Menu Design Critique

[death by moogles]

I'm satisfied with the aesthetics, but I feel as if it's missing something.

There's no need for HP, MP, or actor status because all of the characters are completely healed after each battle. The orbs to the right of each character's name indicate how many abilities that character has equipped in comparison with how many they can equip. My main concern is the blank space to the right of the screen.

I'd like to note that I would just like critique on the menu layout, design, and especially opinions on the empty spaces, not the artistic style that I'm employing for the project, or anything regarding the characters or the world that they imply. The character sprites are incomplete.

It's not a screen shot; it's a pixel-for-pixel mock-up of what will be used in-game.

Any help is welcome; I really want this system finished and integrated so that I can continue with development. I thank you in advance.

 

[LaDestitute]

It's just me, but I think the Inventory option sould have priority over all others.
As for the empty space, I would suggest centering the sprite, name and so on; or add EXP (Current, Next, and Total) to the empty space and switching it's space with the level part.

 

[Atoa]

Even being completely healed show the max value of HP/MP would be good.
Just so the player can keep track of character power.

 

[death by moogles]

Ah, I agree with you, Miles. I hadn't put much priority into the order of the list because of the ease of changing it after integration. That was silly of me. Anyway, I changed the menu list order, as well as centering the character information.

@Atoa
I contest character level to be a more accurate gauge of character power than HP and MP. HP and MP are absolutely significant though, so I'll take your opinion under advisement; character level doesn't directly measure HP and MP, so it would be useful to have that information on the main menu for efficiency.

Can I have more opinions on the HP/MP issue? I'm for, but also against. Any input is welcome.

What do you think now?

EDIT: Disregard the odd spacing between the value and 'Gil'. I'm not exactly sure how that happened.

 

[Stardust]

I think displaying the max HP/MP would be a good idea so the player can keep track of character progress. And I'm probably a little strange in this regard, but sometimes I'll use those values to differentiate between characters and their roles. Like I'll find the main damage dealer by looking for the character with the most HP and look for a magic user based on max MP. The names and everything are there, but sometimes I just like to use those values to figure out which character does what during battles.

 

[death by moogles]

Thank you Atoa and Panther for convincing me to add HP and MP! i also added a gauge beneath the characters' levels that indicates how much EXP the character needs until a level up. Vaan's EXP is a little less than half. How does that look? Is there anything else that I should add?

 

[gRaViJa]

A FF XII fangame with NES-like graphics? Intresting! I also like the design of the menu now. Definilty looks better with the HP and MP.

 

[LaDestitute]

Look's great!

 

[death by moogles]

A FF XII fangame with NES-like graphics? Intresting! I also like the design of the menu now. Definilty looks better with the HP and MP.

Thanks for the interest, and thank you for not bashing! If it would've been negative, I'd probably be singing some song about how "I SPECIFIED THAT I DIDN'T BLAH BLAH BLAH," so here's me calling out my doubled standards :D!

Look's great!

Thank you! I appreciate your criticism!

Another thanks to Atoa and Panther!

 

[supermanabc]

What program did you use to make the menu. I love the white outline around the words and would like to know how you made them.

The menu is very neat and would only recommend putting something like a coin in front of the 9999999 gil. It may just be a personal thing, but I think it would look nice.

 

[Atoa]

I thik you could move Gil a bit dow and put on the side of it the play time, since the space bellow charater stat is empty.

 

[death by moogles]

What program did you use to make the menu. I love the white outline around the words and would like to know how you made them.

I just used Gimp :D! To make the black outline around the text, I simply made a black stroke on a layer below the text and then filled the space within the stroke with black so that it looks all nice and neat.

The menu is very neat and would only recommend putting something like a coin in front of the 9999999 gil. It may just be a personal thing, but I think it would look nice.

Easy!

That's an in-game shot; the entire menu is completely functional. You'll note that I changed the orbs, which indicate the amount of abilities that the character has equipped, to a fraction. Everything else is the same though.

I thik you could move Gil a bit dow and put on the side of it the play time, since the space bellow charater stat is empty.

Actually, the entire menu is evented; I don't have the room for more than two digits underneath the Gil digits. I could easily move the Gil over to the right and put a timer in its place though.

 

[death by moogles]

Bump for update.

The battle system that I'm using has undergone a giant overhaul, so I've been forced to rework the menu system. Unfortunately, the information that's required is somewhat hard to fit into the small area that I have left. I've added tabs that display each character's current class and nudged the character names up slightly to make a little more room.

Disregard the gil inconsistency at the bottom; I've gone back to the drawing board to figure out how I wanna do this. How does the spacing look? Is it too cluttered?

EDIT:

Here's an in-game shot with the new features included. I'd still like some feedback on the spacing.