Design of Game Windows

[StrawberrySmiles]

Sorry for the long title!


I've always wondered -- how do game developers deal with designing the appearance and color scheme of game windows?


I struggle with this part myself. I never know what colors I should choose, and what my menus, message windows, etc. should look like.


How do you all decide this?


What do you think the best way to decide all this is?


Let's discuss! ^^

 

[kerbonklin]

I guess the first step is thinking about the theme of the game. Then things like "What kind of mood does the current art style project?"  So you use this stuff to design a pretty window frame, and the window color should be something simple that shows good against whatever font / choice-box-shadings you use.

If you want to use something super simple though, maybe a simple color window with a simple custom border? Like for example the windows and text boxes used in Tales of Phantasia were blue or green gradients-like (kind of like a sandpaper feel?) with a bevel border and white, simple-to-read font white text.

 

[Sharm]

I've wondered how people pull it off too. I just make a bunch of different window skins until I get something that's close and tweak it from there.

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

I wonder too... All I do is do what I want at the moment then hope that it fits to the game

 

[StrawberrySmiles]

I guess the first step is thinking about the theme of the game. Then things like "What kind of mood does the current art style project?"  So you use this stuff to design a pretty window frame, and the window color should be something simple that shows good against whatever font / choice-box-shadings you use.

This kind of makes sense to me.


Though, sadly, I'm not sure what kind of mood the art style projects for the game. o.o It kind of reminds me of other games, so maybe I can use them as an example. XD

 

[Ronpa]

I actually like ones with plain backgrounds. I like fancy borders, though!

I don't know if I'm just weird, but gradient looks like it belongs in either a futuristic/sci-fi type game or one for a very young audience. In general, I don't like it though. If you want to be unique, I'd mess with the borders. But that's just me. Don't let it stop you, lots of people love gradients for all types of games.

 

[Zoltor]

The most important thing is, for there to be a strong contrast between the color of the window, and the color of the text. This is why blue windows have become so common, it doesn't clash with your mapping tiles, and plain old white text shows up well on it.

I'm personally using a super dark blue(midnight for the text/name boxes), and a slightly lighter blue for all the other windows, plus I'm using the Windowskin that came with the DS pack, which since my game has a fantasy setting, the antique brown border fits exceedingly well.

The white letters pop on the dark blue backgrounds, it makes what is probally known as FF blue by now, look like a POS.

 

[Ellie Jane]

Windowskins are probably the most neglected part of a game. I'd say create the game first and then work it out based on how the game itself looks. And always, when you're making the graphics for the windows, do it on a screenshot of the actual game, rather than by memory.


Windowskins are the one graphic that is seen in every single scene of the game. They're the theme that carries through into every map, every battle, every menu. They're there in every part of the project, and yet they are often the bit that's thrown in at the end with little thought.


You need it plain enough to read text off it. Either pale (not white) with near-black text, or dark (not black) with near-white text. Thin borders, but plainly visible ones, that offset the window against the map, and also that tile well when placed next to one another for menus and such.


Don't go too fancy. In fact the best windowskin I've seen was a plain cream comic-style speech bubble, that used one colour throughout and just had a shadow added on in a graphics program. It worked really well. The worst I've seen was an elaborate textured skin that probably took hours to create but ultimately rendered the game unplayable.