Designing the UI for my Farming Game
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- čas přidán 31. 05. 2024
- Devlog video about "Homegrown", a casual farming game I'm creating using my own engine.
Play my previous game "Equilinox":
store.steampowered.com/app/85...
Support the channel on Patreon and get access to the game & code for Homegrown, the city-builder, and Equilinox:
/ thinmatrix
UI database website: www.gameuidatabase.com/
Flat icons: pictogrammers.com/library/mdi/
You can follow the progress of the game on my social media:
Twitter: / thinmatrix
Instagram: / thinmatrix
Facebook: / thinmatrix
Trello: trello.com/b/W3zkIJTM/farm
Email: thinmatrix@gmail.com
Background music by Jamal Green:
open.spotify.com/artist/50jTM...
Outro music by Dannek Studio:
/ dannekstudio
#devlog #Homegrown - Hry
I've been watching you since I was 13-14 man, and now I'm 20. Thank you for just motivating me, and the game looks amazing.
This channel was one of my biggest inspirations in life and definitely contributed to me studying computer science
Hey man, same. Trying to make my own game is what really hooked me on to programming.
This.
Keep watching for another 10 years and you will be 30, if my math is correct.
@@konjecture Let me crunch those numbers...yep, looks like you are correct.
Im sure enough people have said this but the UI looks amazing so far and I love the fact colours can be changed. It would be so cool if we could do this in the game as a setting and apply our own custom colours. Love the progress and I look forward to seeing the next devlop. Keep it up :)
Yeah, exactly my thoughts!
Or depending on the time of day they change!
why not have some reward or quest to complete that gives you more choice in the colors of UI you can choose from
@@alexisbrin518yea that’s a great idea, like unlock different colours
@@alexisbrin518 Not being able to change the colors to whatever you want from the start presents a usability issue for those who experience some level of color blindness. The idea of unlocking colors sounds cool but since this affects UI, it's probably best to avoid it.
i really like the color scheme system you made, especially when you were switching between them (blue > brown > lightblue)
to me, it immediately felt like you were switching to a different season. the darker greenish blue would be a nice winter color and the browns for autumn.
I was looking for this comment, instantly felt the same and think it would really cool to switch them with the seasons changing :)
Would be a nice option for the player so they can choose between different color schemes.
It would be cool if the transition from the farm to the town was in the style of the cloud like shapes in the UI
Something like The Simpson intro sounds wonderful. However, do consider how often this will get used. Such detail transition required times for people to perceive and might not fit how often we need to see it. If a game flow required me to visit the town often then it might be annoying. Need to find that balance.
Designer here. Keep the cell shading, thats great. Small dark circles around the inventory numbers. The white text on the green was still readable. Keep going in this direction!
Also for the fertilizer buttons, keep the design it's great, just scale down the tag.
Remember that simplicity is the ultimate sophistication
Ahh, the anti-wintergaten theorem
"A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Text with a solid high contrast backing is preferable to throwing an outline on it with that color, legibility wise. (So make it an inventory counter *circle* instead of a number + outline)
Looks awesome. Very clean and suits the overall style.
Thank you :)
I have the same feeling of “What makes a UI look good?” It’s the biggest thing for me as a Website Developer.. Glad to see I’m not alone.
"I've been working on it so long I've lost the ability to look at it objectively." I feel this every time I do world design or UI design for long periods of time. Always great to have other people give you unbiased notes.
I definitely like the more imperfect design for the buttons/icons. Makes the game look a bit more cozy, for lack of a better word. Would be neat if the player could make/choose there UI own UI Color Schemes.
7:07 - for the fertilizer tags, maybe it'd help if you made the text colors a darker version of the current background, and the background much lower opacity (or blended more with the parent container's background). That should maintain contrast while reducing attention to them
also - the headers for each statistic ("Contents:", "Fertilizers:") may look nicer without the colon as they are headings anyways. To make them look more like headings without the colon, increase their font size & bottom margin. another thing that might help with distinguishing between headings and normal text is to make headings look _more_ contrasting against the background by making normal text _less_ contrasting against the background
finally I really wish Dosis had a monospace (tabular) numbers OpenType feature for numeric values...nothing much can be done about that...
overall the ui looks really good and fits the "cleanliness" of the game's artstyle :)
Thanks for the suggestions!
UI looks better than what I could do. Also Shneiderman’s 8 “golden rules” of UI could help you.
Considering, that currently no sky is visible, I really like that you have chosen clouds as accents, that balances it out.
Dude loves the workspace selfies. Game's looking really nice.
4 years since the city builder already? Feels like yesterday to me, time sure flyes by!
It is a good dayyyy!!!
the UI Colour could maybe be a option in the settings that players can change them self if they want
I think the cell shading looks nice for the icons despite the models in-game not having cell shading. It fits the UI thematically
I absolutly love that navy blue color scheme it feels so fresh and pops
Graphic designer here with some feedback: The buttons with text could use a little more padding. It will be easier to read and will look less cluttery. love the faux drawn icons!
Always nice to see these devlogs. Some of the best!
Nice call on adding the little accents to the bubbles, it does help give the UI some personality
This is a long awaited update! Fantastic job!
Looking good! I recommend removing the boxes from the hotbar totally and perhaps adding a single wide element as the background. The slots would still be there but a bit less visible 👌
Looking great, I'm always so drawn in with your videos!
Looks amazing as always man so happy to see how far this has come!
THIS IS AMAZING! This guy is someone i wait excitedly to upload cause i love his content and just love all around😁
What a timing ❤
I was about to start implementing UI for my own open world farming game and I can’t believe you uploaded a video about it. Thank you so much and this looks absolutely amazing 😍😍
You’re slowly motivating me to start out and make some small games just for educational reasons. Love your content
Amazing work like always! I so can't wait to play another amazing game from you. This one is my fav as i love gardening and always wanted a game that is like this!
The colorscheme at 11:37 looks the best in my opinion.
There's always so much work that goes into the little things that people look over. UI is absolutely one of these things. Glad there's a video discussing the process that goes into it!
As always amazing! My partner has recently started a UI UX course so she has found this fascinating also, can't wait to see more!
Always a pleasure to see progress. Loving the new UI.
It looks so good! Super clean, and so very pleasant to look at. I'm so hyped for this game!
I think you've done an excellent job with the design but also setting the foundations for future changes. Cell shading looks good, but I believe the animations play a bigger role in this specific type of game, they provide feedback and make the game feel more "alive" (icon wiggling or zooming in, etc).
Also, make sure you run the animations on the icons when using the keyboard, and not just the mouse.
Game is looking great, thank you for sharing your talent with us!
Looks amazing! Well done - you never disappoint ❤
I really like your UI Design approach - keep it up!
Dude I REALLY like this UI design. This is so impressive for real!
More impressed with the place you live 😮
So much Nature around❤️
I think I watched your LWJGL videos a long time ago and now you have a game released and even working on another? That is amazing man! Trying to get back into my hobby of game dev can be difficult but once you're in it your locked down and I love every second of it.
You are doing great and living a lot of peoples' dreams!
LOVE the hand drawn look on icons and buttons!!!
As soon as I start work on UI and get stumped you upload. Great work Bro!
I’ve been playing skyrim and i think their potion mixing system is amazing and could be incorporated in your compost system. Basically so that when you first start the game, you do not know the effects of the fertilizers in the shop and you have to add them and wait for the compost to be ready and only then will you discover the effects of the fertilizers. That could give some progression to the compost system and also, could allow you to have a few sneaky fertilizers with negative buffs;)
UI is one of my favourite parts of programming! Thank you for this video.
Very nice. Gives different feel to the game. Big improvement. Happy you've corrected perspective on top-left clock icon, to be the same as coin.
Nice work as always, I think the UI looks great, love the button style you've gone for and I especially like the transition button too!
I think knowing where to draw a line under a task (at least for stage 1) is a good skill to have in development as you could keep doing the UI until its perfect...then you add the menu and realise you have to change it again!
Loving the UI design and layout! Great work dude!
The new UI genuinely looks so amazing, I love it! For someone who struggles with designing UI you did a really good job!
Implementing your UI controls as separate parts you can color through code is actually a big step towards accessibility because then you can allow the user to adjust the color scheme to fit their personal needs. Vision impairments are varied and personal. If they can adjust font size or the whole UI scale as well, that’s great too.
The most anticipated episode is here!!!! I haven't been this excited before!
The UI looks great! As a software developer myself I also struggle with creating professional looking UI. I would be very happy with myself if I produced that UI!
The blue colors look great. My favorite is the darker blue palette
I like how smooth/rounded the new UI looks. It fits well with the aesthetic of your vegetables.
If you need inspiration for icons and stuff, it might also be helpful to look at how e.g. plants are sold/presented, the next time when you're buying something for your balcony.
Keep up the good work. I'm looking forward to your next devlog.
Your game already looks so professional.
i compiled a list f really cool features that you may consider adding to the game here it is:
*1.* Currently some players will think that making their farm good and look good is useless, so why not make a competition that happens from time to time
and its a competition for the best farm, and the rewards may be: ingame coins, etc..
*2.* Make guides for everything because if you're a new player you wouldn't know the mechanics without watching the devlogs
*3.* And for the paths getting dirty mechanic make it so that for the dirt paths the thing you clean is fallen leaves instead of dirt
because cleaning dirt from dirt paths is kinda stupid
and a fun little idea! : make the harvesting sound effects of the game from your irl little garden, record sounds of you harvesting and add it to
the game, if it sounds good of course
I love the ambient light around your set up. And the video is nice!
Also: perhaps a radial menu around wherever the mouse pointer currently is and selecting a tool by moving the mouse into the radial sector of the tool would help the usability.
I first watched you and bought Equilinox when I got out the hospital about 5-6 years ago. still very underated.
That idea of trying to draw over/around a professional icon to give it more personality is really smart. Wow. Thank you.
These curvy bits in the UI make me think that we're in the sky / clouds.
This game is really coming together. Great devlog
Looks good. The "wavey bits" on the icons remind me of clouds, which fits in nice with the whole farm, outdoor theme. You could make the colour scheme selectable in preferences in the future as well, so people select which works best for them. Maybe even a colour blind mode.
Looks really nice and fits the theme nicely!
looking insane. Must be hard to keep work so consistent for so long and after all that time seeing the end result. Very satisfying feeling i am wondering
Great video. I'd say you're doubting your own ability to make good UI - your concepts, ideas, styles and implementations are really awesome! Great work
Ui is looking very nice, i like the hand drawn look. Perhaps, instead of trying to figure out the perfect ui color just make it a feature for players to switch the ui color when they want?
Inspiring as always! Thanks 🙏
Looks amazing! I really like the big juuuuuuuicy outlines, and the fluffy UI shapes are really nice :D
Having the ui be adjustable in code is so cool. I'll keep this approach in mind :)
The design is very well consistently stylized and overall cohesive with the rest of the game. It even matches the color palette pretty well. I do like the organic drawing but it may be overaccentuated in the plain buttons. Maybe it's too much shadow or something, but, if there were any weak points in the overall design, that'd probably be it
ui look great imo u can be proud, crazy how you seem to be able to learn anything
one thing id change would be making the outlines white rather than black, maybe it would fit better with the general color scheme of the game while still keeping the readability that an outline gives
id try it at least
also idk if you plan implementing a day night cycle in the game but if you do, the ui could change depending on the time
all in all great work man love these videos always make me happy to watch
Wow. the design is sooo good!
Keep the cell shading in the icons IMO. It looks fantastic and gives the interface some charm. For some reason it reminds me of Dragon Quest 8, which is one of my favourite childhood games of all time, so maybe I'm biased.
when you're plucking all the carrots the pop sound plays everytime and i feel like it might be fun to add a little randomness to the pitch to spice it up a little sometimes, like the animal crossing dialogue and stardew valley :)
The sound does actually already have randomized pitch, but I guess not random enough! I'll increase the variance a bit :)
Nice !
To speed up your photoshop process of outlining each icon, you might consider using the "outline" effect under "fx" right next to the "new layer" icon.
You could put the number of items in the inventory in a little circle shaped darker backround. This is a quick visual queue where you can tell its a stack of items
The UI looks great. I particularly like the render for each item.
UI looks fantastic, perfect for this style of game
I love the visual update. They seriously add to the character and charm of the game. Great work!
Thanks a lot ^^
this is beautiful work
Great improvement on the UI!
looks lovely
The UI is absolutely beautiful, congratulations
Finally got around to playing Equilinox and loved it, which then raised two questions: "Is there more games from the same developer" and "Are there any videos about why and how the game was made?"
Well, finding this video and this channel answers those questions quite thoroughly. I guess I have a lot of videos to pore through!
The Game UI Database also looks fantastic and something I definitely make use in the future. Subscribed, excited to follow the progress!
I like the UI. Suits the game nicely. I didn't know there is a game UI database. Thanks for the info!
If you are going to redraw over some icons, the brush tool for most art programs has a smoothing function that lets you freehand your lines without the jitter one would get from drawing with a mouse. You could give that a go. Wonderful video, amazing to see how the game is coming along!
UI is surprisingly hard. I've done it professionally a few times. I think you've done a brilliant job with it so far. I'm dyslexic, I like that font, it's not hard for me to read.
UI is overlooked by many players, but spending the time to get it into a great state pays off. Overall great progress!
something I've always loved the idea of but never really seen implemented in a game (except for Hades, actually!!) is unlockable UI color schemes :)
i think it could be really fun to unlock various color schemes through gameplay (maybe tied to an achievement system or some such) and thus allow the user to choose their own game look
anyway, here's to another smashing devlog!!
Brilliant.
UI ATM seems to have gone clean and simple. You have done a great job with the overhaul so far.
Regards the colour scheme, since you have programmed it, why not offer the option in the settings menu? Would that be a nightmare to code??
UI looks really good, clean, simple and fits the game perfectly
Text is 100% more readable if it has a contrasting update. If you want a light text, give it a thin dark outline; inverse also applies.
Going to watch the whole video now
That UI looks really good! Gives the whole game a lift.
Man, every time you release a video I feel the urge to work on game development again. Your work is just so inspiring; it's polished, but doesn't feel overly complicated where you'd just have no idea where to start.
I really should just focus on getting my degree though.. I mean, one day of programming couldn't hurt, right? Maybe 2?..
Your irl garden inspired me to have my own garden! So far it's growing well! )
I've worked on a bit of accessibility for web development and instantly thought, "what? That's plenty high contrast enough" as I usually just review my designs in monochrome to check the contrast for low vision or colour blind folks. Then I realised I've never considered how to make my designs accessible for people with dyslexia; I don't even have any idea how to check! It's nice to have a reminder to never stop learning.
Timestamp 5:50, the buttons you hand drew. I think I see why you're undecided. the shadow you've drawn loops around both sides and makes the eye not see it as a shadow anymore. I like the "informal button" look you went with, but that's what stood out to me. The wavy bits work really well: it moves those boxes and buttons away from the standard box design you mentioned yourself. I think the icons popping out of the hot bar lends itself nicely to your goal of an informal look. I think you've got a good start for a kind of style guide. Something very specific to Homegrown.
Hey great video! I think the brown color scheme is a lot more clean than the others, you can still see the buttons perfectly fine but there is a lot less jarring contrast.