Concept Art Thread

~sciocont wrote:

Going a little crazy with depth of field there- too blurry.

...who are you talking to?

Qiick mock-up. Everything needed is there. Tell me how you like it.

Sciocont that looks really cool. I hope we can have most of the GUI look like that because it's got a "thrive" feel to it.

Seems like a good HUD. However, these shard bars in bottom right corner might be a bit confusing and difficult to read, and I'm missing the health overview window.

ThatGuy wrote:

Sciocont that looks really cool. I hope we can have most of the GUI look like that because it's got a "thrive" feel to it.

lol it has the "Sciocont's sig" feel to it xD

It is good, rather fitting, too

Darkgamma wrote:

ThatGuy wrote:

Sciocont that looks really cool. I hope we can have most of the GUI look like that because it's got a "thrive" feel to it.

lol it has the "Sciocont's sig" feel to it xD

It is good, rather fitting, too

QFT.

I like it because it looks unique opposed to basically every other GUI I've seen in a video game. Like Commander Keen said, though, it could be a bit confusing, but it also looks like something I could easily get used to. Not sure about other people, though.

Also, are they going to be just black or slightly colored in a way? Will they have an outer rim? Is one of those "crystals" going to glow slightly when the mouse cursor is over it?

Still, it's a concept, albeit a simple one but a step in the right direction.

But.. wait.. come to think of it, is that health system we proposed now scrapped, so we're bringing back ye olde health bars? In case you don't know what I mean, it was where we had a diagram of your creature with its innards visible, and when it got hurt it was tinted red in the overall area of damage?

Noitulove wrote:

But.. wait.. come to think of it, is that health system we proposed now scrapped, so we're bringing back ye olde health bars? In case you don't know what I mean, it was where we had a diagram of your creature with its innards visible, and when it got hurt it was tinted red in the overall area of damage?

I miss that health overview too in the concept. I'm entirely sure the concept wasn't scrapped, but it wasn't discussed it after we migrated from Evolutions.

Commander Keen wrote:

Noitulove wrote:

But.. wait.. come to think of it, is that health system we proposed now scrapped, so we're bringing back ye olde health bars? In case you don't know what I mean, it was where we had a diagram of your creature with its innards visible, and when it got hurt it was tinted red in the overall area of damage?

I miss that health overview too in the concept. I'm entirely sure the concept wasn't scrapped, but it wasn't discussed it after we migrated from Evolutions.

I concur. I also demand we don't revert to the ever-so-popular system of just covering the screen in blood until you sit down behind a bit of wall for a few seconds until your legs grow back.

~sciocont wrote:

Qiick mock-up. Everything needed is there. Tell me how you like it.

I, for one, love this. However, I'm not so sure how those 'instinct bars' will work, they seem awkwardly shaped to be any kind of bar to me.

But I guess they don't HAVE to be shaped like a bar to function like one. Also, I think it should be MUCH larger for the actual org editor.

Hey, this gives a cool aesthetic idea. What if those crystals change appearance based on what parts your organism is using? They won't do that on the fly, but once your done creating and start playing, they'll switch when the game loads. A scaly organism could have scales! An organism with an exoskeleton could have bones! A plant could have wood, or leaves!

Though, this sounds more like a piece of flair to be added MUCH later than now.

ParadoxJuice wrote:

Hey, this gives a cool aesthetic idea. What if those crystals change appearance based on what parts your organism is using? They won't do that on the fly, but one your done creating and start playing, they'll switch when the game loads. A scaly organism could have scales! An organism with an exoskeleton could have bones! A plant could have wood, or leaves!

Though, this sounds more like a piece of flair to be added MUCH later than now.

That sir, is made of pure win.

The sign of thrive should be on the save button
The parts shoul be inside the cristal and look like thy were frozen

~sciocont wrote:

Going a little crazy with depth of field there, Pezz- too blurry.

Which one was that...?

The concept GUI looks epic
Good job

kaosrain wrote:

The sign of thrive should be on the save button

We are going to include an auto-save option? Everyone likes autosaves...

And I could imagine these shards being slightly 3d looking and slightly see-through like aero in Windows 7.

Will some of these buttons disappear when you are/aren't in an editor?

Noitulove wrote:

I like it because it looks unique opposed to basically every other GUI I've seen in a video game. Like Commander Keen said, though, it could be a bit confusing, but it also looks like something I could easily get used to. Not sure about other people, though.

Also, are they going to be just black or slightly colored in a way? Will they have an outer rim? Is one of those "crystals" going to glow slightly when the mouse cursor is over it?

Are we going Tiberium?
EDIT: Yes, it seems we are

Okay, this is a lot of good feedback, mostly positive. I'll try and address everything.

Instinct bars: I like this term. I forget who came up with it, it was one of our newer guys, I think. Basically they tell your health/hunger/thirst. Nothing novel there. I want the GUI to retain an organic look, so they come up as "shards" they will each have a color, and the intensity of that color will correspond to how badly you need to heal/drink/eat. In a fully fulfilled state, they will be an outline around an almost completely transparent dim glow in the middle. I think it's a lot easier than the health system with the model, although it is less specific. I think players don't really need to constantly know how they are hurt, because they should already know how they hurt themselves. And as animals, they probably won't be able to do much about it but rest.

I don't want the GUI to be flat black, how it is now. I think it should have some very subtle effects and textures, but nothing recognizable. I don't want it to look gimmicky or dated. that applies to the idea of it changing with the creature as well. I'm fine with it changing, but I don't want it to look gimmicky.

I don't see any problem with the Thrive sign being the save button.

~sciocont wrote:

Okay, this is a lot of good feedback, mostly positive. I'll try and address everything.

Instinct bars: I like this term. I forget who came up with it, it was one of our newer guys, I think. Basically they tell your health/hunger/thirst. Nothing novel there. I want the GUI to retain an organic look, so they come up as "shards" they will each have a color, and the intensity of that color will correspond to how badly you need to heal/drink/eat. In a fully fulfilled state, they will be an outline around an almost completely transparent dim glow in the middle. I think it's a lot easier than the health system with the model, although it is less specific. I think players don't really need to constantly know how they are hurt, because they should already know how they hurt themselves. And as animals, they probably won't be able to do much about it but rest.

I don't want the GUI to be flat black, how it is now. I think it should have some very subtle effects and textures, but nothing recognizable. I don't want it to look gimmicky or dated. that applies to the idea of it changing with the creature as well. I'm fine with it changing, but I don't want it to look gimmicky.

I don't see any problem with the Thrive sign being the save button.

This sounds great, not to mention original. I suppose the instinct bars will be red, blue and yellow (health, thirst and hunger).

However, for the thrive logo being th save button, I think it isn't a good idea. How would the player know that it's the save button?

I love the idea of the shards getting duller and duller as they go down, maybe we could create overlays if they get too terribly low. Like a red throbing around the edges of the screen as you are hurt.

We haven't discussed locational damage yet. We should.

Tenebrarum wrote:

I love the idea of the shards getting duller and duller as they go down, maybe we could create overlays if they get too terribly low. Like a red throbing around the edges of the screen as you are hurt.

We haven't discussed locational damage yet. We should.

Thread, then.

~sciocont wrote:

I think it's a lot easier than the health system with the model, although it is less specific. I think players don't really need to constantly know how they are hurt, because they should already know how they hurt themselves. And as animals, they probably won't be able to do much about it but rest.

There is a reason why games with complex damage management (like we have) don't use healthbars. It's simply impossible to have it predictable and effective at the same time.

If a creature gets hurt two times with the same damage, only to have the bar not move at the first and jump halfway down the second, only because a more important location was hit, there's something wrong. We would have to include hitpoints to improve gameplay then.

By the way, damage system was discussed long, long time ago. Time to revive it.

Are the tabs going to be solid colour or transparent? Just a quastion of design... maybe I missed a post or two =P

Gotrol wrote:

Are the tabs going to be solid colour or transparent? Just a quastion of design... maybe I missed a post or two =P

It'll all have a certain level of transparency.

I like it, although i prefer a more realistic damage system so that clashes a little...

~sciocont wrote:

I don't see any problem with the Thrive sign being the save button.

OBJECTION!

I think the problem with the Thrive logo being the save button is that people won't know what it does until they click it. Will it make their computer crash? Will it turn you into an all-knowing god? Will it change your creature's color? Will it Thrive?

Noitulove wrote:

~sciocont wrote:

I don't see any problem with the Thrive sign being the save button.

OBJECTION!

I think the problem with the Thrive logo being the save button is that people won't know what it does until they click it. Will it make their computer crash? Will it turn you into an all-knowing god? Will it change your creature's color? Will it Thrive?

Ok.

~sciocont wrote:

Noitulove wrote:

~sciocont wrote:

I don't see any problem with the Thrive sign being the save button.

OBJECTION!

I think the problem with the Thrive logo being the save button is that people won't know what it does until they click it. Will it make their computer crash? Will it turn you into an all-knowing god? Will it change your creature's color? Will it Thrive?

Ok.

However, if you really are that desperate to have it somewhere on-screen you can have it in the corner.

But thinking about it, it's not a half-bad idea if you have some text show up possibly next to it when you roll your cursor over it. It could say "Options" or "Save" or something like that. But personally I think the Save function would be in the Options menu like Spore!.