07-02-2019, 09:04 PM
I drew my first picture with a conceptual user interface earlier this week. Obviously, the buttons to control the characters will remain unchanged: Mario uses (A), Luigi uses (B). Princess Peach would use (Y) and Toadette would use (X). Flipping between different overworld gimmicks usually was ®. But since there are now two sets of shoulder buttons, I thought of having both (L1) and (R1) being used to navigate abilities. I was also planning to have all of their abilities visible at that area of the screen. I remember it being a bit of a hassle to figure out how many times I needed to press ® in order to get the ability I wanted - whether it be the Spin Jump or the Hammer Drill or the Bros. Ball from Partners in Time.
An additional possibility for my game would be a leader option and a split-up option. To designate a companion as the leader, you could press and hold (L2) and then press the button of the corresponding character to place them in the front. Now with four players, the only button you would need to push would be that of the leader. The other three characters would jump automatically. This would be similar to the eggs (or other things) following Yoshi in pretty much all of the Yoshi games. A leader can be selected only if you have a party of three or four characters.
As for the split-up option, there will certainly have to be instances in where the characters would split up in order to fulfil certain tasks. I have them doing this very thing several times in my game's plot: on Star Hill when they are rescuing the Star Spirits from the nightmare chunks, and in the Inverted Pyramid when they need to activate four switches in four different areas of the structure at the same time. If I ever get around to designing overworld areas, I will make sure that there are plenty of places in where they would need to split up. Pressing (R2) and then pressing the buttons of the corresponding characters that you choose will split them into a smaller party. Pressing the character's button again can deselect them.
The (START) button can be used to exit the game to the main screen, while the (SELECT) button is used to open Stuffwell and handle all the player's stats, badges, and gear to use.
Anyway, here is my latest digitized drawing. I personally think this is my best one yet!
The Eclipse
An additional possibility for my game would be a leader option and a split-up option. To designate a companion as the leader, you could press and hold (L2) and then press the button of the corresponding character to place them in the front. Now with four players, the only button you would need to push would be that of the leader. The other three characters would jump automatically. This would be similar to the eggs (or other things) following Yoshi in pretty much all of the Yoshi games. A leader can be selected only if you have a party of three or four characters.
As for the split-up option, there will certainly have to be instances in where the characters would split up in order to fulfil certain tasks. I have them doing this very thing several times in my game's plot: on Star Hill when they are rescuing the Star Spirits from the nightmare chunks, and in the Inverted Pyramid when they need to activate four switches in four different areas of the structure at the same time. If I ever get around to designing overworld areas, I will make sure that there are plenty of places in where they would need to split up. Pressing (R2) and then pressing the buttons of the corresponding characters that you choose will split them into a smaller party. Pressing the character's button again can deselect them.
The (START) button can be used to exit the game to the main screen, while the (SELECT) button is used to open Stuffwell and handle all the player's stats, badges, and gear to use.
Anyway, here is my latest digitized drawing. I personally think this is my best one yet!
The Eclipse