Making Sidebars aka Letterboxs

[ShmupSamurai]

I've never made letterboxes/sidebars/status windows(er whatever you want to call them) before in a shump...

Does anybody have any good pointers they'd like to share?

[BPzeBanshee]

The only really strict thing you have to remember is that it doesn't get in the way of the game, and it has to be helpful.

For example, GMOSSE's status windows consist of having the lives/bombs and score up on the top side while the debug display (memory usage, framerate, this is also togglable via options menu) is at the bottom of the screen and has an alpha transparency of 0.5 so as to not cover up anything (not that there should be anything coming from below without good reason anyway).

Beyond that, it's pretty open I think. Text has to be readable but beyond that can be anything, etc.

[ShmupSamurai]

Thanks

[Rozyrg]

If nothing else, you could always simply follow the format of the old Toaplan Genesis/Megadrive ports... I know I would if I ever had the urge to put sidebars in my games.



If you had to have one on each side (I know the screen ratio is a bit different for the main section on the pic above), I'd probably just have some cool arcade cabinet style artwork on the other.