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Today's screenshots, behind-the-scenes
Designing user interfaces is like having good personal hygiene. Do a good job, and hardly anyone will notice... do a bad job, and everyone notices.
You would probably be amazed at the amount of work and thought that goes into tweaking out a user interface. One of our programmers, Chris (Sydius), touched on this briefly in the forums-- how we actually discussed what the words should say on the exit button... should it say "Quit Game", "Exit Game", just "Quit" or "Exit", or something else entirely? Similarly, there have been some comments that the word "Omake" is ambiguous to non-anime fans, and should be replaced with an English equivalent, probably "Extras"? I think it's a reasonable concern.
And of course this goes for everything, not just the words-- all the graphics, the animations, the fonts used, what happens when each button is clicked, you name it. Chris, April (Meow), and Andrew (and me, briefly) have already spent quite a bit of time putting together what you saw today, and there will probably be more things to tweak, after reviewing all the feedback we receive.
By the time the game is released, every little corner and pixel of all the major interfaces will have been scrutinized by many sets of eyes-- eyes belonging to people with vastly different interests and backgrounds, who can hopefully help us catch any possible ambiguities or mistakes that might be lurking in there.
Something about ponies
Just wanted to share with you all, this link that someone sent me yesterday:
(And I won't say who sent me the link, but if s/he wants to volunteer that information, feel free to do so on the forums. ;))
I never really played with dolls/ponies as a kid, so it was news to me that My Little Pony actually had a storyline to it-- and a pretty good one too, if my source is to be believed. ;P But if that's true, then I think it would actually be pretty interesting if someone made a d20 campaign around it, complete with figurines and everything. (OT: That was the cutest beholder I've ever seen. XD)
With co-workers like these...
Last night, a few of the Shira Oka development team got together for some tacos and game development.
This meeting was different, however. There was anticipation in the air.
For weeks, I've been talking about my RC helicopter. A Blade CP Pro. Impossible to fly, yet with every practice session, I felt closer to mastery (or, at least, getting it to hover in place).
So after working out some UI texturing issues and laying out the settings screen requirements, we headed to the local park. Just a playground, really. But with a grassy field. Perfect for any bad landings which I knew would eventually happen.
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