Just a quick comment about user interface design and game programming after reading various comments on Unangband UI, Dwarf Fortress vs. Minecraft and Civilisation V.
I find that you need to spend about 3 to 5 times the amount of time and/or effort on explaining the features of the game, as implementing the features in the first place. This includes user interface design and documentation and is probably an underestimate for games in general, because I design most of the documentation to be generated rather than hand written.
Tuesday, 28 September 2010
Design ratios
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2 comments:
Heh, that's a cheap excuse for focusing only on the juicy bits of PCG and the hack and slash mechanics. :D
I think the user interface is the single most important aspect of a roguelike game, and a developer should expect to spend development time accordingly. ASCII graphics are not intuitive, so it takes a lot of work on interface to overcome that disadvantage.
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