Topic: [Fan Games] Castlevania, Final Fantasy, Eggerland, Mario, Megaman

[Inccubus]

Small minimalistic HUDs worked just fine with CVDX & RoB. There are tons of games on the nes that use the full screen area with small HUDs that aren't big ass blocks on the top of the screen.

[Claimh Solais]

Small minimalistic HUDs worked just fine with CVDX & RoB. There are tons of games on the nes that use the full screen area with small HUDs that aren't big ass blocks on the top of the screen.

Dracula X and RoB also used gauges to measure health and such rather than blocks, so they were easier to see to begin with.

[Inccubus]

I have to disagree here. The gauges in those games are really no different than the gauge in CV1 &3 they're just animated better. And besides that visibility has to do with the colors you use and having a distinct boarder. Look at the power meter in Megaman. It's perfectly visible all the time. The one in CV2 is crap cause it has no border.

And I forgot to mention, that the reason that the HUD in CV1&3 look like they do is because they're drawn with background tiles instead of sprites. I'm not bothering with Sprite limits for my game so I can afford to do it the way I am. Don't worry about it cluttering up the screen though. I am going to make it minimalistic like I said. You'll see guys.

[X]

Wait, didn't Super Castlevania IV also employ the same type of HUD as Inccubus' screen cap? If that's the case then there's no real problem.

[Claimh Solais]

Wait, didn't Super Castlevania IV also employ the same type of HUD as Inccubus' screen cap? If that's the case then there's no real problem.

It also used a dark green that blended in with half the backgrounds in the game.

I have to disagree here. The gauges in those games are really no different than the gauge in CV1 &3 they're just animated better. And besides that visibility has to do with the colors you use and having a distinct boarder. Look at the power meter in Megaman. It's perfectly visible all the time. The one in CV2 is crap cause it has no border.

And I forgot to mention, that the reason that the HUD in CV1&3 look like they do is because they're drawn with background tiles instead of sprites. I'm not bothering with Sprite limits for my game so I can afford to do it the way I am. Don't worry about it cluttering up the screen though. I am going to make it minimalistic like I said. You'll see guys.

The game looks good so far, so I'm sure you'll come up with something good. ^^

[Inccubus]

Yeah, I will! 

I'm not gonna do anything here half-assed. If there's a problem I expect you guys to let me know, but I'll try my best to anticipate most of your concerns.

BTW, added a bunch of example pics of Sprite based HUDs in NES games with CVDX & RoB shots for comparison.

[uzo]

For spanning HUDs, even if transparent backgrounds, you have to pay close attention to the level design. You will notice they dont lead the player up there as much as they can help it. It's too distracting and cluttered to be doing that. Case in point, for mario, no blocks are up there, especially in the underground areas. It effectively IS a black box because they wont put anything there.

You'll need a really compact HUD to pull it off, but I wonder how good it'll look for Castlevania. On the flip side, does that two lines of tiles really mean that much? You wont want to lead the player up there anyway as much as you can help it, so why bother?

$0.02

[Inccubus]

I hear you, but in point of fact a lot of the stage layouts I'm going to be using from the MSX, SNES, and X68K versions do in fact like to have stuff up there, plus it just looks better to have a ceiling. The HUD I'm designing is going to be as compact as possible. And it will be much more sleek than the original.

[Inccubus]

OK. here's what I have for the HUD so far.

[Claimh Solais]

The first picture looks nicer, more compact. The second one looks like a fighting game HUD.

And yes, I'm aware some games, like Adventure Rebirth, had their HUD laid out the same way.

[Aridale]

I like the first one better but the greens too strong blend it more like the blue bar. And the boss bar you should get rid of entirely until theres actually a boss

[Claimh Solais]

Maybe make the Boss bar a menacing color like red? I 'unno...

[uzo]

I like the first one better by far. Nice style and compact nature. You could even eliminate the = in the heart part and just have the numbers next to it.

If you aren't going to label PLAYER and ENEMY on the bar, the boss bar should not be in the HUD. I'd say it would settle better to have the boss bar only appear when fighting a boss, perhaps on the opposite side, and not connected to the player's status HUD.

An addition note:

Since you did color Trevor into a higher color count than everything else, you should probably up the colors of the other things too. Style consistency is important to creating good aesthetics. I like the retro higher color look, but it looks weird seeing it along with strict 2bbp (4 color format) NES pixel art.

The color and shading progression also seems different. As to say, the colors on Trevor are more realistic, and less bright cartoony, while the ground colors are bright and cartoony. The ground's lightest shade, make that less saturated and it would probably match Trevor a lot more.

Either that or revert Trevor back to 2bbp standards. But I really like the high color retro look. I'd be interested to see how the whole thing looks in that style.

[Inccubus]

@Aridale: Yeah I noticed that the moment I posted the first pic. Already fixed.

@Uzo: I think I'll try using a darker shade for the highlight on the floor.
The palettes in this aesthetic are 4 colors + clear. That sprite is intended to look as if it has 2 palettes in use like Megaman. I'm not using that for Simon's final sprite anyway so don't worry. I'll probably stick to a single 4+1 palette for his sprites.
BTW I'm not using the NES palette, but rather a custom one I made.

@Everyone: I think I go ahead and hide the boss bar and move it to the right side of the screen. I might have each boss have a different colored bar.

[uzo]

Not darker, less saturated. Aka less 'color' more 'gray'.

Darkening it will ruin the selective highlighting of the floor. Selective highlighting is a visual indicator that uses a highlighted/brighter color as a visual indicator that "this is a floor/wall/interactive object/tile". It basically makes it easier for the player to notice what is and is not interactive, versus just empty space/background design.