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[JobLeonard]

I like the general idea, and location + colour is great! I was wondering though if the tiny triangles indicated a change in value somehow, since a triangle-pointing-upward is a pretty universal symbol for "going up". May give a wrong impression.

Also, there seems to be some overlap with the old Maslows hierarchy of needs. Maybe you can use something from that? Like put the needs in a hierarchy, and have them re-organised based on the interpretation of your commandmends.

[Greipur]

I like the general idea, and location + colour is great! I was wondering though if the tiny triangles indicated a change in value somehow, since a triangle-pointing-upward is a pretty universal symbol for "going up". May give a wrong impression.

Sweet.

The top means that it's their priority number one which is what I want people to think. Not sure if I understand the rest of your argument.

Also, there seems to be some overlap with the old Maslows hierarchy of needs. Maybe you can use something from that? Like put the needs in a hierarchy, and have them re-organised based on the interpretation of your commandmends.

Indeed, there's a lot of overlap! I'm crazy about those Maslowian pyramids (the others in the team hear me drone on about it constantly, I think it's a nice abstraction).

Though, the point of the priorities are two-fold, first of all it's really about to show the haves and have nots, as such it's really a binary deal - fulfilled? Y/N. Also, it's a way to show what their so called "free will" is telling them (when they're not going around quoting the holy scripture). Commandments overwrites part of their free will.

I get what you're saying, sort of like shuffling around cards. That's sort of how it works internally (as in 1, 2, 3 etc.). But they're not working on them all the time so I felt that there was no need to show that to the player, would also complicate the whole have/have not thing.

Tricky stuff. I've no idea how I would solve this more elegantly, feel free to come with more suggestions though.

[JobLeonard]

The top means that it's their priority number one which is what I want people to think.

That came across perfectly

Not sure if I understand the rest of your argument.

Well, it's not really an argument, it's more like I misread the meaning of the small inner triangles. Allow me to illustrate with a shitty edit:



I think the left/right ordening isn't really clear. "High = top priority" is pretty universal
"left = unfulfilled priority, right = fulfilled priority" is not; it's fine after being told, but it's not self-explanatory.

Maybe something that shows the "body language" of whether you have something, or whether it's out of reach right now? So distance to the icon of the villager perhaps?

Basically, you have two "dimensions" of data to show: priority, and fulfilment. You already are working with two dimensions for each: spatial location, and colour. Maybe size? That kinda fits priority, no? The bigger the size, the bigger the need (you already have it for top priority even).

[nnyei]

I agree with everything JobLeonard said, and I don't think I have anything to add to that.

But let me bring your attention to something else that immediately stood out to me: your choice of font.

You're using a sans serif font here which is a type of font that hasn't been around for all that long. It came into existence around the 19th century and was initially described as "grotesque" because it was so radically different from what people were used to. I feel like this kind of font would run counter to your established design principals. Sans serif fonts are very popular (they give off a "modern" feeling, which many products strive for) and are an easy pick for many projects, but they'd feel very out of place here.

You'd need something that looks older or at least more handcrafted. I'm looking through some font libraries right now, but I haven't spotted a suitable font yet that I could offer up as an alternative.

[Greipur]

Basically, you have two "dimensions" of data to show: priority, and fulfilment. You already are working with two dimensions for each: spatial location, and colour. Maybe size? That kinda fits priority, no? The bigger the size, the bigger the need (you already have it for top priority even).

Interesting proposal but not really necessary, the followers treat all unfulfilled needs equally more or less, so the player doesn't need to know. We only need to communicate that they work on one priority, and which are fulfilled or not, they don't really discriminate beyond that.

But let me bring your attention to something else that immediately stood out to me: your choice of font.

You're using a sans serif font here which is a type of font that hasn't been around for all that long. It came into existence around the 19th century and was initially described as "grotesque" because it was so radically different from what people were used to. I feel like this kind of font would run counter to your established design principals. Sans serif fonts are very popular (they give off a "modern" feeling, which many products strive for) and are an easy pick for many projects, but they'd feel very out of place here.

You'd need something that looks older or at least more handcrafted.

The written alphabet was a latecomer to most African countries below Sahara, I've read that most adopted it around the 15th century AD due to the influence of Islam and wider connections through trade and whatnot. Most earlier examples of language symbols were hieroglyphs and pictographic systems such as the Adinkra I talked about before. Our game takes place before there were any Western (or Middle-Eastern) influences, as such there's not really any precursor. To me it just boils down to taste.

I'm a strong believer that legibility trumps style, as such I prefer minimalistic fonts over stylistic ones. In my opinion, legibility is almost always sacrificed in typography when you use a font that tries to emulate a theme strongly. So I always prefer something clean for the body text. When it comes to titles and stuff we use a font called Paper Johnny, which I'm in love with.

As I said it's a matter of taste if it's too modern or not, I personally think that it gels with the other parts (we've already used it for body text in the tutorial as well as tooltips). But we have to agree to disagree there.





New version of the priorities window.













Here's a gif of some of the finished city state garments Christoffer has done.

[nnyei]

As I said it's a matter of taste if it's too modern or not, I personally think that it gels with the other parts (we've already used it for body text in the tutorial as well as tooltips). But we have to agree to disagree there.

I can totally understand your point. You do what you think is best for your game.

[JobLeonard]

Paper Johnny feels appropriate for the titles. It's not too straight-lined, which really gives it a "hand-crafted" feel. It also fits the low-poly look. But I agree it's not very legible in small sizes.

Still, there's lots of readable fonts with lots of character, including the sans serif ones. For example, somehow Alegreya Sans manages to feel like a serif font. Ubuntu has this interesting middle ground between the more round (say, Ubuntu Titling) and angular sans fonts.

If you want to go neutral, I personally really dig Adobe's Source Sans Pro as a "neutral" font, with Mozilla's Fira as a close second. A friend of mine swears by Google's Roboto, and its recent redesigns are making it nicer than before, I have to admit.

Of course, all of these fonts (save Alegreya Sans) are too strongly intertwined with big companies/organisations and their products to use. But you get my point.

What font are you currently using for the "generic" text?

Anyway, I like the redesign! Somehow the non-white background coloru makes it much less likely to misread the tiny triangles as up/down markers, so that's good! Plus it has more character now in general with that subtle background image. Digging the civilian too.

[Greipur]

I can totally understand your point. You do what you think is best for your game.

We try at least. Thanks for sticking around and keeping us "on our toes".

Of course, all of these fonts (save Alegreya Sans) are too strongly intertwined with big companies/organisations and their products to use. But you get my point.

Food for thought, Alegreya looks alright.

What font are you currently using for the "generic" text?

We use Liberation Sans in-game, the mockup text is Arial, but they're pretty similar. Here's the same with Liberation Sans.

Anyway, I like the redesign! Somehow the non-white background coloru makes it much less likely to misread the tiny triangles as up/down markers, so that's good! Plus it has more character now in general with that subtle background image. Digging the civilian too.

Thanks, I'm glad. I've this nagging sensation that it feels a bit tacky with bright colours on brown though, I will have to redraw it one more time I think. It all boils down to my obsession with Pharaoh I think. I really like the darker brown in lighter brown they go for.








This theme was more strongly expressed in the prototype (repost from page 2).

[JobLeonard]

Watch out man, once you end up a typography nerd, it's over...

Anyway, this may be the years of running Ubuntu talking, but dark earthen ones (with bright colours mixed in) feel very apt for an African-themed game.

[Greipur]

Watch out man, once you end up a typography nerd, it's over...

As the Swedish saying goes "Jag har många järn i elden.". Which means that I've a lot projects and ideas and passions all at once. So my passions have a balance of terror inside of me.

Anyway, this may be the years of running Ubuntu talking, but dark earthen ones (with bright colours mixed in) feel very apt for an African-themed game.

Very true. Here's a new version, this time with a Sierpinski triangle (and not a Triforce). I tried using Alegreya too.

[JobLeonard]

Well, I'm obviously biased towards Alegreya, so I'm not sure if my judgment is worth anything here

But I like it. At the very least I can objectively say that it looks less geometrically "perfect", and I think that aspect fits the feeling of the game very much. If I think of any other fonts worth trying out, I'll let you know

Have you tried using an interpunct instead of an asterisk? That is, · instead of a *. The latter breaks the immersion because it reminds me of the fact that I'm looking at plain text, instead of letting me focus on the content of the text. (told ya, you don't want to get into typography)

[Greipur]

But I like it. At the very least I can objectively say that it looks less geometrically "perfect", and I think that aspect fits the feeling of the game very much. If I think of any other fonts worth trying out, I'll let you know

Thanks! The team seems to like the font as well so we might migrate to it soon.

Have you tried using an interpunct instead of an asterisk? That is, · instead of a *. The latter breaks the immersion because it reminds me of the fact that I'm looking at plain text, instead of letting me focus on the content of the text. (told ya, you don't want to get into typography)

I could try, but I think asterisks works fine as typographical bullets in general, at least on displays.

[JobLeonard]

I worded that wrong: asterisks pull me out of this game. They work as typographical bullets, but always remind me of plaintext MarkDown documents, if you catch my drift. But it's a very personal thing.

[Greipur]

I worded that wrong: asterisks pull me out of this game. They work as typographical bullets, but always remind me of plaintext MarkDown documents, if you catch my drift. But it's a very personal thing.

Ah, I see. Normal bullet points can be explored for sure.






I've made the first concept art for the city leader, wanted to create something extravagant and pompous, more to follow soon.

[JobLeonard]

Will they have a golden stool?

[nnyei]

Oh, I like that a lot more. I hope you keep it.

[Greipur]

Will they have a golden stool?

Haha, we've quite a lot of inspiration from the Ashanti Kingdom, but I don't want to appropriate such a symbol straight off. I saw an interesting episode about the golden stool and the kingdom in the BBC series Lost Kingdoms of Africa, apparently the people hid the stool from the British when they had colonised the country. It was seen as the most important symbol for their nation and as long as the British didn't have it they still had some pride left. They never found it!

Oh, I like that a lot more. I hope you keep it.

Nice, I think I'll keep it this way.






I don't think I've mentioned this on here, but a few weeks back a nice programmer from the UK contacted us and said that he wanted to be part of our quest to make Crest great. He had read our Early Access preview on Rock, Paper, Shotgun and was inspired to help us. Right now Yasha helps us with the new tutorial. Here's a gif of the tutorial objectives, still WIP.

[JobLeonard]

 

[Greipur]

Here's some new concept art for the city leader, lookin' devious! I'm thinking that each leader will have its own ridiculous hat.

[oldblood]

Just chiming in to say you guys are making awesome progress and I love that new art. Wow. Looks amazing...