It's All About Presentation

Hey everyone!

Normally I'd embed the actual content further into the post, but GIF compression absolutely destroys the background in this one. Apparently I can only embed videos as a dedicated video post, so here we are.

Let me backup a little and talk about the first new screen I designed: the bottlecap collection screen!

Bottlecap Collection Screen

This screen will display all of the unique bottlecap labels you've found throughout the game. Every bottlecap has a name, description, location, and series. The bottlecap series is shown via the color groupings below the label icons.

In case you missed it, I recently shared some UI I've been working on: a bottlecap collection screen! After wrapping up work on mechanics for the 6th main level, as well as the next bonus level, I decided to give myself a little development treat and work on something new and unrelated. Why not tackle a menu? I then went and made this mockup:

Mockup used to create the final screen. I make all of my mockups at the game's native resolution: 640x360. This to ensure that the text remains readable at that resolution.

It was incredibly fun, engaging, and satisfying to work on this- it felt like a perfect blend of building something fast because I'm familiar with my tools, and learning something new. After all, I had never created or rigged a 3D model before!

Notes: I'll Get Back To You On This One

• Most bottlecaps don't have names and descriptions; I only wrote a handful to help illustrate how the screen would feel in the final game.

• There is a series dedicated to patron bottlecaps- it's at the end of the list. I'll make an announcement soon regarding patron bottlecaps, so stay tuned!

Inspiration: Pikmin 2 Is My Favorite Game Of All Time, As You Can See

In Pikmin 2, the goal of the game is to collect enough "treasures" in order to repay a massive company debt. Every treasure you find is unique, and has an entry in the treasure hoard. In the treasure hoard, you can rotate and zoom the treasure model, as well as read both a sales pitch and Olimar's notes on a given treasure.

I have always loved sifting through the treasure hoard (and the Piklopedia) between tense in-game sessions: it's a fun breather or way to relax after you're done playing. (It also appears in Pikmin 4- with even more awesome details for every treasure!)

Pikmin 2 was the primary inspiration to make every bottlecap in Soda-Powered Penguin unique- there's just something viscerally appealing about building a collection where every item is something special. A collection screen accentuates by organizing and prominently displaying everything you've found, and then sprinkling extra detail on top.

Stats Screen

Mockup used to create the stats screen.

I'm the kind of player that loves statistics- these are personalized numbers that tell a story about your journey through the game. That said, it was hard to justify working on a stats screen, as it's always lower priority than working on main game content.

However, there was a shift in priorities that finally gave the justification to work on this screen. Plus, I had just finished the bottlecap collection screen, so the entire UI workflow was fresh in my mind.

Here, your total stats for each level- as well as a grand total- are displayed. Disabling the death counter will hide the death count column, too.

Why stop with total stats? After all, some players work very hard toward setting a new personal best time or lowest death count... the game should display that, too!

Of course, I still have more work to do- this screen will continue to change in the future as more things in the game get tracked, like level exits and new collectable types. (I also need to hide the title screen entry until you've found the bottlecap- and maybe disable tracking your time spent in the title screen as well.)

Notes: Don't Look Into It Too Much

• You can mash all the buttons and directions, and the screen will continue to respond to every input. UI has to feel good too!

• Even though the game never formally displayed it anywhere, the game already does save your total time / total deaths / best time / best death count. So it should work with your existing save file.

• The time & death counts shown here were recorded with my silly test dev save file- they don't reflect the levels themselves, since I'm just flying or teleporting to the end.

• Scrapyard Sanctuary is the working name of the fifth main level, previously named Junkyard / "DemoCarry".

• Bottlecap counts for Dark Descent and Hellbent Hazards aren't final. (Hellbent Hazards is the working name of the sixth main level)

Inspiration: Only So Many Ways To Design A Screen

For this one, I mainly studied Super Mario Sunshine and Celeste- two games that I've completed multiple times over. When I finish a playthrough, I love comparing stats between files. I also studied the other 3D Mario games- with the idea of pages coming from Super Mario Galaxy 2 in particular.

At the end of the day, this kind of screen is designed to organize and view your stats efficiently- ideally showing as many levels as it can without being information overload. There's only so many ways to make a screen like that! So the end result looks very similar to both Celeste and Super Mario Sunshine.

Talking About The Next Patreon Build Soonish

I had originally planned to talk about some details about the next Patreon build, but I realized that it'd probably be better to show the features working than tell you about my intent to implement them. Plus, a whole month had passed before I realized it- so I decided to cut things off here.

So, until next time!