Posted August 28, 2024 by xiri
One thing I was really adamant though, was how to portray who was talking in HITM3. I didn't want to have a portrait along the dialogue to identify who was the speaker. I didn't want to deal with how this portrait would relate to the general low poly graphics of the game. This duality can be tricky and finding the balance, difficult. If the portrait is really different from the general graphics, it can clash with the world but if it's too similar, why would you want to repeat the same information two times on the screen? Personally, I like how Final Fantasy VIII handles this by placing the text boxes near the person who's talking (without portrait) and having that person be animated. In HITM3, I quite liked how the text is at the bottom, Renpy-style, like in a visual novel. Animating each other sentence would have been a big endeavour so I had to think another way from Final Fantasy VIII. First I tried to display the character talking by putting an onomatopoeia mark on them. The mark was easy to miss in some scenes, too depending on the angle of it, also, there wasn't any other onomatopoeia in the game. Next, I tried what would end being the final decision, highlight the character who's talking by having a pink outline around them. There's a free asset in the unity store that creates the outline for you and you only need to turn it on and off depending who's talking. Easy and I think it conveyed the speaker pretty directly without being too intrusive.
The latest Volumen of After Journey's End is out now, and if you are interested in game design, I would strongly recommend to check both of the volumes that are now available. They feature the most exciting developers, ones that give me hope in gaming and reading about their choices trough their words is a real big luxury.
This next September, between the 27 - 29th, I'll be attending as a participant to my first video game fair in Barcelona, the IndieDevDay. Any advice of what I should expect? I don't really known much but let's hope for some serendipity.
Hope your summer or winter has treated you well.
Big hugs,
Xiri