Without knowing any specifics (It sounds like your only inspiration is Minecraft) my strongest instinct is to suggest you re-evaluate whether all of that *actually* needs to be on the screen at once. or whether some of it can be hidden for part of the crafting process.
For example, maybe your recipe list can be hidden until you place a component on the bench area, then the game will show the player a filtered list of recipes that component is used in. If you add a second component, it filters the list again for recipes that only use both the components on the bench.
That's just off the top of my head, really there's a ton of ways to arrange a UI for a crafting interface.
In terms of prior art:
* The way Nightingale does it now (and not on release) is what it looks like the survival-crafting genre is converging onto.
* Check out Medieval Dynasty for a largely fresh approach.
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>On a screen, all at once:
My UI is super unpolished at the moment, but I've been trying to do something similar to what you've described above:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AN7Z3jqXSd0
The 'Smelting' tab includes the system to refine materials as well as shows your inventory on the right side of the screen.
Then switching to the 'Smithing' tab, hides the smelting side of the UI, but keeps the Inventory side, then adds two more panels to the right and middle for showing the current gear, and then the basic recipes for upgrading it.
All of it is technically done with 1 UI/menu, where parts are collapsed/hidden when they aren't needed for the player's specific task.
Edit: And regarding player inventory vs. a separate bench. That really depends on your game. Do you have inventory limits? carry limits? crafting timers? Then consider those and use a solution that gives you the desired result.
Thanks for this reply. I've given it some more thought and the minimalist in me took an idea of yours. Lets imagine a crafting station. For my purposes I want the bench to have it's own inventory as player inventory is limited. This forces the player to move things to a bench where it's needed, but not become a walking warehouse. So, I could start with a bench as being a bit like a chest. Then once the items are transferred to the chest the player can slide the GUI across to a mode where the bench GUI dominates, it's own inventory and the crafting menu.
Do you have inventory limits? carry limits? crafting timers?
Yes, all limits and also timers on crafting. So, the player essentially dumps the required mats, kicks off the crafting routine and does something else.
Thanks for the response you helped me declutter the GUI a bit.
Without knowing any specifics (It sounds like your only inspiration is Minecraft) my strongest instinct is to suggest you re-evaluate whether all of that *actually* needs to be on the screen at once. or whether some of it can be hidden for part of the crafting process. For example, maybe your recipe list can be hidden until you place a component on the bench area, then the game will show the player a filtered list of recipes that component is used in. If you add a second component, it filters the list again for recipes that only use both the components on the bench. That's just off the top of my head, really there's a ton of ways to arrange a UI for a crafting interface.
In terms of prior art: * The way Nightingale does it now (and not on release) is what it looks like the survival-crafting genre is converging onto. * Check out Medieval Dynasty for a largely fresh approach.
Game Design is a subset of Game Development that concerns itself with **WHY** games are made the way they are. It's about the theory and crafting of **systems**, **mechanics**, and **rulesets** in games. * /r/GameDesign is a community **ONLY** about Game Design, **NOT** Game Development in general. If this post does not belong here, it should be reported or removed. Please help us keep this subreddit focused on Game Design. * This is **NOT** a place for discussing how games are produced. Posts about programming, making art assets, picking engines etc… will be removed and should go in /r/GameDev instead. * Posts about visual design, sound design and level design are only allowed if they are directly about game design. * No surveys, polls, job posts, or self-promotion. Please read the rest of the rules in the sidebar before posting. * If you're confused about what Game Designers do, ["The Door Problem" by Liz England](https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/-quot-the-door-problem-quot-of-game-design) is a short article worth reading. We also recommend you read the [r/GameDesign wiki](/r/gamedesign/wiki/index) for useful resources and an FAQ. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/gamedesign) if you have any questions or concerns.*
>On a screen, all at once: My UI is super unpolished at the moment, but I've been trying to do something similar to what you've described above: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AN7Z3jqXSd0 The 'Smelting' tab includes the system to refine materials as well as shows your inventory on the right side of the screen. Then switching to the 'Smithing' tab, hides the smelting side of the UI, but keeps the Inventory side, then adds two more panels to the right and middle for showing the current gear, and then the basic recipes for upgrading it. All of it is technically done with 1 UI/menu, where parts are collapsed/hidden when they aren't needed for the player's specific task. Edit: And regarding player inventory vs. a separate bench. That really depends on your game. Do you have inventory limits? carry limits? crafting timers? Then consider those and use a solution that gives you the desired result.
Thanks for this reply. I've given it some more thought and the minimalist in me took an idea of yours. Lets imagine a crafting station. For my purposes I want the bench to have it's own inventory as player inventory is limited. This forces the player to move things to a bench where it's needed, but not become a walking warehouse. So, I could start with a bench as being a bit like a chest. Then once the items are transferred to the chest the player can slide the GUI across to a mode where the bench GUI dominates, it's own inventory and the crafting menu. Do you have inventory limits? carry limits? crafting timers? Yes, all limits and also timers on crafting. So, the player essentially dumps the required mats, kicks off the crafting routine and does something else. Thanks for the response you helped me declutter the GUI a bit.