Question for Regarding Positioning of Message Boxes

[Treynor]

I've been working on my game for a couple of months now and the one thing that I've really struggled with is text box position. My game is story and dialogue heavy, as such, the player will often find themselves looking at the bottom portion of the screen in order to read. However, I put a lot of care into the interactions between players and NPCs. There's plenty of dynamics in the way NPCs interact, they have reactions, emotions, etc. Yet if the player is consistently looking down, they will miss most of that interaction that lends to a greater narrative. My play tester and greatest critic (my wife) told me the same thing. She often doesn't see what the NPCs are doing unless it's dramatic.

Is this a problem others have as well? I've only found one way to alleviate it: Speech Bubbles. They allow you to look at the action while reading. Am I overthinking this, or is this a legitimate problem that I should be solving?

 

[Shaz]

I think it's a legitimate concern. It's not just that you're looking in one place while the action is happening in another (it's a pretty small window, unless you've changed the window size). It's that you're concentrating on the text, focused on it, so you're excluding what happens elsewhere.

How to overcome it? Not really sure. Speech bubbles is one way. Another might be to draw the text in the middle of the screen rather than at the bottom, and use a transparent/dim background so the map and characters can be seen behind it. That could have its own issues, but it might be worth a bit of testing to see how it goes.

 

[Milennin]

Wouldn't you want to keep actions you want players to see for when they're not reading text? I don't think there should be any text when NPC's perform actions that are important to the event at hand. Put in the action between text boxes, so they read 1 box, then make NPC's do stuff, after that bring up the next text box.

 

[Wavelength]

I'm not a huge fan of speech bubbles (except for comic book-like formats) because they place a very strong veneer of artificiality over their environment, and kind of "compete" with the action that's going on, even if they keep your eye near the right place.

Your concern (and that of your wife) is a very legitimate concern, though; I would lean towards making the action bolder, bigger (in the distances things move), and louder (even a little louder than you think would be right for a cinematic) in order to earn the player's attention for a moment before they go back to reading.

Might be a good idea to post a single scene from your game where you think that this is a big problem, and we can give you opinions not only on whether it's a big enough problem to justify a format change, but also what might be the best way to craft it for a game like yours.

 

[Treynor]

Wouldn't you want to keep actions you want players to see for when they're not reading text? I don't think there should be any text when NPC's perform actions that are important to the event at hand. Put in the action between text boxes, so they read 1 box, then make NPC's do stuff, after that bring up the next text box.

I do both large complex actions that you can't miss, and small ones during conversations. I'm also incorporating those balloons now. I've wanted to use them for a while but it took me a long time to find non-stock ones.

I think it's a legitimate concern. It's not just that you're looking in one place while the action is happening in another (it's a pretty small window, unless you've changed the window size). It's that you're concentrating on the text, focused on it, so you're excluding what happens elsewhere.

How to overcome it? Not really sure. Speech bubbles is one way. Another might be to draw the text in the middle of the screen rather than at the bottom, and use a transparent/dim background so the map and characters can be seen behind it. That could have its own issues, but it might be worth a bit of testing to see how it goes.

The dim background unfortunately removes the UI that I use, and putting it in the middle honestly feels a bit invasive.

I'm not a huge fan of speech bubbles (except for comic book-like formats) because they place a very strong veneer of artificiality over their environment, and kind of "compete" with the action that's going on, even if they keep your eye near the right place.

Your concern (and that of your wife) is a very legitimate concern, though; I would lean towards making the action bolder, bigger (in the distances things move), and louder (even a little louder than you think would be right for a cinematic) in order to earn the player's attention for a moment before they go back to reading.

Might be a good idea to post a single scene from your game where you think that this is a big problem, and we can give you opinions not only on whether it's a big enough problem to justify a format change, but also what might be the best way to craft it for a game like yours.

I'll try to find a problem area and show you tomorrow (past midnight at the moment). Speech bubbles actually work well in my game because it has a comedic overtones. Think of the show Archer. Unfortunately, I have yet to find a plugin that doesn't cause conflicts, or have no word wrapping.

 

[CraneSoft]

The answer depends on: How exactly do your characters interact?

You can do fine with the message box at the bottom of the screen if you are using a Visual-Novel like structure (ADV/NVL formats) where you can convey emotions, reactions and character interactions through full-size character bustshots that take up most of the screen where you can't really "miss" them, with the occasional movement of character sprites and other kind of action in between message boxes when necessary.

On the other hand, if your interaction is purely delivered using movement of character sprites, miniature face portraits and icon balloons, I'd say speech bubbles are a viable alternative similar to RPGs in the 90's (ie. FFVII-IX).

Depending on the game the two may even be interchangeable depending on the scene at hand : it doesn't necessarily mean you have to stick to a single format in the entire game, they can work as long as you as long as you maintain consistency between the two.

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

I agree with Milenin here, separate the actions and texts... Its not just a problem of text positioning really, but rather as Shaz said, of focus..

Even if you use bubbles on top of a character's head, you still cant ensure that the player will see what other stuff is happening simply because the player will tend to focus on the text once the bubble pops up..

Both text and action are visuals, as such it would be quite hard to actually make the player focus on both unless the player is used to doing it..

Note though that this is assuming the actions are subtle ones. If they're flashy enough, it makes things easier.

 

[empresskiova]

If voice acting is an option (most likely not, and that’s ok!), you could try that out.

The message box being at the bottom is a lot like using subtitles; it’s a neccesary sacrifice development has to deal with. Only voice acting in the correct language can handle it.

 

[CaRa_CrAzY]

I would recommend you to take a look at how the Final Fantasy games from the playstation era handled this issue. You can find a lot of references in youtube gameplay videos.
The dialog boxes have dynamic positioning, like a speech bubble, however it's not those standard speech bubbles from comic books, it is indeed a square dialog box like conventional jrpgs.
You also need, like others have pointed out here, to separate the action from the text. You shouldn't take both together since this confuses the person who is reading. This also reminds me from a time when I was taking acting classes and a important feedback I received was to keep my actions clear by not speaking and acting at the same time.

 

[Treynor]

I would recommend you to take a look at how the Final Fantasy games from the playstation era handled this issue. You can find a lot of references in youtube gameplay videos.
The dialog boxes have dynamic positioning, like a speech bubble, however it's not those standard speech bubbles from comic books, it is indeed a square dialog box like conventional jrpgs.
You also need, like others have pointed out here, to separate the action from the text. You shouldn't take both together since this confuses the person who is reading. This also reminds me from a time when I was taking acting classes and a important feedback I received was to keep my actions clear by not speaking and acting at the same time.

Actually, I was just looking at this yesterday. I saw how they use these 'speech bubbles'. The only issue I find, is that in the PS era games had the ability to change camera angles which made for more possibilities. However, I'm currently working on doing it the way you mentioned with the acting classes. I'm pausing the dialogue during certain actions to accentuate them more, but only if they're important or add to the character. I don't want to bore the players with every action. Thanks for your feedback.