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Not using a HUD. Need ideas!

Kyon

Member
So a while ago I started on a project just to test some new GML stuff out I learned. Didn't realy meant for it to become something, but I accidentally created an art style I'm really starting to like.
So now I'm working on this project all the time haha.

Anyway, the game is a basic action platformer for now. You can walk, jump, shoot your bow, walljump etc.
But I also added dashing and something I call a "force push" when holding the left mouse button.
But to stop players from dashing through the level all the time I made it so that you need mana for it.
So, at the moment you need 60 mana for a dash, and you can have a total of 180 mana, and the mana auto-regenerates.

At first I had a healthbar-thingy to show how much mana you had as a HUD. But I really think an HUD ruins the aesthetic of the game. So I'm looking for creative ways to show how much mana/power you got without using that.
At the moment I got these orbs around the player to show how many times you can dash/forcepush, but I find them quite distracting and not really fitting.



Any ideas?
 
T

Tayoyo

Guest
Having the eyes glow, have different animations to show exhaustion, have a sound effect play or have the music change. Maybe have mana drip off of him when he's low or something, or have a vignette start to show up around the sides of the screen
 

Morendral

Member
Maybe invert what you are doing. Have the orbs float around him or absorb into him while it's recharging, then disappear when it's refilled
 
Also, I'd just like to say I really dig and appreciate your effort to not use a HUD of any kind. It's something I wish I saw more of, and can have a great impact on immersion for me.
 

Khao

Member
Whatever you do, make sure that there's actually a way to precisely measure how much mana you have left. Having an arbitrary change that just tells you you have a lower mana level than before will still not show you how much you have left, nor how much you've already spent.

One of my favorite solutions to this I've seen is in Journey.



One of the few mechanics in Journey is the ability to fly. This ability is limited by the length of your scarf. When you start flying, you can clearly see the bright symbols in your scarf deplete and show you exactly how much flight power you have left. Looking at the picture, there's absolutely no way you'd be confused at how much flight power the character on the left has remaining. This is clean as 💩💩💩💩, fits in with the environment and aesthetic, and is fully readable and quite precise without it just immediately feeling like a bar.

You could do something similar with some part of your character. For example, make his entire arm glow when at full mana, but have the glow recede closer and closer to his hand as you spend it until it's fully gone. That way, once you see a third of the glow fade away as you dash, you'll immediately know you'll be able to do it two more times, and once the mana starts regenerating, you'll know exactly at what rate it's doing so. Also you could even play around with the idea of using it to enhance animations, like making the precise amount of mana leave the arm as particles and having them visibly form the energy for the force push.

Doesn't have to be the arm either, or even a glow. Just do anything that actually shows you precisely how much mana you have spent and how much you have left at all times.
 
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