graphics in text-based sims

[wheels]

I was wondering if Jim would be open to having someone help him with his interface for The College Years, since EA is not helping him with this. I have been an art director in Chicago for four years and am an avid supporter of Jim and sports text sims in general. I can develop in-game screens better than Gigawatt Studios did for him and EA and would be more than happy to help. FOR FREE. (Please don't think you'd get what you'd pay for!) There is no reason small developers need to be tied to all those gray tabbed windows and boxes.

I have offered Shaun Sullivan some help with his PureSim Baseball, and he has used some of my ideas. He wants to execute the entire game himself, which I understand and respect. I have also noticed that the designer for Franchise baseball has enlisted an outside designer, and I hope this is a trend for this genre.

I know that there isn't as much "demand" for graphics in this area, and in no way can graphic design make up for a poorly written game. But this is the only area I see where there is room for improvement.

BTW, Jim, I support and respect your involvement and presence. It's too bad your're the exception rather than the rule.

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[ez]

if you design these things, then this might be pertinent.

i suspect i'll prefer the old (FOF2) interface to the new one (FOF2K1), for a few reasons:

the lack of evident "hot keys" for getting around.

where do i click? with the standard windows-like interface, buttons are clear, and i can't miss them. with puresim, i find myself "searching" for options more often than i should. this happens with FOF2 as well - who knew clicking on the standings would do anything?

i prefer having the ability to re-size/minimize my windows. alt-tabbing out of directX-type programs sometimes screws things up.

FWIW...

[Buccaneer]

Speaking of offering to help, one of my areas of professional expertise (15+ years) is in user interface designs and testing. Not so much in the art area as wheels is an expert at, but in operational flow. I am willing, for free as well, to test the operational flow of TCY and provide my critical analysis.

[dawgfan]

I think there's quite a few people who'd be willing to help Jim with TCY

I have a pretty extensive art background, and I appreciate well-done graphic design and a cool interface as much as anybody, but I found I really liked the clean windows-look of FOF2. It was easy to navigate, easy on the eyes, all the things that are important. I should withhold judgement until I see it, but I suspect I'll be disappointed with the new look of FOF2001.

My $0.02 for Jim and TCY (and anything else he ends up working on) is the classic windows-look is good enough. Now, if he needs help on background graphics, I'm available...

[Buccaneer]

dawgfan (seems we're following each other around): I agree with you completely, operational flow assumes that all buttons are clear to read and easily accessible, and get to the information quickly (and back as well). Alot of my critical analyses have come in web design in which way, way too many sites put in needless bells and whistles, thus distracting or preventing the user from getting at the necessary contents. The same principle applies to game design.