays or windows

what players want to do – move, look around, interact physically with npc, pick up objects, manipulate things ya can’t pick up, make stuff, destroy stuff, order characters around, have conversations with npc’s, customize characters/vehicles, talk to friends in multiplayer games online, pause, save, set game options, end the game (all these are verbs like in the text adventure game)

kinds of feedback – numeric counters (can be hard to read depending on teh typeface and size), needle gauges lke speedometer, power bar, colored lights, icons, text indicators, position on minimaps, color

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