Re: (GUI) Playfield aspect ratio

On Sun, 6 Apr 2003, Brian Hook wrote:

>Okay, this is one of the more esoteric observations I'll make, but I 
>have to ask since it's been bugging me.
>
>For games with HUD elements, the typical choice you see is to either 
>place the elements along the bottom, or possibly along the bottom and 
>one side.
>
>To me, placing elements in an L or reverse L makes a lot more sense, 
>since you get a playfield area that is much closer to square than a 
>typical 4:3 or 16:9.  This is desirable because it gives you an equal 
>amount of play room in both directions.

To make it makes sense to let the player choose the layout of all status
windows. The era of static panels should be over a long time ago. Of
course I want to be able to show only the data I actually need. In pet
projects such as open source games it is understandable that the
development resources are spent elsewhere, but for commercial games that 
people pay a lot of real buckazoids for there is really no excuse. Who
cares about that silly extra lens flare effect, instead make the
developers do some usability additions.

This is a fine example of how it should be done:

	http://civil.sourceforge.net/screenshots/snapshot64.png

All extra info windows can be toggled on/off, minimized and move around.
The player can thus choose to see what is needed and put stuff where it is
wanted.

-- 
    There were no public health laws in Ankh-Morpork. It would be like
                installing smoke detectors in Hell.
                                            -- Terry Pratchett, Feet of Clay



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