New title screen

[Quintus]

Hi everyone,

we’re currently using the old SMC title screen mostly, with its very colourful menu items and the level in the background. I think we ought to change this arrangement to something more unique further down the road.

There are two things that I’d like to especially target:

• I think the menu items are too colourful. Something more simple is better I think and betters fits our story ideas.
• The Save item should go away on the title screen, because when you are on the title screen, saving isn’t possible anyway. It’s nonsense that the point is there, and it’s only because the same menu is used for the title screen and in-game.

Which brings me to another point: The title screen menu is also used if you press ESC in the gameplay. I think we should consider a separate ingame menu for that, which will simplify menu code quite a bit.

Valete,
Quintus

[datahead8888]

• I wouldn't say the menu necessarily has to be "simpler", but ideally it would match the style of whatever type of story we are pursuing. What might work well for library themes, ancient ruins, a mad Dr. M, and cities under attack? Somehow I was imagining metal structures on the menu with an interesting lighting pattern on the metal - it may or may not work but is one example of how a menu could be adapted to an idea.
• Using a different in game menu from the title menu makes sense. At this point, it will be easy to change whether or not "Save" is included.
• I do think something should show in the background - either a level or cinematic scene. We also might look into prerecording game play and playing it back. This might be useful for the title theme or may be a component of our cinema system eventually.

I wouldn't say the menu necessarily has to be "simpler", but ideally it would match the style of whatever type of story we are pursuing. What might work well for library themes, ancient ruins, a mad Dr. M, and cities under attack? Somehow I was imagining metal structures on the menu with an interesting lighting pattern on the metal - it may or may not work but is one example of how a menu could be adapted to an idea.

Pretty good idea. How about: A night scene with burning ruins, furballs loitering around.
Tragic music in the background.
I'm not sure what good fire would be without light effects, though. I mean, one can use fire and smoke particles, but on a fire that scale flickering lights would be missing.

[datahead8888]

You know, at first I was a bit hesitant with this idea, but there's an interesting angle we might take on this.

What if we had multiple title screens that change as the player progresses through the game? As a player progresses through different parts of the plot, the title screen changes to reflect recent events in the game. Later in the game, after Dr. M launches a horrible attack, it could show the pillaging and destruction that sauer2 described. It could especially do some cool things at the climax of the game.

I know I need to respond to danfun64's story document. I've been very tied up with school stuff. I had a response started, but then he posted a new version. I'll probably need to read his new proposal before posting anything.

@datahead8888 : That's basically how the menu of Portal 2 works. It changes with every new chapter, I believe.

[Quintus]

I find changing title screens a very nice idea. They should however be attached to the last savegame a user played (as long as we keep the savegame system, of course).

I also like the idea of prerecording gameplay and simply playing it back, because currently the menu jumps through some hacky odds to have a real level rendered in the background. Simply having a video as the background simplifies the menu code drastically.

Valete,
Quintus

[datahead8888]

Simply having a video as the background simplifies the menu code drastically.

I think we should first spend some time looking into the possibility of creating a "playback" system for gameplay. We had talked about creating a cinema editor eventually, and this would be a major requirement for that. Furthermore, video files will increase the download size much more quickly. Using a real level is also very versatile -- you can quickly change things for it with simple configurations, etc, rather than going through video editing tools each time.