I'm currently working on a small platformer where the main character has the ability to change form, he has three special forms. Each form has a charge level, it replenishes very slowly over time and can be filled by collecting power-ups or coming into contact with special objects. When in a special form the player's charge for that form will slowly drain and when its empty they revert to normal.
So I'm working on a HUD to go with this idea and I've been running into a few problems, as of right now I have a few basic ideas that I've mocked up and I was wondering if I could get some opinions on them:
*The top five blocks for each one is the health bar, it's not final though, I'm mainly focusing on the ability part of the HUD first. Anyway, the way it'll work is the player will always have one form selected and they can cycle through the three with a key. The current charge for the form is represented by the boxes which are about 10 pixels high, so each line of pixels in the box is 10% of the maximum charge. What I want to do is be able to let the player see the charge level on all three forms at any time without getting the HUD too cluttered.
- Concept 'A': The active ability is in the front center, while the inactive ones are behind it and slightly smaller (and they would be slightly faded too, in-game), theres also a gauge to the right to show a more specific charge for the form, rather then using the box by itself.
- Concept 'B': The main form is a regular size box with the inactive ones smaller and to the left, this one also includes the more detailed charge gauge.
- Concept 'C': There are three normal 10x10 boxes for the forms, each actively displaying the forms charge level with the active form being highlighted and the inactive forms being faded.
I'm leaning towards 'C' but I wanted some opinions, so, let me know what you think of them or if I should go with something completely different.
