THE SCREENSHOT TOPIC RETURNS

In reverse order.

5. No. But apparently you do need a better monitor. I seriously can see this stuff from five feet away, with a computer that's 5+ years old, and obviously that bad in resolution. But what's your excuse?

4. I take advice. Or I reject it. Sometimes even a bit of both. Why were we human beings given the ability to make decisions if all we could say is "Yes, of course, you're absolutely right." Good advice, is exactly like good text, you can't just think it's good text, because other people may take one look at it and say (wait for it...) "I can't read that." How do you test good advice? You take it under advisement. You try that along with everything else you're gonna try. As a general rule, I ignore people who are outright rude to me (usually you), unless I'm certain they're right (usually Locke).

3B. I had the box. I removed it, in favor of this. I had largely monochrome default text too. I removed it too, in favor of this. As soon as I started tweaking the stuff, trying to get stuff to show up, this was the first to go. Why do you think this is? It's because I needed a solution to getting stuff to show up, and what I had before wasn't working. This text shows up on black, grey, and white, and it also matches every single one of my background. In terms of what I have for menu pointer, I narrowed it down to a box no back, or a back no box. Since every single other system I have has box, no back, I said "that's boring" and added this instead. I could add it the other way, but then it'll fade into the black, and the period still won't be visible (and then there's predominantly white background that if I lightened the insides). Or, I could do exactly what you want, and displease Locke, SnowOwl, and Millenin in the process.

This?

Or this? (And before you say yes, keep in mind there are solid white screens)

Or maybe this? (Too bad, this is the one I pick)

3A. Okay, I'm gonna break it down for you. My entire game both figurately and literally has shades of grey. Any solid color, from white to black, that contrasts with black will blend neatly into the white and fade away. I therefore need a third color, and need it less solid (shadowed/gradient/whatever) in order to account for the fact that my text may run into this or the other background which it can't be seen against.

Solid white text? You like that? Sure, go ahead and read this.

What? You can't read it? Because, guess what? Thanks to my menus being transparent, the textboxes are too.

2. I never said it was... look, forget what I said. The point is, having not noticed my text was particularly bad until well into game test and production ("okay, some people are calling it unreadable," to "holy crap everyone who sees my game, comments on the text"), I learned to adjust my eyes unconsciously to pick out the shape rather than color of the text. It really is not that hard for me to read, and it's very hard on the other hand to figure out if other people will be able to read it. So, I churn out some text or other, nope, they can't read it either. You think you've got a text you can read? Great, give it to me, I'll put it in as text style 4 on my system menu. It seriously is that simple. Or, you can whine and complain about it, and sabotage any free time I have trying to figure out what you want. But let's face it, you don't care about my game or me, and pandering to what you want is likely to be a bad idea as far as the quality of the game and what I want out of it. If text really were the only issue complained about, I'd have higher stuff in terms of reviews. But there are other problems. Stop getting hung up on the one, and move on.

1. Was there some point? My game is literally, figuratively, and thematically in shades of grey. It's even part of the opening. I could argue until I'm blue in the face, but unless you have constructive to give (like blue BG should go on yellow text)... you know, it's senseless arguing with you. You say you've played "enough to know" of my game, but I'm not convinced you have. The last 10 or so upgrades, I've edited one or the other text, nobody noticed, commented, cared, or seemed to appreciate it. What then, was all those for?

If it wasn't for me, then there wasn't one. So, if you come to criticize, without even the decency of telling me what I can do to improve, I see you as stealing my creation, and turning it into something ugly. And you wonder why I'm mad?

...Now, Locke, about that textbox for the opening, 50% a good transparency?

Agh, now it's kind dark. And yea, off center.

No, no it won't.

I respond well to only one type of criticism, open-ended "do this, and it will look like this, if you don't, well I don't care." Both coercive criticism ("You must do this.") and generalized criticism ("Your stuff is bad, but I won't actually tell you what's wrong with it") produce violent stubbornness.

Not to mention, I can't stand Corfais anyway.

I had coercive criticism all my life, btw. I'd struggle to please people (bosses, teachers, even potential friends). Then I found out in the very worst way, that what they really really wanted was for me to fit some ideal. And, of course, I saw it in my own reflection, going after girls for what desired qualities I thought they had. If there's one thing, I've learned, it's that why it's good to be liked and not hated, some people will not like you no matter what you do, so you weed out both the critics who force you to play guessing games on what you want, and those who are like "do it that way or you're a LOSER."

If there is something I need to improve, that's fine, I'll work on improving it. But ultimately, if I want a butt-ugly opening screen, and I've made it readable and workable, and everything functional has been taken care of, to have someone like him be like "Is it so hard to just have (boring monochrome text colors that don't work for every situation, given the choice I would say "that's really not me", and in most games I play them on, make me immediately cringe because they're so generic)?" Yes it is, especially when I've spent effort trying to make my own ideas work, and no they have to be exactly what someone's said.

I believe compromise is meeting people halfway. I also believe surrender is meeting people 100% and finding not only do they not like it, but the stuff they did like it now gone.

So, I'm gonna do this. I have four main fonts, and four secondary. I'm keeping the transparent menu is main option. After my shower, I'm gonna submit every single one of my other fonts, and you pick which ones have promise.

Yeah but the thing is, if you're going to be creating work and showing it to people, you HAVE to take criticism. Everybody has their own little sob story they could tell you about how someone judged their work harshly, or this or that. Sometimes you have to bite the bullet, drop the ego, and think "maybe they're on to something with that comment. I could learn from this comment. This could be a lot better." You have to use whatever criticism people give you to your advantage and show them you can do better. We've been both harsh and completely reasonable, and you've ignored both kinds of criticism so far.

You can't just ignore people and keep posting the same thing over and over thinking you're gonna get a different result. It does not work like that. Good work takes lots and lots of practice and polish, and yes, criticism. I could show you some early early screens of Everlasting Journey that might blow your mind, but frankly, with the way you've reacted to everything else, I don't think you'd give two shits.

Here:


Use it or don't. I still had fun making it.

Psssshhhh.

I actually wanted the title to stand out the most, so I ended up darkening the rock and the vines quite a bit. There's definitely room for improvement though!

Smelly feces.

kentona, that's why I have multiple text systems. So it's up to you the player, to a certain extent.

And that's why I seriously want input on the top three colors from this list, so we can have this settled what people like, because I'm just gonna pick option one from the system menu.

I like things other people may not like. I dislike things other people may love. The issue I have is with other people telling me what I should like.

Reds especially, in solid, give me a headache. But "hard" colors, in general, annoy me. I like stuff to be mild, since I have a very violent reaction to things coming across violent or forceful. I've had to deal with such people in the past, and I hate them.

My text is gradient, because it's a very "soft" message I wanna put across, that there are different ways (Christianity, Taoism, Buddhism), and each has its merits. When I have this stuff said with very firm text, it feels pushy, like that "you must do your own thing". (Which, while awesome, makes no sense)

I'm perfectly open to having alt texts, that's why I set up this menu. But I do want to keep my default, because it's my personal favorite. So pick your favorite fonts, that's fine, I'll make them custom to order. Yes, seriously.

author=bulmabriefs144
Pepsi. Can you split off the menu as a picture, so that I can work with it (I have more options)? I'm happy with that, actually.

Here you go:
http://rpgmaker.net/users/PepsiOtaku/locker/tao_titlespepsiotaku.rar

I also made you a game plus variation (based on your description), with a dash of pink! There's one with some cherry blossom flowers (which I thought would compliment the pink text), and one without.

author=Dreaded
Here is a screenshot of my project. Characters included are dwarves

I like the messagebox you decided to go with.

Some things that stood out to me:
* The cave looks fairly bare. It might look better if you populate it with something. Maybe some loose rocks, unevenness in the terrain, etc..
* Nitpicky, but you use "Once we" to start two sentences in a row.

Detective, for a "girl's" house, you might want to keep the decor pretty neutral until you hit the bedroom. Use a cream or white colour wall for that lounge, and use a different colour then for the kitchen. The two matching walls make them feel like they're the same room. It'd be best to leave the crazy pinkage until the bedroom, because that is the most personalised space.

Also, try to consider that the player sprite should be the size of a real human. Think about those sofas and that "coffee table". You could fit 8 people on that thing, so it's definitely more of a conference table if anything, which wouldn't have sofas around it seating-wise.

These houses are huge, you've really gotta cut down on the space you're using. See how in this example, you could sit 8 people and take up half as much space as your lounge:



Also, the blank space to the right in the kitchen - just cut it and end the kitchen unit at the wall. I see that you're trying to make the houses fit into the perfect square, but remember that it's not always gonna be exact. Some houses have weirdly placed walls where wires/pipes are hiding underneath. My house is full of rooms with alcoves from old fireplaces that were bricked over.

You need to stop focusing on making everything so clean and perfect - imagine real people with real routines living in the house.