Full Circle
There have been a number of times in the development of Sons of Ra where we have realized that design decisions we had made previously should be reviewed and possibly changed. That said, none have been as significant as what we have done the past couple of weeks.
The original control scheme for Sons of Ra was, like the rest of the game, developed with console play in mind. It was intended so that players could quickly engage with the game without having to worry about a myriad of keyboard mappings for different units or abilities. So, we arrived at the 4-button menu:
The top layer of the menu had options for Units, Towers, and Blessings (and later Keep Expansions, though that is not pictured here). Pressing the corresponding face button would take the player into a submenu containing options of different units they could create, towers they could build, or blessings they could use. After selecting a unit they would also be prompted to select a lane to build in, as shown, and at any time the player could choose to go back up a layer in the menu. In this early version, this was done by pressing RS, though that was later changed to be done through the triggers.
Though the menu was functional and relatively quick to use once understood, we found through playtesting that the process of understanding it was less than easy, to say the least. Additionally, being located in the corner of the screen brought the players’ attention away from where the action was happening. We knew something had to change, but weren’t sure what or how.
A few suggestions were made, such as moving the existing menu to be located above the keep, but we eventually decided on an idea that we kept coming back to – the radial menu. Though unliked by some, a radial menu seemed to solve all of our problems at once. It would allow us to keep much more information on one level of the menu rather than having multiple submenus, and it would allow a large number of options with only a few buttons to use. Though its appearance is still in the works, it is a clean enough state that we felt it was reasonable to show, especially because of how excited we are about it.
The menu is divided into 3 sectors, each containing all the players’ options for spawning units, building towers, and using blessings. To use it, the player simply holds the left stick to activate the menu, points it in the direction of what they want to use, and presses A to choose the selected option. In cases that do involve secondary menus or choices, returning to the main level is as simple as pressing B. Building towers and using blessings is simple as well:
Even though they still employ submenus to a degree, spawning units and building keep upgrades is still easy to understand and do. After selecting a unit, the menu immediately brings the player to lane select and they can simply point the stick in the direction they want to send the units and press A to create them. Keep upgrades are the only item still wholely within a secondary menu, which we did because of the infrequency with which they are used. That said, they are accessibly just by pressing Y, and pressing B while there will bring the player right back to where they were before.
All-in-all, we feel that we were able to cut an enormous amount of complexity from our game and increase ease of understanding for new players, and preliminary hands-on testing has said the same. We’re incredibly excited for the prospect of more people getting their hands on the new system and seeing how it feels, and we’re going to keep improving the feel and especially the visuals of it as we go.
In Closing
This was just one of the big changes that we promised last week, and we certainly don’t plan to start chasing our tails now that we’ve shown this to you. We still have more that we’re working on and improving, and we’re excited about what’s in the future. We hope you are too, and that we’ll see you back here next time. Have a great weekend guys!
Pharaoh Hound Games 