dev diary: htwml gamepad-friendly UI (Patreon)

i'm productive again!!! this week i've been working on new and improved UI for her tears were my light, since i will be releasing it on steam by the end of next month :)

a lot of people on steam use controllers (more than i expected anyway!) so basically what i've been doing is adding all the little button images and making sure the menus are easy to navigate on d-pad. here's the result so far!

i really enjoy making screens for some reason. it's like solving a puzzle haha, i love to organize everything and set it up so that i only have to make minimal changes for translations.

HERE'S HOW IT'S DONE:

first is the gamepad bindings! (this maybe looks intimidating but it's basically just copypasted from ren'py's documentation)

you can swap out the actions each button is mapped to. mine is only a little different from the default i think--i changed the Y button to "help" so i can use it to open the game menu (i know there's a game menu key too but having an alternate version gives me more flexibility with which screen is getting opened and such)

next is the button images! i switch them out based on which button scheme is set, since doing it this way is the most convenient code-wise (i can easily copypaste it into other games without making any changes!! yay!!!)

there's 3 sets of images and a hidden version so you can turn the buttons off. the buttons only display if you have a controller plugged in, so the hidden version just saves you the trouble of unplugging it lol.

finally, the actual ingame buttons! here's the skip+auto buttons from the quick menu:

i have them set up as big square buttons so that they're easy to select (whether you're on mouse, keyboard, or gamepad). i hope there'll be enough room for the text in all the different languages... it's a little tight but i can make them wider if i really need to. fingers crossed lol.

the other thing is that you can add a keysym to any button you want! i always make it so you can close the menu with B.

a lot of this type of work is just trying to play through the game with a controller and seeing what buttons your brain wants to press, then adding the keysyms in. i'm doing my best to make it a smooth experience no matter what you're playing on :)

anyway, that's about it! i submitted her tears were my light's store page to be reviewed by valve, so i should be able to launch it next week! exciting!!

tentative release date is sept 28!!!!! LET'S GOOO!!!!!!!!!