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[jotapeh]

Hey guys,

First off, apologies if this has been covered before. It seems like a huge topic but my searches for 'interface' and like terms didn't come up with much.

As some of you may have seen, I put up a prototype in the Feedback section a few days ago. I got some good response so I'm deciding to charge ahead with this project full steam. Unfortunately I'm starting to see something very early on that has plagued me in many of my games only THIS time I've recognized it before it got too out of control.

I'm talking about UI clutter and design.

Now I know some games don't seem to care about this, and usually they get away with it because the user can blow up their resolution to gigantic proportions and then the UI elements take up proportionally less space. Personally I'm going with 800x600 and that is pushing it as a Flash game.

You can see the alpha I'm working on right now for an idea, (that is to see an interface that has already gone wrong at early stages of development,) and comments on it specifically would be appreciated greatly. 

But more generally – what are some beautiful interfaces you've seen, and why do they appeal to you? How do you balance aesthetic appeal, cleanliness, compactness, etc?

[SundownKid]

Is it Escape Velocity-inspired? That game rocks.

The UI seems to be cluttering up one side of the screen with a big box. You might want to make it smaller and have it at the edges of the screen - top, bottom or the corners - and possibly change the shape to make it more interesting.



In this interface, the player can see the whole screen equally, which prevents your eyes from getting stuck on the big box on one side.

[fydo]

Personally, I've always been a fan of the HUD/UI for Final Fantasy Tactics Advance.

It manages to look good and convey quite a bit of information while also being unobtrusive (the transparent background helps, as does the lack of border on the top and sides)

[jotapeh]

Is it Escape Velocity-inspired? That game rocks.

Yep! EV was fantastic, but it lacked a few things... and I hope to get the blend right in my game

I really like your idea for a UI. Thank you for taking the time to wireframe that out. It's really awesome and sadly I would not have thought to split it all up like that, very cool.

Personally, I've always been a fan of the HUD/UI for Final Fantasy Tactics Advance.

It's funny you say that. FFT:Advance is not a game that would've come to mind for me, but now that you mention it, it is quite concise by necessity... and they cram a TON of info into that little window!

I do like that a lot of these windows utilize semi-transparent backgrounds so as not to completely block out the action, but still give coherence to the whole.