Will continue messing around with the UI until it’s how I want it.

This first image here was an image of a temp gui testing for size. Basically it’s a radial menu. When you drag and release over that center ring, then the 5 buttons pop up, and you can click on each of those… the top 12 buttons are from the submenu of each of the 3 buttons they come out of (the top there). Since Enchanted Lands is an adventure game, you’re going to click on the screen and the main character (Harold the Wizard in this first “prologue game”) will move there. However if you click past the dead zone which is that circle in the middle, and past the center ring then you can release on any option and it will automatically execute the action when you let up on the mouse button. So there’s a regular clicky mode, and a click-drag-release mode. It will do everything on one button, so it would make it easier to port to touch screens later, and anything that doesn’t allow a second control button of some sort.

Click the image to get the full effect here.

This was just to test the two sizes. The first game will be at 640×480 resolution, except the actual game itself will be in 640×360 “letterbox”. Written using Adventure Game Studio. I’m leaning toward the bigger size, because there isn’t much room for either words or icons. This will pop up anywhere you bring up the menu.

So I have the character Harold who’s a Wizard. I know what you’re thinking, and you would probably be right. It’s sort of a gag in the game, but you will find that out if you actually get to play it. I picture him as sort of a cross between Merlin from Walt Disney’s The Sword in the Stone and Grumpy from Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. I’m going to make a bold move here and actually show you my little concept sketch. Okay so it’s really bad. Remember the only real drawing I’ve ever done is Disney cartoon characters when I was young. I can copy most any character quite well, and I can even draw Mickey Mouse from memory. But that’s as far as I am with art. Of course I plan to practice and get better. I just have to keep working at it until I get this game like perfect. I plan to make this one-room demo the first room of the whole game. And just to keep working at it until it’s awesome. I may suck now, but when I’m all done it’s going to be great.

There you have it. Laugh all you want, cry if you have to.

Click the image to play.

Let me know what you think I should put in here to make this a complete game with the same game play. That is all it does is let you score by hitting the top wall, or die 3 times until you’re at last at the main menu (which isn’t really a menu yet). What kinds of things would I need to just release this version. I can think of a high score, and a real menu, other than stuff like full graphics and sound. I want to release these as complete games at various stages so if I wanted to put this on something like Kongregate or FlashGameLicense I could do it with just this gameplay. Some people suggested I should put in keyboard control as well, maybe a better hub. To be clear I am NOT talking about adding gameplay elements, that is, let’s say power ups, and maybe extra game modes to make it pong or breakout. I’m simply talking about just this gameplay what would i need to make it a finished release version?

I plan to add more gameplay features, however, I need a state where if I had a hundred features I could release it at any one time. This is so when I get to the end of February and I have some gameplay features to add I can just stop because it will be able to be released as-is.