Game-end splash screens


Although the central place for design discussion is ##crawl-dev on freenode, some may find it helpful to discuss requests and suggestions here first.

User avatar

Dungeon Master

Posts: 332

Joined: Friday, 15th July 2011, 22:43

Post Wednesday, 30th November 2011, 10:13

Game-end splash screens

I've noticed this idea a couple different places -- I imagine it wouldn't be too hard to display an image (no larger than Denzi's splash screens for loading) to one side of the score screen, perhaps scooting it off-center to better share space? I was thinking I could make a graphic for that, in any case, if there was any interest. What would be appropriate for this type of thing, in Crawl? A skull sitting on the floor/stuck on a pike for a death screen, a pile of loot/the orb of zot on a nice pedestal for a win screen?

Ziggurat Zagger

Posts: 6393

Joined: Friday, 17th December 2010, 18:17

Post Wednesday, 30th November 2011, 11:29

Re: Game-end splash screens

I think a death screen is not needed. The disappointment of seeing your i screen is sufficient punishment. A nice pile of loot would be nice for a victory screen, maybe a castle in the background.
User avatar

Vestibule Violator

Posts: 1459

Joined: Sunday, 19th December 2010, 05:45

Location: New England

Post Wednesday, 30th November 2011, 12:21

Re: Game-end splash screens

I dunno. It could look neat, but I don't think an end game slash screen is really necessary. I also wonder if it might interfere with roleplaying- I mean, I don't know about everyone else, but by the time I ascend, I usually have a narrative made up for that character. It might be kind of jarring, say, to see my greedy, mass murdering necromancer retiring peacefully to a cottage on a hill, or my righteous paladin hoarding a massive pile of lucre alone in a castle instead of spending it for the benefit of the masses.

Personally, I'd like to see more variety in the loading screens. Go ahead and make your orb on a pedestal amid the dragon's hoard- I think it would look great at the start of the game! ;)
User avatar

Slime Squisher

Posts: 332

Joined: Friday, 4th February 2011, 18:04

Location: The South, US

Post Wednesday, 30th November 2011, 13:04

Re: Game-end splash screens

Do think there would be room for Pokemon-style vault screens, so when you enter Lair, you have the option of seeing what somebody thought Lair might look like in 800x600 pixelly glory?
Human kind cannot bear very much reality.
TSE
User avatar

Dungeon Master

Posts: 332

Joined: Friday, 15th July 2011, 22:43

Post Wednesday, 30th November 2011, 17:38

Re: Game-end splash screens

I'd explicitly be avoiding anything that would conflict with a player's own narrative. I spent a little while reading over the usability projects and noticed how players unfamiliar with Crawl, or unfamiliar with roguelikes in general may not grasp the meaning of the inventory/score screen at first glance, and the "You die..." text is easy to miss.

And, yes, new players will learn to recognize the inventory/score screen stuff quickly (much more quickly than they learn other game concepts like "not dying") but a good visual reinforcement will remove much of the ambiguity.

Lair Larrikin

Posts: 29

Joined: Wednesday, 14th September 2011, 23:30

Post Thursday, 1st December 2011, 06:05

Re: Game-end splash screens

As soon as you open up a tiles game you're directing the player narrative to an extent - the player, monsters, even the look of the dungeon are all visualised. Death screens would only be an extension of that e.g. a picture of charred remains if you were blasted from afar etc. Victory itself, if it's represented visually just by the Orb doesn't imply much else and would not be intrusive.

Personally I like the idea. Heck, even beating solitaire on the computer gives you more of a fanfare at present than a game which can take literally years to beat.

Mines Malingerer

Posts: 38

Joined: Saturday, 8th October 2011, 17:58

Post Thursday, 1st December 2011, 15:54

Re: Game-end splash screens

if you'd manage a similar picture as ascii art (80x25?) i'd wholeheartedly agree that it would be a nice addition :p
the problem is probably getting the ascii art right, esp. with neato colors D:

otherwise i'd see it as too much of a emphasis on tiles - which i would not like :/
User avatar

Dungeon Master

Posts: 332

Joined: Friday, 15th July 2011, 22:43

Post Thursday, 1st December 2011, 18:11

Re: Game-end splash screens

I don't think it places too much of an emphasis on tiles, as there's no actual gameplay difference. If you want to play with graphics, you play tiles. If you don't want graphics, you play console. I would say issues like Stone Golems and Statues have different tiles but the same colored character in console are more serious.

There's a lot of converters like this for graphic-to-ascii, were it necessary to address. Also even if I make endgame splash screens there's no guarantee they'll be used.

In any case, a "victory" image that is just a picture of the Orb would be un-intrusive to character narrative -- I cannot for the life of me think of a valid death screen. Even a skull won't work, considering how many species would vary (troll skull vs felid skull vs draconian skull vs octopode... skull?).

For this message the author roctavian has received thanks:
mageykun
User avatar

Vestibule Violator

Posts: 1459

Joined: Sunday, 19th December 2010, 05:45

Location: New England

Post Thursday, 1st December 2011, 20:14

Re: Game-end splash screens

...that image to ascii converter is wonderfully awesome and I am going to spend far too long playing with it. Thank you.

I'd say if you want to make a nice looking art asset for the game, just go ahead, take the initiative, and do it. If it'll well done, I have a hard time seeing it rejected.

Return to Game Design Discussion

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Majestic-12 [Bot] and 29 guests

Powered by phpBB © 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 phpBB Group.
Designed by ST Software for PTF.