Dice Kingdom Log #4

X-POST from itch devlog

After getting various feedback last week from people, it has become clear that the UI and the tutorial needed some work.

Because of this, I set out a 2 weeks plan to rework them. I initially wanted to finish the UI rework and push a build this week but it seems like that is not possible. Instead, I will just share some of the changes here via screenshots.

Before the rework, the basic 4 actions looks pretty plain and you will have to hover over the various slot to know the effects. One simple idea is to add more icons to the board so that at once glance you can remember what it does. Some may be complex and requires you to still read the description but for most cases the icons will suffice.

Most of the works has already been done, like Forager Hut

Of course, this is not without downside. When the board is full, it will look extremely noisy. Since most of the board are introduced one at a time (except the first 4), I am hoping that it will not be a problem. I guess I will have to find that out later.

Some additional dev thoughts:

I spent about 2-3 days really trying out different ideas and what is possible and knowing the limitation of my UI.

Board Constraints #

The size of the board (the individual region) one of the bigger constraints. I tried experimenting with ways to increase the board size.

For example, I spend half a day prototyping an idea that the board size will expand when you hover over it. This allow more board size and may also create new ideas down the road. One of the changes that this might bring is moving Build and Research to a less RNG state; i.e. all Buildings and Researches are available at all times.

However, after testing out, I find that mechanics too complex, and also went against the original idea of the game. Furthermore, having to know which board will expand and which would also added to the complexity of the game.

After deciding that I will not have expanding board, the next question is regarding variable size board.

This is similar to expanding board where the solution to the constraints is just to increase the board size. Unlike expanding board, variable board is to make it such that different board will have different size. Although this solution is still on the table, I am less inclined to take it right now as it adds a lot of development complexity. In additional to that, without the ability to move the board around (like in cultist simulator), the layout of the board will be overly complex to manage. If I were to implement the ability to move the board, that would also add a lot of unnecessary complexity.

In conclusion, I decide to only increase the board size slightly, keeping within the 4 row by 6 columns layout, and work with the limitation of the board size.

Icons #

Another day was spend on trying out if I want icons or not, and how to represent the ability of each of the slots. I tested a couple of different designs and one of the key choices I had to make was to decide between consistency and information clarity.

Information clarity in this case means the ability to understand what the slot do without having to read anything. Consistency is the ability to understand what a similar slot do without having to read anything once you understood the symbol.

For example, in the case of training new type of dice, I initially wanted to have different icons for different type of villagers. However, because each icon will be different, the player will have to understand what each of them means. This also applies to Explore and Build. If there is an icon for each area that can be explored, or for each type of buildings, the player will then need to relearn all icons, making the icons useless.

Instead of this, I opt for a more generic icon for training, and a generic board like icon for building and locations. This means that when the player encounter similar icons elsewhere, they will immediately be able to understand that this will create a new location, or will train a new type of villagers.

In short, the solution that I chose, opt to optimise for low number of symbol counts and consistency.