[Adonthell-artwork] User interface, anyone?

[Kai Sterker]

I finally want to go ahead with implementing the new user interface,
but truth to be told, I did not get very far.

In order to implement anything, I need to know how it should look
like, and right now I am a bit at a loss. OTOH, I'd like to keep it
simple and elegant, but OTOH it should fit with the visuals of the map
graphics.

My idea for the dialogue window is the following:

    http://adonthell.linuxgames.com/files/gui_dialogue.png

The area covered by the window should leave the character's heads
visible, if possible. The actual portrait could stick out at the top
and we could display it left or right, depending on the position of
the character sprites. (Although with larger maps, those should always
be in the center of the view, anyway). Font could be bit smaller than
on the picture, but probably not by much. We could even have a bit of
a border along the top (and bottom?). Maybe that could be where the
pixel art visual could come into play. How the scrollbar for such a
layout could look like is beyond my imagination right now. But if we
had a border on top and bottom, we could possibly make the scrollbar
to fit with that.

Since the other GUI elements should match that style, I made another
little test with a speech bubble:

    http://adonthell.linuxgames.com/files/gui_speech_bubble.png

In my opinion, it looks too plain the way it is. But maybe we could
add some ornamentation to two of the edges, matching the border of the
dialogue window and highlighting the pixel art aspect.

I guess that any other windows (save/load screen, main menu, python
console) could be designed to match when we get something nice for the
two cases above going. Remember, we're a bit more free with the design
as we were with v0.3, since every GUI element can have its own skin.
See:

    http://adonthell.berlios.de/doc/index.php/Graphics:GUI

So, fellow artists: anyone want to have a go at a design? That's
really one of the things that need to happen next to get along with
v0.4. I might find some other spots to tinker with, but getting a
decent user interface working would be great!


Oh, and I won't mind if anyone comes up with a different proposal. As
I said, I'm lacking inspiration right now, so fresh ideas are more
than welcome :-).

Kai