Z+ UI Mockups

One of the first decisions I made concerning Z+ is that the display area will be constrained to 80 columns and 25 rows, because that’s how it used to be. There’s a better reason than my nostalgia, though. If I ever make a multiplayer version, it stops higher resolutions from having a huge advantage. Besides, the latest version of libfake437 can scale its display to fill larger screens.

ZZT’s display was laid out something like this:

That’s a 60x25 play area (black) and a 20x25 status area (blue). As a starting point, I think it’s pretty close to what I want. I also want a way for the game to send one-line text messages to the player. In ZZT, they show up for a few seconds, blocking the bottom row of the play area. Here are a couple of mockups I’ve done, with a possible message area in green:

I’m still deciding what I should go with, and opinions are welcome. Send me an email.