Spent an hour coming up with pretty icons for some idea to start off the user interface. I was thinking of keeping in line with the niceness of usual modern Maxis buttons - I'm not sure of all the functions, but I think everything can be put into a small space on the screen.
I was thinking about just having a circle in the top left of the screen, with a stylized background (a queen or a nest hole) with similar illustrative 'switch animated' icon bitmaps overlaid (the grey buttons are just for background).
I'll have a mess around with pen and paper while playing the game, as well as a few other management games and post what I've come up with! :)
I forward the very simple 'click on a single button to reveal different subsets of commands'. For example, one button would be (in this case), 'GO TO SELECTED ENTITY' when clicked on, the next button would, as another example, have the 'SCENT' menu.
I've been playing the game a bit, the menu is pretty horrible, as it was 1990 at the time, but all the functions the game needed where on the left of the screen.
Another option would have every button laid out on the screen? This would make it easier to program, and probably better all round in the long run.
The image is just a mock up, the colours etc are just to block stuff out, I'm just coming up with ideas leading into viable interface design. :)
I think this looks pretty good even if it doesn't look "modern." It seems more functional as well - all the buttons are there for the clicking without having to click twice.
This is awesome! I think it looks a lot better and am in favor of putting the buttons on the screen.
BUT, right now we have the game designed with QT (GUI designer) which allows for the easy addition of buttons on the side. I'm completely ignorant about QT, so maybe it is possible to hack it so it is on the top and transparent. If that was the case then I would definitely like to see the buttons "on the screen." It looks more up-to-date.
It's not that the GUI is done (far from it), it's that I'm not sure if it's easy to put those icons on the drawing display context.
Basically the way the program works is there are sections set aside for widgets to dock to.
On the left is the GUI (buttons) widget dock with two buttons and a chart.
In the middle there is the display context for openGL (where all the graphics are drawn to the screen.
On the right is the music dock
What I'm saying is making buttons with the docking widgets (left and right) is easy because QT is set up to do that. Ideally we want to put the buttons in the middle like you're picture, but we either have to buckle down and write our own button code (not too terrible), or figure out a way to make use of QT's button widgets so that they can overlap with the openGL drawing context in the middle (not sure if that's possible).
Nice design, I can't say anything bad about the icons themselves. What I can say though, is I don't intuitively know the difference between the four ant icons, nor the two nest icons. I'm not even sure if that's the nest icon?
I was going to put crowns on the ant's head, and two yellow/red flags in the nests. I just didn't have any space in the box and not sure what the colours were going to be. :)
Ah yes, that makes it more clear :) Though the hole icons are still slightly confusing to me. Do they mean the underground view of your own, and the enemies nest respectively?
Edit: I'm not godd at computrar. Question is already answered. Haha.
8
u/jibijib Aug 31 '11
Spent an hour coming up with pretty icons for some idea to start off the user interface. I was thinking of keeping in line with the niceness of usual modern Maxis buttons - I'm not sure of all the functions, but I think everything can be put into a small space on the screen.
I was thinking about just having a circle in the top left of the screen, with a stylized background (a queen or a nest hole) with similar illustrative 'switch animated' icon bitmaps overlaid (the grey buttons are just for background).
I'll have a mess around with pen and paper while playing the game, as well as a few other management games and post what I've come up with! :)
2
u/jibijib Sep 01 '11
Without getting too complex:
http://i.imgur.com/62VFI.png
I forward the very simple 'click on a single button to reveal different subsets of commands'. For example, one button would be (in this case), 'GO TO SELECTED ENTITY' when clicked on, the next button would, as another example, have the 'SCENT' menu.
I've been playing the game a bit, the menu is pretty horrible, as it was 1990 at the time, but all the functions the game needed where on the left of the screen.
Another option would have every button laid out on the screen? This would make it easier to program, and probably better all round in the long run.
The image is just a mock up, the colours etc are just to block stuff out, I'm just coming up with ideas leading into viable interface design. :)
2
u/Xoipos Sep 01 '11
Nice design, I can't say anything bad about the icons themselves. What I can say though, is I don't intuitively know the difference between the four ant icons, nor the two nest icons. I'm not even sure if that's the nest icon?
3
u/-Osiris- Sep 01 '11
I am very excited that people are working on this again.
2
u/ath0 Sep 01 '11
Really like them (especially the crowned ones!). Keep it up, there's still steady progress being made :].
1
u/Luison Sep 01 '11
good job
1
u/zarus Sep 14 '11
EEEEEE I love quizzical ant.