Patreon Weekly - June 4th 2019
Added 2019-06-04 19:05:06 +0000 UTCHey Patreons, welcome to the inaugural weekly update post! I'm going to do one or two of these short update posts a week. They'll give some information about what I'm currently working on before that info is available anywhere else.
Most of this week is going to be spent doing concepting and design for the primary content in 0.7.4. I'll have more info on that later. At the moment though, I can share some experimenting I've done with the main menu design:
For a while now I've felt the main menu has gotten a bit cluttered, with all the various buttons that have started appearing in different locations. I'm planning on redesigning the center of the interface to better support multiple buttons, which means getting rid of the giant icons and moving towards a bit more of a traditional menu interface. This looks a lot more streamlined and is more expandable for the future.
Here's an early progress picture, plus an existing screenshot for comparison:
Please keep in mind this is an early WIP. There are spacing issues and the whole interface looks way too monotone. I'm going to try to bring back some color by either giving each button a small icon or by adding some color to the buttons themselves. I'm also going to experiment with improving the background visuals as well, perhaps with a different pillar type for each dungeon region.
Comments
I am more leaning towards something like that now. I've improved the UI since showing it here and the support button has gotten fairly obnoxious now that I've given it some styling. As I mentioned I want to button to be more prominent, but not so much that it's annoying.
Shattered Pixel
2019-06-12 14:46:32 +0000 UTCI'd say it might be better for the donation button to be underneath the 4 smaller buttons - giving it the full size, but also making it somewhat less likely to be clicked unintentionally.
Pomakenel
2019-06-12 06:51:36 +0000 UTCOh, huh. In that case, sounds pretty reasonable.
Zrp200
2019-06-05 18:22:39 +0000 UTCYeah as mentioned I am going to try and bring some of the visual flair back. Icons within the buttons is the first thing I'm trying but I worry that there might not be enough space on the smaller buttons, so I might also try adding some visual style to the buttons themselves. The main menu being cluttered is a somewhat common complaint actually. People already dont expect the big icon buttons, and then also have to deal with an array of smaller icon buttons scattered around the UI. The donation prompt actually currently flows off the bottom of the acreen a bit on many landscape devices. I do also plan to expand this menu in the future, such as by adding a sort of news feed menu which pulls from the Shattered Pixel website. The more people I can make aware of the blog the better. I may also experiment with moving some of the top-left buttons into the main UI as well. Regarding donation placement, you are right that this makes the button a more prominent part of the main UI. The goal, of course, is to increase donation rates, and while I agree it would be nice if it wasnt as prominent, this is a relatively unobtrustive way to make people more cognicent of the donation functionality. Really dedicated fans (thank you!) will donate regardless, this is all about reminding those more undecided people. I want to increase donation rates as its directly tied to my ability to work on Shattered full time, but even then I know theres a careful balance that needs to be struck.
Shattered Pixel
2019-06-05 14:54:42 +0000 UTCI'm a bit biased towards the current because I'm used to it, but I can totally agree that the changelog button placement currently is subpar, especially for newer players. I do personally think icons are more visually appealing than buttons with words on them tho. Do you envision the final menu to include smaller versions of the icons? Edit: just reread, and noticed you said that. Whoops. Something I keep thinking about, though, is the fact that the current interface does not seem cluttered atm. Using the entire spaces is good imo, especially with the different-sized icons. (Worth noting that my opinion will completely reverse if you add more things to do in the main menu; I can't see the current one fitting anything more, at least effectively) In actuality, the different sized buttons are nice imo, and are what makes the current design appealing to look at; the biggest ones are the ones that should be most clicked, and donations are not held to be even nearly as important, couresty of the icon's small size. Sure, it lowers donation rate, but making it more prominent is can be dangerous to its whole concept. I donated because I loved the game and wanted to support you, not because I noticed the option to do so right off the bat.
Zrp200
2019-06-05 06:00:24 +0000 UTC
