Expanded sidebar mockup

[ncrecc]

An edit of the sidebar that shows the EMC keys, the number of white keys, and the number of dynabomb upgrades. The gray circle to the right of "D-BOMBS" would be filled in with the red-and-white dynabomb once it is obtained. I haven't found enough space to show droppable tiles from the "initial inventory" yet.

The goal of this would be to make levels with dynabombs, white keys and the like easy to walk away from and come back to without saying "now how many of these did I have again?"
This cuts out the Rocks'n'Diamonds logo as well as "by Holger Schemel", but, since you can see the Rocks'n'Diamonds logo on the main menu and the window name, and because Holger is a member of Artsoft, it wouldn't be too much lost information.
This is only a design mockup, unfortunately. Some new assets would have to be created, such as a taller "menu door" and proper 16x16 sprites of the dynabombs. I figure I would just post it here for future reference.

[TheOnyxGuy]

Actually, it's possible to do that yourself or find some things like this in the "Level and Artwork design" forum.
Here're some examples from me:
Two last elements in inventory - shows two last dynamites/disks/dynabombs collected on the panel
Show Keys - displays all 8 keys + amount of white keys collected
Different screen - changes the game interface to the completely different one with so much stuff displayed once: gems, sokoban fields, penguins, lamps, magic walls, shield, magnifier and lenses timers, dynabombs count, size and power, last inventory element collected, gravity, health bar, all 9 keys (again), current status of exit (open or not), level number, name and author.

And if you want, I can make your idea become real

[TheOnyxGuy]

Here I tried to create in the game something similar to what you did on the picture. I can release it as Graphic set you can download and use in the game for yourself if you want

tmsp1.png (621.05 KiB) Viewed 7942 times

tmsp2.png (602.07 KiB) Viewed 7942 times

[ncrecc]

...Yeah, I should have seen that coming. I had no idea how flexible RnD was when it comes to UI customization. This mockup is up for grabs for anyone who wants to implement it into RnD for real.

Also, I've updated the first post with a small four-item inventory bar. I was reluctant to include it without labeling it "inventory" or "items", but it's better than nothing.

[filbo]

Holger's family name is 'Schemel' with only one 'l', you might want to edit the top post...

In these mockups I can't help wondering what benefit most of the words provide:

Certainly the word 'KEYS' is utterly irrelevant if each key is already present as a grey shadow.

'EMERALDS', 'DYNAMITE', and 'DYNABOMBS' are each represented by their respective graphical image. For the latter two, perhaps a single word 'EXPLOSIVES' or 'AMMO' followed by the -- wow, are there really 5 different types of explosive? -- 5 icons and their corresponding counters. I don't know if the customization features support this, but if possible, make it so that 'hovering' (mousing over) the icons & counters displays the name and maybe explanation of what the heck those are. I know that I don't know the distinction between dynamite vs. dynabombs (as I haven't played any levels with dynabombs in a year or so); certainly don't know the difference between two types of dynamite. Point is, it's unclear that just having a single-word name is particularly more helpful than the icon alone. Omitting the names and adding hover explanations would be a giant improvement.

I would probably group SCORE, TIME and EMERALDS, since those are the three overall 'goals' of any BD / EMC / RnD type level. Well, really it's EMERALDS, with TIME as a possible constraint and SCORE as a nearly complete irrelevancy :)

Anyway, EMERALDS doesn't need a name, just the icon. SCORE & TIME do need names. I think in each case it should be possible to cram the label & the counter onto a single line (EMERALDS already has its icon twice on its line!). Is there a narrower font to use for the SCORE & TIME labels?

...

Here is a Terrible Mockup. Done by dismembering Eizzoux's last image and shuffling its bits a whole bunch... ... Leaving room for several other additions.

rnd-mockup.png (29.58 KiB) Viewed 7931 times