Tracking issue: paper prototypes for editor-ready UI

[alice-i-cecile]

As part of our UI overhaul (#254), we should be sure that we can comfortably produce both common and complex user interfaces. For the most part, these should be mocked out with whatever final solution we pick, and are considered "done" when a pseudocode implementation has been completed and does not have any serious implementation challenges. This is closely related to #1953, and we should try to ensure that all widgets required here are representable on that issue.

This is the current list of UI examples that we're targeting, focusing on diverse and complex examples:

• To-do list: state tracking, text entry, keyboard / mouse / joystick navigation
• Oblivion spells UI: complex nested UIs, tabular layouts
• Warcraft 3 building selection: many copies of related UI elements
• Basic editor GUI: dropdown menus, file selections, canvases, complex layouts
• MOBA controls: cooldowns, tight game-state integration, triggered effects
• Mini + full map: handling non-discrete interactions, automatically rendered UI-like elements
• Immersive VR information display: UI without a UI camera, 3D UI elements
• Hearthstone: animated UI, dynamic layouts, complex interactions, mobile vs. desktop
• Node graph: graphs, dynamic drawing, complex nonstandard layout

If you have other ideas for examples, please comment below with the unique challenges it will provide. We should keep this list reasonably short and diverse to limit the scope of this issue <3

[RoyAwesome]

A simple node-graph would be very useful for editor functionality.

[denormative]

Probably a pathological case, but "Gold Box UI". :) Most people would think of "RPG Maker" but this goes beyond that towards the dawn of computer games. If I type "san" on the keyboard it selects "Save" from the current menu, then "A" for the save slot, and then "No" I don't want to quit to dos. I don't need to touch the mouse, because there is no mouse. And more importantly I don't need to see.

This probably maps nicely to a controller, but for me it's more an accessibility thing. I've been legally blind for a decade and now I'm getting to the point of being uncorrectably blind. I can focus on the centre of the screen easily enough, but it's more difficult for the random decoration around saying what I need to do, and looking at the controller is even more annoying.

Going back to play these DOS/C64 games I'm enjoying the fact I don't need to see anything but a fraction of the screen, once I've looked at the minimal menu options once and then I can just focus on what is important and type because the menus are 100% keyboard hotkey-ed, and there's only one focus window, and it's reliable.

Like I said, this is probably a pathological edge case, and I'll likely have to program it into my own games as usual, but I suspect a keyboard-only style focused UI might make a lot of other accessibility problems easier as well.

[alice-i-cecile]

@denormative supporting diverse input methods and making sure we get accessibility right from the start are very high up on my list of goals. Thanks for chiming in!

I think I have a good sense of what you're asking for, but "Gold Box UI" isn't giving me any relevant hits on Google. Do you have a link, reference game or just a longer description? <3

[Nilirad]

Charts and data visualization in general could belong there. They are essential for scientific simulation and in general for drawing performance graphs.

[Nilirad]

Radar charts are quite useful in some games, RPGs especially, to visualize multidimensional parameters.

[Weibye]

Just came across this resource, which is super useful to this discussion: https://interfaceingame.com/games/

[Weibye]

And this, thanks to @aevyrie : https://www.gameuidatabase.com/

[Weibye]

We should add the 4-way split screen UI example: