Over a week since I last wrote, because I’ve not done much, really. I was a bit sick the week before last (yes, again), and since then I’ve been wasting away. So just a short one tonight, or this morning, actually, because it’s gone three.

I got together a couple of first sketches for what my UI might look like. I started with something really basic, baed pretty heavily off of cyberpunkdreams. The problem I’m having with it is that I think it’s extremely fucking boring. The UI obviously needs to be functional, but does that mean it needs to be so tediously practical?

rubbish ui

The issue I’m having is that my game focuses on having lots of cards. So I need a place for decks, and for the player’s hand. And I need a place for the inventory and the equipped gear. And even for reputation among factions and stuff like that. It could obviously be on a different screen, or some of that stuff could, but I figure if I can fit it all on one, then why make people click more than they have to?

So this would be a very basic way of doing that. The hand at the top, with various decks, location-specific actions in the middle, quests and rep on the right, and character stuff (stats and gear) on the left. Somewhere else there’d be a button for the inventory, because that obviously needs a lot of space, assuming I add a lot of items to the game. Here’s a slightly prettier version Claude mocked up for me:

test video game

I don’t really like Claude’s either, but it’s barebones, of course. I did have the idea of making the UI an actual location - so for example, if you’re at the central square, there’ll be a statue you can click, a coffee shop, a government building, whatever; they will be actual elements you can click. Then the hand will be fanned out at the bottom of the screen. But that’s a lot of work, and I don’t actually know how to do that, and also I’d have to design or find nice artwork for all of that, and I don’t even know it’s what I want.

Well, anyway. Instead of answering all of those questions, and making a basic version of the UI (which I basically need to do before I continue writing and coding; otherwise I’ll be making a rod for my own back in the future), I’ve been playing as England, and after as Britain, in Europa Universalis. France were bossing me around for ages, but I recently cakewalked them in a humiliation war I started with the help of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Hilarious that there’s a casus belli which is just ‘humiliate your rival’. When it’s against the French it’s even better. Nothing I like more than humiliating the French.

Anyway, that’s enough for me today. I should go to bed, seeing as I have work tomorrow still and it’s pushing four. Remember to wash your hands.