Here are some ideas for user interface. I think the user interface should be clear enough for the eyes to see but compact enough so it doesnt block much of the map. Afterall, the screen is limited. Today's agenda will focus on the HP bar concept, life, scoreboard, damage values, fevor bar, D-Pad, and buttons.
HP Bar
The HP bar should be located on the top left or right of the screen because the bottom is reserved for D-Pad, jump, attack, and weapon swapping. Putting the hp bar on the sides should be avoided because not only will it block the map a bit but it will be unpleasant to the eye. The small space is very crucial for a this game style and screen.
For damage calculations, we will have two types of hp bar in a single bar - Actual and Regenable.
The current idea is to split the damage the weapon master (WM) receives into actual and regenable damage. Actual damage is the damage the WM receives and it can be only healed via potions, rations, etc dropped by monsters. Regenable damage is damage that can be regenerated via killing/slashing the monster. Something like using their blood to bathe your wound kinda thing. However, if the actual part is reduced to 0, then the WM dies regardless of his regenable hp. The damage formula would probably look something like (damage x .75 = actual) and (damage x 25 regen).
- An idea would be to designate a weapon that has life steal aura and every level the WM completes, the weapon that has the aura will be different - this will probably be considered the "hard" level. An easy game level would have the aura for all weapon; normal level would have aura for all weapons with lesser % hp regen;hard level would have aura for random weapon with even lesser %hp regen.
Scoreboard
Any game contains a scoreboard and this game is no different. The scoreboard will be located at the top right/left corner of the screen. Basically, the score starts out with eight zeros (ie. 00000000) and it will increase throughout the gameplay - stardard arcade scoreboard interface. We are still discussing whether we should grant extra life to the user when certain amount of score is met or let the user clear certain number of levels to gain an extra life.
Life
The WM will start off with 4 lives for easy mode, 3 for normal, and 2 for hard. This will change if needed during alpha testing. As discussed earlier, we might let the user receive extra life after reaching a certain amount of scores or after a certain amount of levels are cleared or one of these two and random life drop from monsters. The life will be denoted by an icon with a number beside it as this seems to be the most space efficient.
Damage Values
We like big numbers. So we're going to aim for big numbers. The damage cap will probably be 9999 because if the damage is too large, it will hog too much space on the screen. When the WM hits a monster, a damage number will pop nearly the top-center-right of the sprite and will fade away after a second or so. There will be critical hits too, so they will appear slightly different than normal damage.
Fevor Bar
It is kind of hard to display a fevor bar because of space availability. We can put a "combo #" text on the upper-centered-right screen to indicate this. When fevor is increasing, the combo text will gradually change color until its "hot" .. maybe red/yellow or something.
D-Pad
The D-Pad will only have left and right arrows as there will be a button for jumping. Crouching is unnecessary at the moment. Maybe we will implement this feature for later releases to introduce new levels. It will be located near bottom-left of the screen.
Buttons
I think we should have only the jump button and 4-weapon-swap button and no attack button. Its already difficult to touch on the iPhone with so many things on the UI. We should allow the user to tap anywhere on the screen to attack. It allows users to act faster when switching weapon for combos since they are not restricted to a certain area on the screen.
