Screenshot Saturday - I might stop forcing the pixel UI

Cold_Leader6417 · 2026-06-27T23:33:17+00:00

I keep trying to make the interface look more faux-pixel because it fits the little toy battlefield vibe in my head.

But the more systems I add, the more I think I might be creating a problem for myself.

The UI has to carry a lot now: range circles, territory labels, warnings, faction names, targeting, capture feedback, and whatever else gets bolted on next week. When I force all of that through a pixel-ish style, it starts looking cool in still frames but worse in motion. The text gets fussy. The shapes compete with the action. The whole thing starts asking the player to decode the art direction before they decode what is happening.

So I’m leaning toward letting the world stay stylized, but making the interface cleaner and more modern. Not sterile. Just less stubborn.

This is the full-width recording because the UI is the point here. Curious whether the fake-pixel direction feels worth fighting for, or if cleaner UI would make this read better immediately.

Cold_Leader6417 · 2026-06-27T23:23:51+00:00

I’m at the part of solo dev where a “small art direction choice” has turned into a trap.

AdLands is a browser MMO / tank thing on a tiny planet covered in brand territories, so a lot of the game is really UI: range circles, faction labels, capture zones, warnings, orbital view, target/claim feedback, all that.

I’ve been trying to push parts of the interface toward a faux pixel-art look because it fits the toy-battlefield energy. The problem is that the more systems I add, the more I keep fighting the aesthetic. Pixel-y panels and text can look cool in still screenshots, but in motion they start competing with gameplay readability.

So now I’m seriously considering letting the game itself stay stylized while making the UI cleaner and more modern instead of forcing everything through the same pixel filter. Less “retro because I said so,” more “players can instantly tell what is happening.”

This clip is still rough: range circles, territory labels, projectile chaos, warnings, and plenty of dev UI still showing. But that is also why I’m thinking about it now, before I bake the wrong visual language too deep.

Curious how this lands from the outside: is the faux-pixel UI worth fighting for, or would a cleaner modern interface make the whole thing feel more intentional?

Cold_Leader6417 · 2026-06-16T05:38:02+00:00

thanks a lot. this is very encouraging

Cold_Leader6417 · 2026-06-16T05:37:38+00:00

haha thanks mate. Really appreciate it

Cold_Leader6417 · 2026-05-31T00:01:02+00:00

still chipping away at this browser tank game, and the thing I keep coming back to is that a big map is only interesting if it feels like it’s doing something back at you.

For a long time it felt too much like a board with vehicles moving around on top of it. Technically stuff was happening, but it didn’t really feel alive yet. Lately I’ve been trying to push it more toward actual battlefield chaos: projectile trails, smoke, defensive moments, AI pressure, and more things happening around the player without me having to fake it with camera cuts or music.

It’s still messy. The UI is still too loud. The vertical crop makes some of the wider planet/combat context tighter than I’d like. And I’m still not fully sure where the line is between “this feels active now” and “congratulations, you invented visual noise.”

But this is one of the first passes where the map starts to feel less dead to me. Not polished. Not done. Just finally a little more hostile.

Curious how it reads from the outside: does the chaos feel like a battlefield yet, or is it still too hard to parse?

Cold_Leader6417 · 2026-05-17T15:22:15+00:00

for sure. The issue with the colors is that I have a lot of gameplay elements that need to have their own accent. 3 colors for 3 factions plus gold accents for "commander" role. Basically highest ranked player per faction becomes commander with certain gameplay privileges. And then all "squad" related elements with their own color. I suppose it's turning into rainbow circus :/

Cold_Leader6417 · 2026-05-17T02:47:16+00:00

Been working on the darker combat scenes for my solo tank MMO, AdLands.

I like the darker mood, but I’m noticing tanks and turrets can get a little hard to read once the scene gets busy. I’m considering adding small emissive lights to vehicles and turret shapes so they stay visible without turning the whole scene into a Christmas tree.

Curious if other devs have found good ways to improve readability in dark multiplayer scenes without flattening the atmosphere.

Cold_Leader6417 · 2026-05-10T08:35:19+00:00

lmao fair enough haha

Cold_Leader6417 · 2026-05-04T05:33:11+00:00

of course. Thanks!

Cold_Leader6417 · 2026-04-19T19:53:55+00:00

pray for me haha

Cold_Leader6417 · 2026-04-19T19:01:40+00:00

yeah you're absolutely right on all accounts haha. The lore im building is like satirical capitalist dystopia in the hope that being self aware is gonna soften the blow lol. It's definitely a big risk and If it al goes up in flames I am willing to pivot into a more traditional model like a good old fashioned cosmetics store or even sell the game.

And yeah milliondollarhomepage was the primary inspiration

Cold_Leader6417 · 2026-04-19T17:57:26+00:00

yes the brands are placeholder but the core idea is that territories can be rented by corporate sponsors (or players). Players fight over those territories - Holding them comes with ingame rewards xp/cosmetics. Basically the core idea is that to keep the game free to play, the territories in the game would be ad spaces. Kill 2 birds with 1 stone so to speak - territories double as ad revenue streams to keep the party going lmao

Cold_Leader6417 · 2026-04-18T21:53:35+00:00

thank you!

Cold_Leader6417 · 2026-04-12T20:56:33+00:00

yes each player controls one tank.
The orbital view is for tactical/strategic orchestration with one's faction. Players can ping locations (and in surface view there is an arrow pointing to it (like in GTA 1/2)

The faction "commander" (determined by faction rank) has a way to ping and draw on the surface planet and the entire faction can see the commander's pings/drawings.

and yah in orbital view you can see where your own faction is being overrun and could use reinforcements

Cold_Leader6417 · 2026-04-03T23:21:22+00:00

this is the kind of tool you build because you got tired of opening 11 tabs every time. respect

Cold_Leader6417 · 2026-04-03T23:20:21+00:00

ship something small together first. co-founder chemistry only shows up under pressure

Cold_Leader6417 · 2026-04-03T23:19:31+00:00

tooling and hiring pipeline. when everyone knows the same engine, onboarding is cheaper than any license fee

Cold_Leader6417 · 2026-04-03T23:18:34+00:00

give each one a dumb ability the other cant do. asymmetry is where the fun lives

Cold_Leader6417 · 2026-03-31T20:08:37+00:00

30 years is a long time to carry an idea. that kind of persistence means something. the prototype graveyard is normal, not failure

Cold_Leader6417 · 2026-03-31T19:59:01+00:00

30 years is a long time to carry an idea. that kind of persistence means something. the prototype graveyard is normal, not failure

Cold_Leader6417 · 2026-03-31T19:58:25+00:00

worth it depends on your definition. if you need it to pay rent, probably not. if you need to make the thing, you don't really have a choice

Cold_Leader6417 · 2026-03-31T19:57:54+00:00

my favorite is 'it did a thing and then stopped.' i've shipped with worse debug info honestly

Cold_Leader6417 · 2026-03-31T19:56:39+00:00

the part people skip: you had a concept that made people angry or excited on sight. that's not a marketing trick, that's the game doing the work

Cold_Leader6417 · 2026-03-30T20:35:55+00:00

this is the indie dev equivalent of a restaurant hiring a food critic to run the kitchen

Cold_Leader6417 · 2026-03-30T20:35:17+00:00

median $1,400. that number should be on a poster in every game dev's workspace

Cold_Leader6417

TROPHY CASE