Sensuki

Josh also said he'd like to do 2 beta tests instead of 1.

Pre-Production has been going for 8-9 months That said Josh has stated that Pre-production is the most important time on a project, and their thoroughness seems indicative of a smooth production phase.

If you're still planning on 6 months worth of production and 6 months worth of post-production then it looks like June-July next year will be the release date of the game. Fine with me - get it right

If you put the Dialogue box together with the UI in the middle and had a circle thing on each end then it would look good.

The circular room at the top is BG2 The hallways are IWD Cresselack's Tomb

Looks like it could have been taken right out of that level And that's not a bad thing

I actually find this statement a little bit troubling. One of the things I wanted to see over the original was larger portrait sizes. If you're cutting down the UI height then this is unlikely.

Oh yeah will the Vertical slice contain any Voice-over work ?

Is that a rendered dungeon screenshot painted over by Polina or an actual drawing? Either way that is absolutely on the money. Looks very BG2 to me. Glad to see that got some good insight and ideas from the UI discussions. Can't wait for the Gameplay footage at Rezzed

Not really, it really depends on the quality of the rip. Usually if I play a Redbook quality file and an mp3 there's an immediate difference. Dynamics and Impact are usually big giveaways. I use a moderately decent setup compared to the average PC gamer Creative Professional EMU 0404 > (couple of dedicated headphone amps, have 2 diff ones) > Sennheiser HD650s

Are you guys going to consider doing a HQ sound pack for the music, character voices and environmental audio? Most games use fairly compressed audio files to my knowledge, would it be possible to also include the sound files in an uncompressed format, say as a download where you just paste them over the top of the uncompressed sound files? http://docs.unity3d.com/Documentation/Manual/AudioFiles.html Looking at this it seems possible I think since Unity supports uncompressed WAV.

Most popular (controversial) update yet

Yeah but I never for a minute considered the fact that we'd be getting a minimalist UI for an Infinity Engine inspired game The poll results aren't really in your favor atm either

Two UIs = waste of tyme. One UI that collapses in parts = might be worth considering. But I think they are going to be pre-rendering the UI art so that probably won't happen.

I put down $20, but I have 28 days to revoke that. I haven't played any of Double Fine's games and I only backed DFA for the Documentary (which is pretty good I guess) so I'll wait and see if they actually post anything about the gameplay mechanics. The concept sounds cool but yeah as many others have said in a tactical strategy game mechanics or die.

If you don't want a UI, there was a button to play without it in BG2, and there probably will be in this too.

Why dont you just minimize the UI completely ?

of the L shaped ones that is my favorite, but even with the action buttons on the right of the UI, I don't think that is what Josh had in mind. My mockup shows that BG sized portraits are possible within the current mockup space, which is the main thing a lot of people (myself included) miss from the old UIs.

That's fine and that makes perfect sense - I even agree with you. However Josh Sawyer at least has indicated that the Portraits and Ability Icons will be kept together, so that kind of makes the choice of a Sidebar with portraits and abilities or a UI like the mockup. The Baldur's Gate / Icewind Dale 1 style is not being taken into consideration due to the inefficiency of mouse movement. Of those two choices, I will take a bottom UI only I think.

Why is an L-shaped UI more attractive if you can fit those size portraits down the bottom ? I don't know if I'd like an L-shaped UI where the interactive buttons are on the right side of the screen rather than the bottom. It's also a weird lack of symmetry.

GRID PLZ

Don't people spend more time looking at the left side of things though, which is why I moved the Dialogue box to the left in one example. I can't prove that with peer-reviewed academic journals or anything but I've heard it a few times in Web Design and Film.

Attempt #2 & 3

I have a version with the dialogue box on the right and left, check the previous thread page.

Or that I suppose.