Change the style of menu depending on the area

[The G-Meister]

While making my FaZeman meme earlier today (found here if you're interested: http://secretsofgrindea.com/forum/index.php?threads/sog-memes.4475/#post-12138) I was looking at the text box and thinking "Brown. Really? Yeah brown fits well with the Pillar mountains, Evergrind Fields and Evergrind city to an extent too. But this is the Flying Fortress! The HQ of high-tech tech! Brown just doesn't work anymore!" Here's what I was looking at:



Among the flashy blues, greens and greys of the Flying Fort, the brown seems just a little out of place, so I was thinking, although it might be a lot of effort, to change the menus and textboxes depending on the region the player is in. It may be something as simple as changing the colour pallate (Eg, in Seasonne change the brown to the light-blue ice colour but keep the gold trim, in the Flying Fort change the brown to the navy blue brick colour and change the trim to green) or as extravagant as putting themed spikes and swirls on the menus too (Like blue slime ice spikes and bells in Seasonne, Phaseman and Crystal crystals in the Flying Fort and Purple vines and gravestones in the Pumpkin Woods).

I thought this might be a neat idea as I haven't seen this done anywhere else. Also, if you put the extra work in like the spikes and vines, and maybe even change up the HUD slightly too, you can get players to really appreciate the work. The more detail there is, the more likely it is to be spotted, and therefore appreciated

I don't have too much time as of this evening, but I thought I'd try my hand at a little more computer art tomorrow to show you what I mean

Anyone else think this would be neat?

 

[MrChocodemon]

+1 from me
here are some mock-ups
Standard

Winter Area

Flying Fortress


The Font looks somewhat weird, that is because the AntiAliasing which would look better when I would have changed that too, or Vilya would implement it.

 

[Own]

If something like this were introduced, I'd hope it would be an option unlocked in the menu or via NPC. Like how the Final Fantasy games allow you to change your menu appearance, or Chrono Cross had special window sets for you to acquire, or the Suikoden series allowed you to change your windows via acquiring Window Sets and giving them to the Painter NPC.

As it stands, I... don't think it would be incredibly important, but it would give Vilya something to do if she needs something extra to do? She seems miles ahead of Teddy and Freddy. I think it might clash with the ESC menu palette, unless that was switched too.

I mean, I do like the idea of additional menu themes, though.

 

[The G-Meister]

You hit the nail on the head there choco I'll take it a step further today and see what it looks like with those extra features.

If something like this were introduced, I'd hope it would be an option unlocked in the menu or via NPC.

Man, you just want everything attached to NPCs! xD I suppose it might be a nice idea to make it optional, and would give me something to spend my 150,000 coins on

As it stands, I... don't think it would be incredibly important

I didn't want it to be top of the priority list. I just thought it might be something cool to add.

I think it might clash with the ESC menu palette, unless that was switched too.

I was gonna try to re-render the entire menu today, as just the text boxes might make it go a little unnoticed. That might be an extra bunch of work though.

 

[Vilya]

If something like this were introduced, I'd hope it would be an option unlocked in the menu or via NPC. Like how the Final Fantasy games allow you to change your menu appearance[...]

If something like this were to be introduced, I feel it'd most likely work like this

 

[The G-Meister]

I don't mind how it's introduced I'm not a guy who works too well with the mechanics anyway, I do numbers, art and music

Meanwhile:

This was something I came up with over the past two hours (Try to ignore the various colour pallates )

Gonna add those crystals that I talked about in replacement for all the flashy-flarey lines, swirls and flowers, and See what it looks like

 

[MrChocodemon]

That's maybe a little overkill for me.

 

[The G-Meister]

I have one exam left... then a 12-week summer... I have the time to spare

 

[Own]

I dunno, that looks pretty cool to me. I'd probably use it if I found that menu theme in a chest somewhere in the FF.

 

[The G-Meister]

Like that one I can't find out how to get to because its got one of the springy plant things? This one?

 

[The G-Meister]

Also, maybe finding menus in the chest is a little fourth-wall breaking? But then it would be if we did it with NPCs... the only option there is to put it as an option to buy in the menu itself :/ I'm just gonna stop making these suggestions and finish these crystals

 

[The G-Meister]

I've added a few of the crystals and some mechanical looking... thing... over the HUD. Now I'm no pixel artist and I've used a lot of copy-pasting here, and I still haven't got around to doing the Inventory window. Still adding a few crystals around the outside of the menu itself:



Would people use this?

 

[MrChocodemon]

Maybe this shouldn't be an ingame unlockable, but a moddable thing which works with Steam workshop some day

 

[The G-Meister]

Either is a possibility... Depends what the devs think. Might be something for Vil to consider if she's got a bunch of free time. If it ends up halting the games development, put the menu files up for download and make it a workshop thing. Seen as I'm far enough already, I wouldn't mind finishing it if I could get a pinch at some of the other files.

 

[GarlicJelly]

I like this idea. Having a different themed inventory and chat windows for different areas sounds like a cool idea but I have no clue on how it would actually feel like in the game, maybe it's a bit annoying or maybe it's awesome. I think this sounds like a workshop thing but if the devs find some time towards the end I wouldn't mind.