Originally Posted By CBSection31 (16 OCT 2006 7:53pm)
Hi everyone,

I'm working on the user interface for my upcoming game, Stonewall Penitentiary, and I'm hoping to get an idea of which of the following two formats people prefer.

Please note that Stonewall Penitentiary will be a realtime 3D game, which means that you can walk around freely as you would in first person shooters and some roleplaying games, although Stonewall Penitentiary will remain solely an adventure.

There are two screenshots, each representing one of the interfaces I am considering.  Please let me know which you prefer.  Warning:  the screenshots are very large!

Example 1
In this example, when you target an object that you can interact with, the object's name appears above the target icon.  Right-clicking will examine the object and left-clicking will interact with the object, if an interaction is possible.  This is good in that it tells you what hte object is, but it is bad in that it doesn't tell you whether or not you can interact with it, plus the text can get in the way of what you are looking at.

Example 2
In this example, when you target an object that you can interact with, there is no object name.  Instead, there are two gray circles always present above the target (to the left and to the right).  When you target an object that can be examined, the right circle turns green (pictured in this example).  If the object can be interacted with, as well, then the left circle will turn red.  This way, you know whether or not an object can be interacted with, instead of having to guess.  But the downside is that you won't always know what the object is.

I am posting this poll on other adventure sites, as well, so if you check multiple ones, please only vote on your preference once.  If you have any questions or need clarification, just let me know.

Thanks, everyone, for helping me make this a better game!