Prj: NtCstr -- Interfacing

I remember growing up and trying out loads of shareware games. Some were fun and some I dreamed were fun. I had to dream they were fun because the bugs weren't worked out of the game enough to even get it to load or play. At times touching a key would send my monitor into a fit of random sprites across the screen. So how do you resolve these problems before people like me see them? Design a simple interface and test it.

How a user interacts with your game determines a great deal how much they like the game. Do you think DOOM would have been as successful if it had an interface like Pools of Radiance(TSR the old version)? Of course not. Each game has it's own way to present information. Imagine Diablo being played like the first Commander Keen. No offense to the Commander Keen people. For this reason you have to spend time working on how you want your game to be presented. You have to think about what graphics you want to use or if you want to use them at all.

Looking again at NetCaster, I have quickly thrown together a pair of windows to illustrate the game in the most basic sense. In the upper window you have the picture of where you are at. This can be a picture of what you are looking at, the compass as a whole, the opponent you want to attack, etc. Since the game is based on a planar approach to a compass you can only move around the compass in two ways, Clockwise and CounterClockwise. The two buttons on this form represent that.

In the other window, we see the character. This shows us the players stats and the players name as the name of the form and the deck that he has in his hands. Since this is the first version it isn't too exciting. Changes that can be planned for immediately call for graphical representations of cards. A better format for showing the cards and perhaps another popup form to explain each card individually.

Other parts of the game can be added in too. For instance, a shaded out character form of your opponent. If you know something about your opponent through observation or buying of information then those parts of the opponents form are visible. If you go back to Microsoft Golf you will remember that many windows were scattered over the screen. They were butted up against each other to give the appearance of having a full GUI(Graphical User Interface) rather than several small ones.

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