The game has a nice story, good gameplay and impressive graphics. But I didn't like the interface!
Here are some suggestions how it might be implemented in Desolate 2:
1. Entering door codes is very complicated in Desolate 1. You have to press left and right to move a virtual finger over a virtual keypad. Didn't you notice, that there's a REAL number pad on your TI83?
Serious, it would be a lot more comfortable if you could enter the codes on a real key pad.
2. In Desolate 1 you have 4 functions: search, close pop-ups, shoot and open inventory. But they don't have one button each. Instead XTOn changes the function of 2nd. Why not using 2nd for search and XTOn for shoot?
If you want to keep the nice feature that pressing a direction moves the character in search mode, while it only turns it in shoot mode: You could change it so that as long as enemies are alive in the current room the character turns and when the room is save, pressing a direction directly moves the character.
3.
My suggestion concerning the inventory might be a little strange: If you arranged the inventory items in a matrix of 5*6 you could access them by pressing a button in the key reagion of MATH to CLEAR to + to STO->.
Example:
Your inventory looks like this:
Code: Select all
[Cardreader][1][2] [3][4]
[5] [6][Drill]
Pressing MATH uses the Cardreader.
Pressing COS uses the Drill.
Pressing X^-1 uses Datacadridge 5....
4.
It took some contrast adjustments until Desolate looked good on my calc. Could you implement ingame contrast change? Like + for brighter and - for darker?[/code]