I can't really tell what the ships are doing...you say this is an action game but this looks like a line drawing game?
honestly, the first one. the second one has way too much space taken up, but it's also just not nice colors/doesn't feel very spacy.
I should've clarified the gameplay elements a bit more. Basically you run a starbase in a time of war. Your activities include: - fighting off aliens - fighting off pirates - mining asteroids for resources - protecting incoming supply ships and docking them to the station - picking up dropped cargo via tractor beam - upgrading station defenses and weapons - surviving or interacting with 'special events' The controls are simple taps or swipes to fire weapons and line-drawing for guiding supply ships. Of course, these graphics are VERY early and not close to final. We're still heavy into development but wanted to get some feedback. I hope that helps!
I like the first one, the second one just seems like your looking through googles. Sounds like a great game. Il be keeping me eyes out for this one.
Thanks for your suggestions! I guess the transparent UI is less distracting than the 2nd one. We're really excited about this game! My brother and I have been gamers for as long as we can remember. It's quite the challenging experience designing a game vs. just playing one. What we're aiming for is a nice blend of action + tactics with surprises in the form of random loot, upgrades and events.
UI what about contextual menus? eg. when the user clicks on the weapon select screen a selector menu (wheel?) pops up. This gives you flexibility for future weapons, etc. utilize the multi-touch capabilities - e.g. two finger tap missle, three finger tractor, shake for boost the semi-transparent hud works - you can even have it overlay more of the screen - if it disappears & is more transparent. pretty cool - reminds me of games i used to play as a kid. will look for it.
Thanks for the suggestions! We considered making the firing controls context sensitive (hold to fire laser, tap to fire torpedoes) but realized quickly that it wasn't that intuitive to create a bunch of different controls for firing the different weapons. So we're trying to keep everything fairly simple to play and use, but add depth in terms of gameplay, varying enemies and upgrades and random events. Of course, we're still early in development so things can and most likely will change. Keep checking back here... we are going to upload a new screenshot soon and also we're going to be needing some good beta and play testers in a few weeks! Thanks!
Yeah, gotta agree, the first one just looks cleaner with the see thru buttons...although, I might suggest moving the menu button just under the scores so it is less likely to be accidentally pressed while trying to press a ship button.
Hey Devilishly Good, Thanks for the input! Yeah, the consensus seems to be the first screenshot so we're going to go with that style. We've adjusted it a bit, spaced out the buttons a bit more and removed the scores panel. Anyway, we should be uploading a new screenshot today and would love to see what you think of it. Thanks for all the great suggestions! They are really helping!
Hi folks, Updated the original post with the latest iteration of our game interface. Please let us know what you think! Thanks!
360iDev Oh yeah, one half of the dev team(me!) will be at 360iDev in Denver this weekend. If anyone here is going and would like to see the game in action, or even just meet up and chat about iPhone dev/game dev over a beer, let me know! Cheers, Garry Seto
