In the previous post, the HUD looked too cluttered. I cleaned up the power-up section, and added transparent controls.
The thing that I struggle with on both HUDs is the size of the numbers. Seems like it will be small on mobile, and making the numbers almost as big as those powerup images might help (or not, I don't know until I see it or I try changes in my own work). Personally, I like the previous UHD better than the transparent controls you have now. This HUD's strokes (the orange) look a bit thin to me. I think the other HUD would be better than this if it was more minimal (maybe instead of two colors, use two tones of a color to revise the previous HUD). I worry that the art style of the controls in this HUD doesn't match well with the art style of the game. Love the art style of the game
Also, you might replace A and B with directional arrows (presuming that's what they are for). 'A' and 'B' don't translate in all languages, and symbols may help solve this.
and you could try turquoise for the revamp of the A and B buttons as a revision of the first HUD you posted
I would try to find a way to make the buttons invisible. A design that only blends in for the first 5 seconds or so. Then the user will have to remember the buttons. To make this happen the design has to be very clear. The first HUD would be definitely better for this. If you can get rid of the B button it would even be better. I think at the left a joystick control and on the right a jump button. Then use the powerup buttons as the only system to shoot. I presume A & B are for jumping and shooting, not for up and down.
@Christoph I don't know how you can do that with a Bbox game - the HUB or UI is part of a screen that layers on top of the gameplay field. I don't see a way to give the things on this screen anything other than a static or short, recurring animation. There doesn't currently appear to be a way to set the animation/png to only play for a set period of time. Games like SKY took a different approach to teaching players how to play, but SKY only had one control.
You can Autohide elements in the game field. It works with images/animations, don't know about buttons. But you can use transparent buttons and then use placeholder images above which disappear after x seconds. It's done in a lot of Buildbox games.
@Christoph , how do you align this with the controls for that period of time? There seem to be a complication: I press the control button, and it controls the character movement, and then it moves, thereby moving the UI away from the animation you were planning to auto-hide (it cannot move with the button, presumably). I guess one fix to #1 is to put something in the way of the character that blocks the character and syncs chronologically with the auto-hide of the animation. Does anyone else have a way? Also, I guess this would need to be done at every checkpoint, right? Am I missing something? Has this worked for others? Lastly, The above strategy might work for games that have no auto-scroll of gameplay. What about when we introduce auto-scroll at a certain speed? Is the solution to this to put the character in an invisible box during that time such that the box moves the character in a way that syncs with the auto-scroll? What about the animation you were planning to auto-hide -- set that to move in sync with auto-scroll too? Would this do it?
That's great because I want to show off as much of the game as possible while keeping the buttons at a large size
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Awesome video mate... seems that we have the same working processes If I can add anything to the game now... it would be to actually remove the outlines from the buttons... Put in a transluscent button... light orange will be good since most of the game background is dark... You can even have the button on a gradient fade out kind of effect which would look cool with whatever you have now.. Hope this helps
Thanks everyone for the priceless feedback! I added a few level hazards along with a few enemy function concepts.
Just a heads up: I'm not sure how you will build the level in BB. The only way to build levels in version 1 is vertical or horizontal. No way to build into all directions and neither can you go back in the timeline. For example if you enter the level from the tunnel at the bottom, you couldn't design it the way to go up at the end and then even less to go back (to the left). It may change in version 2 though.
