UI sweetness
Posted: 16 Mar 2011, 01:08
Hi everyone, I was thinking of starting a discussion around the best ways to present a CCG game, in terms of user interface. I'm currently thinking a bit about the general flow of my application and I'd like to see if you guys have anything in particular you'd recommend. Giving examples from other apps would be great. It can come from the many MTG games that exist, but I'm also interested in how other CCG games solve this (this is where I'm not very familiar with the ecosystem). The question is open and applies as much to in-game UI as to deck editors or library browsers or whatever.
Any jewels of UI design? Any "little big detail" that completely changes the experience? Some starting points:
Is it important to be able to navigate to/from the deck editor while in the game lobby (think network multiplayer)? While the game is in progress? What's the best way to present a deck in the editor? What's the best way to display your hand? the library/graveyard? How to represent combat efficiently? Is it important that windows be "dockable" (i.e. the user can change the layout)?
I'm guessing it's important to leave out as much space as possible to the "table" (where the cards are) but I can think of a lot of other "widgets" that can take up space (the "hand", the chatbox, the console, score, player info, current phase, card info). Is there an app that really manage to do a great job at presenting all those efficiently? Talking about the "card info" panel, is the usual "hover a card to see the info" a good paradigm? What about "right click a card and it fills the whole screen so you can see its details"?
Thank you for your suggestions.
Any jewels of UI design? Any "little big detail" that completely changes the experience? Some starting points:
Is it important to be able to navigate to/from the deck editor while in the game lobby (think network multiplayer)? While the game is in progress? What's the best way to present a deck in the editor? What's the best way to display your hand? the library/graveyard? How to represent combat efficiently? Is it important that windows be "dockable" (i.e. the user can change the layout)?
I'm guessing it's important to leave out as much space as possible to the "table" (where the cards are) but I can think of a lot of other "widgets" that can take up space (the "hand", the chatbox, the console, score, player info, current phase, card info). Is there an app that really manage to do a great job at presenting all those efficiently? Talking about the "card info" panel, is the usual "hover a card to see the info" a good paradigm? What about "right click a card and it fills the whole screen so you can see its details"?
Thank you for your suggestions.