A few Draft Day Sports: Baseball Screenies

[Shaun Sullivan]

It's early days, but the new interface is coming together. I posted some info on ths skinning support. It's really easy to re-skin the UI with one simple file that you can drop in the game folder... In many cases simply describing the graphical effect (e.g Gradient, startColor=red) in the skin file will lead to DDSB dynamically generating UI widgets based on the declarations in your skin file.

I am hoping this is something modders will go crazy with. Era specific skins, alternate color schemes, etc. Everything from fonts, images, background music, accent colors, tinting and even transluceny of the main UI overlay is all available for skinning.

I am keen to get feedback from modder types on the kinds of things they would like to see in skinning support. Any feedback is appreciated.

As an example, here I took the default UI and with six lines in the skin file I re-skinned it. (before and after pics here)

* NOTE the screens below are early works in progress so don't judge too much from them. In addition I am using some MLB logos and images from the web in these shots, DDSB will obviously not include any copyrighted material.

Before




After

[MJ4H]

A+ Shaun. A freakin +

And I don't even like baseball much.

[Cringer]

I don't do mods, but looking at the new PureSim UI has me all hot and bothered. Oops, DDS: Baseball.

[DaddyTorgo]

i think i just wet myself

this just makes me all the more conflicted about buying ddsb or ootp

shaun - is there any sort of VAGUE idea of when the game will be done? I'm not talking like a calendar date obviously, but like...a month? a range of months?

[Eaglesfan27]

I also really like this UI shot. Congrats, Icy (I think.)

[Brian Swartz]

shaun - is there any sort of VAGUE idea of when the game will be done? I'm not talking like a calendar date obviously, but like...a month? a range of months?

A WS forum member posted this a while back:

I am curious if Shaun can give us a timeframe for when he hopes to have the new game out. I know, I know please don't give the "it willl be ready when it's ready" answer. I am not looking for a day or even a month just a timeframe.

For instance:

1. Could be out mid-summer
2. Could be out late summer
3. Fall 2008
4. Not until early 2009
5. By spring training 2009.

Thanks

Shaun replied with the following:

1-5 are all possibilities at this point. Given some of the wholesale changes I am making, my current thinking would put the release closer to #5 than #1. That said, mid Summer is still a possibility if I can really hit my stride.

Shaun

Probably not as specific as most would want(as these things always are), but that should give you some idea.

[Shaun Sullivan]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

i think i just wet myself

this just makes me all the more conflicted about buying ddsb or ootp

shaun - is there any sort of VAGUE idea of when the game will be done? I'm not talking like a calendar date obviously, but like...a month? a range of months?

Thanks, to have FOFC'ers compliment it actually is a great sign. Icy did some cool work on the layout. When I check my GMail and see some new graphics waiting from him, I am like a kid at Christmas! Icy made his bones as a modder, so I figured I should raise the bar on that front. A canvas to paint on for the next "Icy" out there. Good karma.

My advice would be to go ahead and get OOTP if you need a Baseball fix soon. OOTP9 looks pretty awesome to me and I think it will be out in June. DDSB does not have a specific release date announced at this time.

I don't want to unfairly string people along when they could be enjoying a new Baseball game, I buy them all too! By the same token I will do a wide open beta for DDSB so keep your eyes peeled for that later in 2008. You'll be able to check it out for free during the beta -- the more feedback I get, the better.

My real belief is that OOTP + DDSB on the same computer affords you the ultimate complimentary Baseball sim experience

Shaun

[DaddyTorgo]

i've had both before - and you know i'm always going to support a fellow RS fan.

Thanks for the refreshing honesty in your answer re: a timeframe. It's appreciated, in that it would really suck to say "gee i'm going to wait until ddsb comes out before I decide" and thus not be playing a baseball game all the rest of the season possibly.

[Icy]

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

I also really like this UI shot. Congrats, Icy (I think.)

Thanks

It took me two attempts to figure this UI design. The initial interface I designed was based on red/black color scheme and a modern look, like other WS games (mainly the basketball ones).



Both Shaun and me liked it at first, but the more I looked at it, the more i thought, hey, this is a nice interface design but... it didn't make me feel like playing a baseball game, it was maybe too modern, and most of baseball fans, and specially the text sim ones, are fans of the baseball tradition and history, and it doesn't mix well with aggressive designs and color schemes. We posted some amples at WS forums and some of the fans agreed with us, it was too modern looking.

So I decided to start from zero, and this time to try to design something more baseball related, using the colors we all associate with baseball, greens, sand browns, white, red, etc. trying also to add more more baseball related stuff in the screen, like a field, a home plate, etc.

So I came with this mockup screen:



In that team screen, the logo, team color background (blue in this case) and both home and away jerseys should be easy to customize to match each team (fictional in this sample). We will release the required graphic templates so it will be easier to create mods for it.

With my games mods background, i'm so happy that Shaun is making DDS:BB this easy to be modded and If i have time in between other WS projects i'm working on (WS staff is really, really active and always working on side projects), i'll also try to create some mods for it (all fictional based for copyright reasons).

[Icy]

Dola, i almost forgot.

For those not following the game development at the WS forums (go there you mofos!), we announced there some time ago that the game is going to ship in 3 different screen sizes:

1024x768 (standard for WS games)
1280x1024 (for bigger screens)
1680x1050 (wide screen format)

[Young Drachma]

That looks pretty slick. Icy is no joke.

[Anthony]

i don't like the font in the "after" shot. the font in the "before" is 20x clearer to read. if you improve the font in the after shot i think it'd look really good.

[ice4277]

Originally Posted by Hell Atlantic

i don't like the font in the "after" shot. the font in the "before" is 20x clearer to read. if you improve the font in the after shot i think it'd look really good.

Agreed. The "after" font is kind of cheesy. Other than that I think the screens look real nice.

[Icy]

Originally Posted by Hell Atlantic

i don't like the font in the "after" shot. the font in the "before" is 20x clearer to read. if you improve the font in the after shot i think it'd look really good.

We agree with you, the "after" shot is just an extreme example of how you can make drastic changes to the interface just editing some files, but agree that the futuristic font looks ugly and doesn't fit a baseball game. Again it was just an extreme sample, the game will ship with the "before" font.

[Shaun Sullivan]

Originally Posted by Hell Atlantic

i don't like the font in the "after" shot. the font in the "before" is 20x clearer to read. if you improve the font in the after shot i think it'd look really good.

Sorry, that was just me trying to give an example of how "nuts" a modder can go. That 2nd shot is not a screen that ships with the game.

I agree it looks cheesy.

For my next example... Wingdings font!

[lynchjm24]

What might WSPN stand for? Watch Sports Programming Network?

[Brian Swartz]

I'll take a bold leap of faith and say it might stand for Wolverine Studios Programming Network.

[RedKingGold]

What I really like in an interface is when just about everything is infront of you one click away. IMO, that is one of the biggest strengths of the FOF interface.

This looks like a great step in the right direction.

[MrBug708]

The game looks promising, but I am hoping it's 100 times more stable then the NBA version

[Apathetic Lurker]

Originally Posted by Hell Atlantic

i don't like the font in the "after" shot. the font in the "before" is 20x clearer to read. if you improve the font in the after shot i think it'd look really good.

I have to agree

[lynchjm24]

If I were Shaun and Icy I'd delete this thread as it's pretty confusing. I thought that second screen was an in game shot too - not a modded screen.

[SnowMan]

Or at least make it more clear, I thought so as well.