Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Toolbar : This comes with a list of graphic representations of tools (usually, it
is a list of weapons) that can be placed either at the top or at the bottom of
the screen.
Switch : This is my favorite control. It looks and operates neatly! It is a trigger
with two states, on and off, so it successfully replaces more cumbersome
solutions based on radio buttons or checkboxes alone. The switch in iOS has
a small animation, its lever moves from one side to another; however, you
can skip this and limit yourself to only two graphic states of the trigger. Usu-
ally, the switch is used in the Options menu, but it can be successfully used
in gameplay too; an average puzzle game has a lot of different triggers, many
of them have designs similar to those of switches.
Progress bars : These are very common elements of game interfaces; usu-
ally, they display various exhaustible parameters, first of all, the status of the
character's health or ammo. The rule of a good progress bar is simple; you
need a beautiful gradient for the bar and a good dark background, the con-
trast between the empty and filled parts should be clearly visible. You can
add any unostentatious animation to the progress bar to make it more at-
tractive. A good practice is to introduce some additional signal functions to
it. The bar can become redder if the game situation is critical, for example,
when time is running out. Some game designers also add some markings to
demonstrate the various stages of a game session, letting the player plan his
efforts. A pie chart can be implemented instead of a progress bar, it looks in-
teresting and fresh, but takes too much of screen space and can confuse the
player.
Sliders : This helps to adjust various parameters on the Options screen,
primarily audio and music volumes. These are progress bars, but feature an
additional element: a lever that can be moved by the user. A special back-
ground can be used to illustrate the increasing of values, very light at the
beginning of the slider and dark (or saturated) at the end. Another way to
add a professional touch is to apply some interactivity; for instance, if the
music slider is set to zero, the icon that represents the term music in the
menu should be crossed with a red stripe, which would mean that the music
is switched off.
Segment control : This is a set of buttons that stick together, only one of
them can be pressed and active at a time, so the control operates in the
same manner that the button panels on old radios and tape recorders did.
For users familiar with the desktop metaphor of tabs, segment control is a
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