Capstone - UI Iterations

This week I gave myself the task of researching UI styles from different games and websites. I looked up some articles about games that had successful UI and games that had unsuccessful UI. One article I found mentioned the UI schemes of the Bethesda game series Fallout and how it integrated its UI into the game itself via the "Pip-Boy", while making the comparison to another Bethesda game The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, which had a journal that had tabs-within-tabs method. I considered both of these and started sketching out three ideas that could potentially work for our game. One idea was a highly functional grid system that had images of the players inventory while also managing what items are which based on their tag. I said that his would be the best one to implement only because it is similar to how our placeholder UI is set up, but it would also distract the player from the world since it wouldn't be stylized. The second idea I had was a more Integrated Grid System where the player's inventory appeared on the counter in front of the camera and the player could scroll through that and select what item they wanted to sell. This system would be similar enough to our current placeholder UI while also seemingly fit the world of the game. It would however be fairly disorganized since the area of the counter would be the only available real estate for the UI, meaning a lot would be crammed into that space. My third idea, and probably the most ambitious, is a diegetic UI. The player's inventory would be located all around the shop, so if the player wanted to sell an item, they would find it in the shop, click it and drag it to the customer, then the haggling and selling process would begin. This would be the most unique form of UI among any of the Capstone games, but it puts tremendous pressure on both the art and programming departments. I plan on this being something we explore for next semester if we go through. But for now I'm just going to give these options to my team tomorrow and see what feedback from them I get.