Escape - Group 4 - Week 4 - Start Menu State

This past week, I've been working on the main menu. The first state that the player runs into when the game starts. First and foremost, I've been working on the menu's visual function. Doing this first will make it easier for me to program the practical functions.

I decided to work on programming the main menu, because of my little experience with C++ and programming overall. Graphics was done by Henrik Forsman. The design is inspired by 1950s commercial light signs and film noir.

So far, I've managed to load:

• Background image
• Main Buttons
  - Lighting up when hovering mouse over them

          - Lit up permanently when selected (clicked on), until any other button is selected

• Selection Arrows
  - Appearing left of the buttons when hovering mouse over them

          - Lit up and placed permanently when button is selected, until any other button is selected

• Title logo
  - Randomly turns on and off every half second

  

Background Image

Drawn by Henrik Forsman. It's a picture of the room the player starts in the first level of the game.

Main Buttons & Selection Arrows

I think it's unnecessary that we need buttons that turns on and off as well as selection arrows. For selected buttons, it would be just fine if they were permanently lit up. The arrows are unnecessary in my opinion, I'm following Theodors and Henriks direction however.

Title Logo

It took a while to make its on and off cycle balanced. It easily got too sporadic or inactive. I've tried to implement a buzzing sound that plays while it's lit.

The idea behind the menu's design is that anyone who's watched 50s or noir films or anything inspired by them will immediately recognize the style and be put in the game's atmosphere, even before playing.

Comments

I'm starting work on the options tab and the sound manager. I'm not really happy with the amount of content I've managed to implement so far. My lack of experience is no excuse.
The rest of the team worked on the first playable version of the game, while my work isn't even one the main priorities of the project.

The sound manager will probably be easy to program considering how simple SFML is to work with. After I'm done with that and the main menu, it's uncertain what I'll work on when it comes to programming. Since I'm given the roles of level- and sound designer, it might be time I start acting them.