Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Efficient RPG UI overlays
Taking stock of the various designs that have been floated around in RPG games, convey-
ing important information such as health, stats, and other important details is crucial to
any gameplay. If the information is too obscure, the player won't understand when they
are close to death (and should run far away) or struggle to understand why their favorite
magic trick just isn't going as well as it should. Similarly, if you make the UI too obtrus-
ive, draw players' attention away too much, and obscure the real estate on the screen too
much, then the result will be the same.
This balance is hard to maintain in any game, especially in RPG games, because we want
to give as many capabilities as possible to our budding adventurer. It gets even harder
once you start adding companions and hundreds of available skills and instant use items.
