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This is the first of many posts about the development of the game itself. Information regarding the game design, technical articles, and concept art. Much of the information present in the game design document as well we will talking about the obstacles and solutions that are facing for during the development of the project. Today we speak of the HUD (actually the new HUD game). 

One of the more striking of the Light of the Darkness is how the visual elements reinforce the concept of dialectics in the universe. Everything from the look of the characters, colors, symbols, architecture, follows this goal. This approach also has a great impact on the HUD, as well as game menus that will be described later. In Light of the Darkness, menus and HUD has "skins" depending on the different world in which the game is going. We have then a Dark HUD and Light HUD, each appropriate to the visual world that the player is exploring. 

The first versions of HUD were made even before the coding work of the game (in the pre-production). Early versions have explored this approach "light / dark" that I quoted above. We will see below how was the first solution of The Light of the Darkness HUD:

Variations of both are only aesthetic, because they both follow the same layout and has the same features. The look of the Light HUD is inspired by Greek architecture while the dark HUD in Gothic/Medieval architecture. Earlier I this version, the indicators of peripheral essence (HP) and mystical essence (MP) do not had a very traditional approach. Both would be shown through spheres that become smaller as both attributes diminished. The colors follow issues relating to the characteristics of the universe. Essence of Light had blue colors and dark essence had red color in that world. Thus, the mystical essence of Sephius would change color depending on the world he was. The peripheral essence keep the color yellow as is the color of the natural essence of Sephius. HUD also had slots for weapon 1 item and 1 spell.

This spheres approach eventually did not work when put into practice. This is a good example of how the game design document needs to be molded. We can´t just planning 100% of the game before actually start to produce it. Many things in theory end up not working well in practice or simply need adjustments that are only possible to identifying after that is implemented and tested. The spheres was not very practical in view the amount of essences of the player and so we ended up using numeric values ​​with them, which ended up making the sense of the use of the spheres of energy lost completely.

Another issue that ended up being meaningless was the weapon slot as the game eventually evolved into a gameplay where you use only one weapon. The spells became the element of variation of attacks in the game. Soon there was no sense in slot weapon. Additionally, during development the game design the game evolved into a gameplay that spells now have a larger role, with combinations of spells and interactions with the environment. The items also have a more important role. For this reason, have only one slot for each turned out to be insufficient, especially in the case of spells that could now be combined.

With these changes and learning, we had to develop a new HUD, with another approach and appropriate elements coming into what the gameplay eventually evolved. Lets see below how it went:

In the new version, the indicators of peripheral and mystical essence came to be shown with bars instead of spheres of energy. This form simply works better. The use of gemstones as visual support gives a good idea of ​​their relationship as a source of origin of essences (the deep essence is the origin other kinds of essences and it comes in solid form as crystals). An additional indicator shield was also added for another a change in the gameplay of the game. Previous, the shield could be used without any restriction and we realize that it eliminated a little of the challenge and the requirement for strategic use in the game. Then the shield now has a usage limit, related to the amount of damage that it needs to absorb. It works a bit like the stamina in games such as Demons Souls / Elder Scrolls.

The presence of two slots for spells makes it clearer to player to approach of the use of compounds spells. In this new approach to the use of spells (which happened at some stage of development) brought the need for other elements to HUD, not only that related to bar attributes / items / spells. Another major factor was we was making, previous, a game to be played with mouse / keyboard and can later see the possibility of the support for gamepad which is the best way to play these kind of games. In the old HUD, the selection of spells and items were made by clicking the mouse on the selected slot and symbols / items appear when you click into these slots. This obviously does not work with a gamepad.

Thus, it required a new kind of selection of items and spells, as shown below:

Other elements of the HUD do not have to be discussed in great detail, but are present. Others visual indicators needed in the game is : Indicator of item collected, indicator of new spell learned, new level, region explored; damage from the enemies, enemies attribute. These indicators are simple, without ornamentation, with the goal of being direct and functional. In the dark world has a black decal and in the light world a white decal. These indicators can see below:

Type of Damage:Green is negative damage(regenerative), yellow is critical damage, white is normal damage. 

Collection of items and attributes of enemies.

Other indicators: 

Well, that's it for now. This week we will send the first version of the Game Design Document for the supporters who supported with $ 30.00 or more (Brazilians only for wile)! The document is now quite extensive and it will be possible to have a good idea of ​​the complexity of the game, it´s features and mechanics.

Until next time!