I loved seeing the screenshots in the Empires and Species dev diary, but one thing's been bothering me, and that's the general tone offered by the GUI. Of course, I realise the game is still in alpha and the GUI is going to be one of the last things to be polished off, but it's still something of a concern.
In my experience, almost every sci-fi game of any kind has a GUI that's this same kind of cold grey-blue (sometimes orange, for some reason) minimalist faux-digital aesthetic. Older games sometimes mixed things up with a cold grey-blue mechanical aesthetic mixed in. The fonts are always something minimalist and sans-serif (although, I do love the font set Paradox is using currently). Scanlines appear on everything from portraits to icons (see the extreme bottom left). Everything is very clean, but very inhuman.
To me, this tends to make the world in these games feel a little lonely. We spend our hours staring at blue-grey space while a blue-grey interface devoid of flourishes. Games like Ascendancy, Master of Orion II, Galactic Civilizations II, or even Alpha Centauri all make me feel like I'm looking at a civilization nearing death, as it's clearly been generations since they killed all the artists (I love all those games, but still...). I want an interface that shows me that my civilization is flourishing.
Personally, I think Paradox can do better than that. I've always been wowed by the beautiful GUIs in EU3 and 4, CK2, and both Victoria's, and they make me feel that my empire is really going places. Perhaps something in a more space baroque tone would be good, echoing Dune or Warhammer 40,000. Or maybe some more typical Paradox flourishes like ribbons and banners could be used against the digital look, combining imperialist grandeur with a techy look. I'm just thinking aloud really. I'd be interested to hear if anyone else has thoughts on this.
In my experience, almost every sci-fi game of any kind has a GUI that's this same kind of cold grey-blue (sometimes orange, for some reason) minimalist faux-digital aesthetic. Older games sometimes mixed things up with a cold grey-blue mechanical aesthetic mixed in. The fonts are always something minimalist and sans-serif (although, I do love the font set Paradox is using currently). Scanlines appear on everything from portraits to icons (see the extreme bottom left). Everything is very clean, but very inhuman.
To me, this tends to make the world in these games feel a little lonely. We spend our hours staring at blue-grey space while a blue-grey interface devoid of flourishes. Games like Ascendancy, Master of Orion II, Galactic Civilizations II, or even Alpha Centauri all make me feel like I'm looking at a civilization nearing death, as it's clearly been generations since they killed all the artists (I love all those games, but still...). I want an interface that shows me that my civilization is flourishing.
Personally, I think Paradox can do better than that. I've always been wowed by the beautiful GUIs in EU3 and 4, CK2, and both Victoria's, and they make me feel that my empire is really going places. Perhaps something in a more space baroque tone would be good, echoing Dune or Warhammer 40,000. Or maybe some more typical Paradox flourishes like ribbons and banners could be used against the digital look, combining imperialist grandeur with a techy look. I'm just thinking aloud really. I'd be interested to hear if anyone else has thoughts on this.
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) so anything that Paradox can do to make sure the GUI doesnt grow stale and cold over hours and hours of playing would be great!
