/vr/ - Retro Games

>>10372470
>>10373090
>>10373616
This can go either way.
The core difference is that old UIs were built entirely from scratch for a specific game (sometimes re-used within a franchise). Newer games are more likely to assemble a generic UI from stock widgets and a custom skin. This makes it easy to include features so that you aren't cycling in and out of a menu screen 10 times in a row buying potions, but will also encourage settling for "good enough" pre-made components rather than thoughtful custom designs.

>>8347443
>people could explain
Clearly YOU can't though. I will explain why I know this.
Any good informal discussion involves a mix of high-level terms and details. You start out talking in general terms and then get more specific based on what the people involved are interested in.
You go the opposite direction. You see the term soul and instead of getting more specific, you get LESS specific. You start whining about the meta, because that's easier and requires less thought, but lets you stroke your own ego.
>>8347663
>Soul is a really meaningless term
No, it's really not. It's a general term with some subtle implications that you fail to grasp.

>>7953350
top is just so much better, I haven't even played the game.

I did a comparison of the original Master of Magic vs screenshots from the upcoming remake. I was focused on graphic design (the old interface is more efficient and effective, designed for the game, the modern interface is just whatever easiest widgets can be bolted on). But the aesthetics are disappointing, too.

Some thoughts, mostly on what seems to me as graphic design issues:

- The UI layout looks very generic and in some cases missing key details. For example, in the original game, the town view shows a view of the surrounding land which not only includes special resources but also all the terrain types and units. City dynamics are influenced by the terrain and it's helpful to know exactly which tiles are owned or shared.
- The overland map is way too zoomed-in. This is a global conquest game and the overworld map should be tuned so that you can see large regions of the world at once while readily identifying the terrain types and other buildings, cities and units in the area. You'll probably be able to zoom-out the camera, but again the point is that whole thing should be designed to default at a higher level view.
- It looks like the overland unit icons are just the same as the battle representation, which is a poor choice IMO. The overland view should be high-level and have abstract, colorful icons representing unit stacks. Instead of focusing on the animated 3D models, they should design UI details to visually convey details like the number of units in a stack.
- The combat map also appears more zoomed-in than it needs to be, although this is less of an issue than the overworld view. In the OG, you can see the entire battlefield without needing to scroll at all.
- Move to hex is really disappointing. Not something that should have been changed.

These may seem like nitpicks but I find a major problem in modern games especially small-studio remakes is soulless graphic design aimed at ticking boxes, solving unimportant problems and meeting arbitrary aesthetic standards rather than really focusing on designing the best interface for the game.