Three Questions

I'm having trouble deciding on a few things in my game.

1) Right now in one of the Inns I have the lights set up to where all lights are on all the time except for the lights in the rooms. Those go off late at night and turn on in the morning. My concern is that the player will think it's error since they may think "It's dark why would the lights be off?" instead of "The lights must be off since I should be sleeping." Which also made me think what should I do in other places at night? Should I have all lights go off at night or turn on? Should I keep them always lit? I am thinking about a script that'll allow the player to toggle certain lights which would be good for his/her home and in an inn room but what about everywhere else?

2) I'm currently working on the HUD on my game and I'm having trouble deciding what to do for things such as health. Originally my plan was to have only Call of Duty style blood effects appear on the screen and all other information such as hunger and stamina only view able in the menu. After reading an article I decided to just do a basic window for information. I used the bottom part of main menu (a small window running along the bottom with health bars) except text isn't shown on top of the bars. I thought this looked horrible since a large part of the screen was taken up. So I removed the HUD background and then I decided to hide the bars when their value is full, like Skyrim. Then I removed the hunger, thirst, and sleep bars since they're always less than maximum. Then I realized that I created the Skyrim HUD so now I need to go back change it. My real question is should I use my original idea (It's my favorite but there are people who don't like. It will be obvious when other stats run out or get low) or should I do something else? If so should I include hunger, thirst, and stamina.

3) I haven't really bothered on head bob (where the head appears to move up and down when moving) in my game for two reasons. In order for it to be realistic I would end up making the head bob amount really low. The second reason is a lot of people get motion sickness from it. So what I'm wondering is if making this is really worth it. It seems like something useless that will just take up performance.

Pertaining to point 3, I think you should put in at least a little bit of subtle head movement. It really takes me out of the game when the screen is completely static while walking. It just shouts "THIS IS ACTUALLY A CAMERA INSIDE A VIDEO GAME".

Alright I'll include it and add an option to disable it.

It'd probably be pretty hard to implement, but I've always thought it was cool when you could look down and see your character's feet. Maybe something to think about?

I may end up doing exactly that for animation reasons. You would be able to see your character's body was well as their feet if I do. It should actually be really easy to implement.

I added an option for head bobbing. I just need to tweak some values with it (I also need to decrease the player's walking speed). Does any one have an opinion on one or two?

Lights should be on at night. Your original HUD sounds fine, but perhaps adding options to change the visibility of some gauges might be a wise move. You can't please everyone, but adding options certainly helps.

I agree, keep the lights on at night. If you want to differieniate then I would opt for a small candle on at night versus a bigger lamp go on later.

Alright, I'll keep the lights on all the time (that will help a ton with performance). I'll also go with my original idea for the HUD but with options for bars. Thanks.

Changing the colour of the windows themselves might be enough to show it's night time, if the panes are dark enough. Then just shift the colours in the room a little bit to make it look like a light bulb rather than natural light. Maybe a bit darker than normal.

call of duty style health indication is shit. especially in a non call of duty style game. i suggest you rethink that. nothing is more frustrating than not being 100% sure when you're about to die in a videogame.

also not having a stamina or hunger bar on the hud means people will start getting negative effects from low hunger or stamina and not know why because they don't think to check stamina or hunger.

the way skyrim has a minimalist hud is as follows. if you're not using it, it doesn't show up. full health, magic or stamina and the bar fades away.

if your hunger is low enough to effect you pop up a hunger low icon maybe yellow then red if it's critical. stamina could be done by breathing or something but it's not super intuitive.

@Mouse I think you misunderstood what I was asking. I was asking about the disabling and enabling of candles and lanterns. I already have a light managed by time of day. So the difference between day and night is obvious.

@Strike I made it an option for different bars and for the COD style heath indication. So it'll be the player's decision. I'll also add an option for when a bar will appear. I already have a breathing sound effect when the players stamina hits 0 and enters recovery. Thanks for your opinion.

I have one more question. How does the art, not the layout, of my main menu look? It's blue to represent mana.

Make it slightly more flashy, it's really bare right now.
But don't overdo it. Look at how commercial games design their interfaces.


And what happened with the trees?

Alright. The trees are cramped together right now, I need to space them out a bit.