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.... nuff said!
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Post by Esco on May 4, 2019 16:43:36 GMT -5
Ok, so as I move further with the project, I am seriously starting to consider smaller things like menus. First up, at the start screen, I plan to put in an options menu. I did have one in the original version of the hack for GM YEARS ago.... but it was very bare bones. And not very good IMO.
Now, I'm not looking for anything major here. But I would like something that would fit well into the game with the rest of the Castlevania aesthetics! I was thinking some kind of background image Castlevania related, followed by the text overlayed over it with various menu options. But that isn't much guidance honestly. Truth is, right now, I'm not sure how to set it up visually. Coding it is simple though, once I have the design layout.
This menu will be a place to set the default controls, video settings, sound levels, etc. There will also be options in each individual save file too. But this screen's settings will function as the default ones for each new file made.
I am just looking for a background, layout and text style that will work good together and fit well into SOTN.
Feel free to post any ideas below. Please include a concept picture with your post. Any suggestions that don't include this will be deleted.
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Post by reapone on Jun 14, 2019 4:53:00 GMT -5
Not an options menu but an idea for a new pause menu, the slider on the right would have the options for relics, spells, familiars, equipment, and system. The character would show what's equipped and everything is pretty much on screen 
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Post by francisco on Jun 17, 2019 12:32:53 GMT -5
So, for the Start Screen menu, maybe it would be a good idea to employ some of Kojima's art as a background. I think this one would suffice Main BackgroundI think some collision could be programmed so: 1 When clicking Alucard's face, a secondary menu for starting Alucard's Story Mode could be selected. 2 & 3 In the same way, clicking on Richter's and Maria's would do the equivalent. 4 Choosing Dracula's would pop up a Menu for the exit, an extra Mode, or whatever you had planned. 5Doing it with the castle on the Background would open the options menu. 6 And the exit would be done clicking on the skull on the lower part of the image. For each of the mini-menus relative to the main three characters, this format (consisting on the character's portrait encased on a framework) could be used (although no as half-assed as I've done it): Character Mini.menu ExampleFor the options Menu i think a format like the previous could be used, but with a small modification, mainly, using a "paper" texture that would go along with the character asigned for this menu, the Master Librarian. These are some of the materials I have gathered: Main Background ArtworkAlucard's Menu ArtworkMaria's Menu ArtworkRichter's Menu ArtworkMaster Librarian's Option Menu ArtworkFrameworkPaper Texture for Options MenuFont
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Phantasmos
Did you find You?
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Post by Phantasmos on Jun 17, 2019 16:10:06 GMT -5
All of the links tell me error 404 page not found. Is that just me?
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Esco
.... nuff said!
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Post by Esco on Jun 17, 2019 18:49:22 GMT -5
All of the links tell me error 404 page not found. Is that just me? Nope. Broken links are broken.
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Post by francisco on Jun 18, 2019 4:35:51 GMT -5
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Post by reapone on Jun 19, 2019 16:31:58 GMT -5
I think I can incorporate something into that into my concept.
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Post by baphomet on Nov 23, 2019 2:14:18 GMT -5
Ill put something together the next few days.
Tying thematically and for color theory I am thinking of using some of the elements from the title screen and file select screen.
Are you wishing to keep the look low res?
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Esco
.... nuff said!
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Post by Esco on Nov 24, 2019 20:41:21 GMT -5
Good question, Baphomet. I'm actually on the fence about the menus. I honestly feel like a mix of high and low res will be fine. On the other hand though, something that was done with just low res pixel art would probably work too. It all depends on the design and look. I will say that I don't think all hi-res would work good for a game like this.
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Post by baphomet on Nov 24, 2019 21:53:52 GMT -5
  These are early starts. I didn't realize the background element for the main menu was the Alucard shield. I have reconstructed pictures before so I think I can actually just build on it. But here is the early attempt. Gonna take a few more days. The other looks boring maybe but it is intentionally so. You'll notice the cropping bars are present. So on him im working in a resolution of 480 by 640 attempting to maintain the 4:3 aspect ratio. It is double the res of the PSX to keep the charm of the pixelated look and to also make scaling certain icons and characters to a proper fit. It is hard to see what is going on just yet. But before rambling too much I need to finish these. But I will try to keep it brief. 1- There will be a box that animates to the right side. When going to any of the menus, the intent here is to highlight the Alucard image in red like Dark Metamorphosis as the "in game sprite" teleports to the right like the simple spell for the Alucard sword. He teleports to the top right and drops into the box that will show up. He will be in his standard walk animation with his shield drawn so when you are swapping the shield and cape he will update visually. 2- When going into the spells menu or relics menu similar things happen. He would demo the spell or relic effect. 3- From the relics menu they are layed out in an easy to organize manner, with the "form souls" occupying up, left, and right of the lion head back ground, and when you highlight them it would manifest the enhancements they have like "power of mist" or "sonar of bat." The familiars gain a simple icon similar to the forms "down" from the lionhead background detail and opens this menu separately. 4- The main menu has two additional subheadings. "Bestiary" and "Castle Map" so in addition to the main game UI map there is a slightly more stylized variant where you can drop details for point of interest. "Soundtrack" might be nice as well. I don't know what your plans are with the Librarian, but before I put in the work (which I wouldn't expect you to simply green light) I wanted to know if these ideas interest you. Honestly the sheild image is going to take the bulk of my time. I could get everything else done in a few hours to simply show off in a nutshell my thoughts. But if you want something that looks a little more polished I could take feedback on these and proceed from there. Layout and style is a big part of what I do.
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Post by baphomet on Nov 24, 2019 22:01:40 GMT -5
oh i realized I wasn't clear. The leftsie image highlights in red and then vanishes AS the in game sprite manifests to the right side of the screen and drops down
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Post by baphomet on Nov 25, 2019 2:22:36 GMT -5
Some progress. My goal was to leave the original asset untampered. The actual Alucard shield is much longer and stylized differently in Kojimas artwork. But with the rounding in the background sprites concessions had to be made. However I am really stoked! I can fit in enough edgework to make it beautiful. I am a bit at a loss though. I attempted to add the super bushy tail of the original artwork but every attempt is making it too busy with the upper elements. I think I will continue with the stonework styled panels that comprise the body of the wolf on the shield.  I think it is coming along nicely! I have much of the other overlays ready after I have added the appropriate coloring and etchwork and I got a nifty idea on how to make the background surrounding the shield fill and still look convincing as semi low res.
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Morell
Fishman
the blood is the life
Posts: 61
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the blood is the life
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Post by Morell on Nov 25, 2019 4:34:25 GMT -5
And here i thought that it is inside of the crypt at the main background, lol! But this makes sense too. To me it seems like under the paws are edges of the bat wings, not body of the wolf. Do you see it too?
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Post by baphomet on Nov 25, 2019 14:33:15 GMT -5
  Above shows the final outline detail work for the shield. I wanted to get as close as possible to the original design. You are partially correct Morell. The design looks like etched stone and more angular than the concept art. I took advantage to shape the wolf fur in such a way that mimics the winged design to create a balance in the art. I took this same design approach for the wolf tail. I wanted to show what progress looks like as well. Extending the shield so it looked more uniform and increasing the detail of the art takes some patience. But the pay off is worth it. Below shows the source material I was working from as well:  Esco, the next phase of what I am working on will use layers in GIMP so if you want anything tweaked on my options menu but you overall like the design we can work backwards on it. This way we aren't looking at tripling efforts. I think you will really enjoy what I have in store for you. The font I will be using is "Cambri" in case you like it and want to use it elsewhere. It is the font used when entering new areas in the original playstation Symphony of the Night. So it is not chosen at random. In addition to my editing on the shield, I wrote in microsoft word layout organizations which keep all of what we love about the menu screen and ditch alot of the bad that came along with it. This is black Friday week and I work retail. My original goal was to have the first draft completed by Thursday and that might still happen. It could just as easily happen on my next day of the week after, of which I do not know what that is.
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Post by baphomet on Dec 3, 2019 17:11:33 GMT -5
I ran into a snag with GIMP with a font I chose that I was really excited to use only to discover the type couldnt be read by the computer.
HOWEVER. This yielded an unintended consequence that I am very much excited about.
One of the reasons retro styled unity menus look so off is how clean they look. And alot of this comes from the super crisp font. It often makes the game look "retro" instead of authentic.
And so I have invested the time into better understanding the fonts and how they operated. And most fonts use an 8 pixel all capslock font. So what I have done so far, is built fonts on an 8 by 8 and 16 by 16 tile which I am still working on to capture the authenticity of the experience.
I am at work right now and so far this is only preliminary. But what it allows for, is having the shield in the background zoomed in to 270 pixels utilizing a method of planing that other effects are already using.
So the UI might begin in the top left quadrant at that resolution with the text scroll off to the side.
When you select a menu item rather than using a fade out effect... the "camera" will transition to another quadrant and the resulting texts and boxes will "fade in" making the UI unique.
In the Relics page, UI boxes and fonts fade out... and the camera pans back to 540 verticle lines of resolution and the relics fade in and adorn the shield. From there you get to scroll through the various relics with basic information on one side of the screen and some for of visual element using the 16 by 9 area for either side of the screen.
Its shaping up to be quite beautiful.
Once I have a little more work done, Im going to submit a proof of concept using one full UI screen and then virtual assets of the proposed pieces.
The font in question, is not the one used in SotN as it is visually horrible. Instead I am using the anglicized font style of the famous Japanese SotN retranslated hack font.
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