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I wouldn't say the UI/UX has been completely ignored. In fact, to a large extent I'd say it's been quite deliberately designed. The lack of "graphics" does not
by joemi 10y ago
I wouldn't say the UI/UX has been completely ignored. In fact, to a large extent I'd say it's been quite deliberately designed. The lack of "graphics" does not necessarily lessen a game, especially one like this (or like less complicated roguelikes). I've been playing roguelikes for years (decades?) and I think the text visuals are actually better than any tile visuals I've ever tried (and I've tried a lot of tilesets for the various games I've played). As long as you know what the symbols mean, there's less ambiguity about what something is (especially at higher resolutions). Textual interfaces might not be great for a FPS, but at least to me, they're actually ideal for games like DF. Same for the keyboard interfaces.
To me, the roguelike and DF style UI/UX are kind of like vim/emacs and "easier" or "prettier" game UI/UX are like MS Word. Both server their purposes well, but one is designed to be extremely powerful but it has a steep learning curve, while the other is designed to be easier for new users but the power usage can be more obscured or entirely non-existent. It's not a perfect analogy, of course, but it's my take on it.
- omni 10y ago> In fact, to a large extent I'd say it's been quite deliberately designed. I'm curious whether you actually read the article and have any thoughts on the menu within. Seemed horrible to me as an outside observer.
- joemi 10y agoDidn't read the article but I've played the game. As I mentioned, I've been playing roguelikes for a long time, and I think that definitely has to do with my lack of hatred for the UI.
- zzalpha 10y agoIf you've played the game, read the article. Dwarf Fortress is like owning an incredibly ugly dog. Everyone knows it's ugly. You can even laugh at how ridiculous it is. But you can still love it all the same.
- Obi_Juan_Kenobi 10y agoThe article itself does a terrific job of disabusing this very notion. ASCII art isn't a problem. I've played a lot of Angband and haven't really ever been bothered by the graphics. Yet Angband frustrates me far less than DF does. The problem is an illogical and inconsistent interface. Discoverability is next to nil, and the stockpile example in the article is a wonderful example of inconsistency. This seems to be the result of iterative development that adds features while seldom overhauling the UI. I don't know much about DF version history in any kind of detail, but I'd bet that the stockpile UI made some sense when it was initially implemented, and likely much simpler. Maybe it was just toggling back then. I would hate to see DF get a mouse-based interface, but there are huge gains that could be made with the UI.