Slowdive's Little Daily Blog

[Dorateen]

Yeah, I finished releasing IBbasic v1.0.17 and it can be found at the NW Vault for PC, Google Play for android, and Apple App Store for iOS (and should work on M1 macs).

Congratulations on the big release! Look forward to seeing some projects for IBBasic.

[slowdive]

Thanks Dorateen! They’ll probably just be my projects or my conversions of IB projects like has happened in the past . Which is fine because it may introduce some to the IB modules that may not have seen them otherwise.

[slowdive]

We got a nice review from RPG Crawler about IBbasic. He has some good insight and feedback on needed improvements and the parts he liked.

https://youtu.be/5VfbjjN3KA8

[slowdive]

So RPG Crawler mention that one of the largest weaknesses of IBbasic is the interface and clutter. I'm not as experienced or well versed as Dorateen, Pongo, and others. Do you guys have any suggestions (maybe a mock up or description) of how to improve or revamp the interface to be more intuitive and provide a better overall experience? Do you have any examples of interfaces from similar retro style games that work well and why? Thanks!

[Dorateen]

I thought the interface "clutter" was due to making IBBasic available for smaller screen platforms like tablets and phones? The full PC IceBlink engine I think looks fine, but that would not be possible for basic. Seems there was always going to be a tradeoff between what you can practically fit and what functions, even if its not as visually pleasing. Is making the buttons smaller an option? That might help create more room to move around UI elements.

[slowdive]

I've tried smaller buttons before, but it is hard for phones and fat thumbs

RPG Crawler made me a video with a bunch of feedback and suggestions (is unlisted so non-public) on how to improve the UI for an app that is trying to work well for both PC and mobile. Of course that isn't really easy to do, but I tried making a few mock-ups of some ideas to maximize screen real estate. What do you think of the following layouts? Very similar to regular IB in some ways. The different UI panels could be toggled on/off and I will add the party time/location text as well:

All panels toggled off:

mainmapOff.png (38.76 KiB) Viewed 13928 times

Layout Option 1 with all panels toggled on:

mainmapOn.png (192.7 KiB) Viewed 13928 times

Layout Option 2 with all panels toggled on:

mainmapOn2.png (331.63 KiB) Viewed 13928 times

Layout Option 2 with move arrows toggled off and log automatically shifted to the middle:

mainmapOn3.png (330.05 KiB) Viewed 13928 times

For reference, here is the current IBbasic layout (from iPad):

IMG_2050.PNG (577.96 KiB) Viewed 13928 times

[Dorateen]

I like Layout 2. Something about the character portraits lining up on the right of the screen. Maybe along the top was obscuring too much of the view, but on the side it looks better. I can't think of many cRPGs I have played with portraits on the top, except for showing initiative order in combat.

I also like the placement of the log, and how it automatically moves to bottom center if the arrow buttons are toggled off.

[slowdive]

I finished the UI rework of the game and the toolset. I went with a slight combination of Options 1 and 2. All UI elements can be toggled on/off for the most part. I posted v1.0.18 (PC version) to the NW Vault for those wanting to see the changes and provide feedback.

https://neverwintervault.org/project/ic ... inetoolset

Below images have some UI elements turned all on and some with everything turned off:

Capture01.PNG (116.97 KiB) Viewed 13878 times

Capture02.PNG (163.05 KiB) Viewed 13878 times

Capture03.PNG (183.38 KiB) Viewed 13878 times

Capture04.PNG (127.63 KiB) Viewed 13878 times

Capture05.PNG (149.4 KiB) Viewed 13878 times

Capture06.PNG (165.77 KiB) Viewed 13878 times

Capture07.PNG (184.69 KiB) Viewed 13878 times

[Pongo]

Looking really nice - good work!

[slowdive]

I updated the Android and iOS versions (v1.0.19) to include the new UI improvements from above. So now IBbasic v1.0.19 is available for PC, Android, and iOS.

Now I can get back to my Hearkenwold Let's Play, updating IB, importing Hearkenwold to IBbasic (updating the import tool for that), and maybe starting a Let's Play of The Elderin Stone in IBbasic.