Contents  Introduction  GUI Controls  We'll Need  Breaking It Down  Static Controls  Pushbuttons  Carets and The  Textbox Control  Progress Bars  Sliders and  Scrollbars  Listbox Control  Conclusion  Printable version     The Series  Part I  Part II  Part III  Part IV

Conclusion

It's been a whirlwind tour, but hopefully you have a general idea of what lies ahead of you in your quest to create controls for your GUI. The only thing I want to reiterate is "style is fun." Don't be afraid to take a few liberties as you create your GUI - implement the stuff you've always wished for, and the stuff that makes the most sense in your game. This is especially important if the game your making relies heavily on the functionality of your GUI - like, say, you're making a RTS game.

But also remember that in creating your controls, your doing the same balancing act as with the rest of your game - you're weighing features against development time. Give your players as easy and intuitive GUI as possible, but also, don't spend all your time making 50 different controls. You want to strike a balance between functionality, the good thing, and complexity, the bad thing.

That's it for controls. In the next and final part of this article, we'll take a quick peek at resource editors, serializing windows, and creating dialog boxes. Until then… have fun!

Mason McCuskey is the leader of Spin Studios, a game development team working to break into the industry by creating a great game, Quaternion, and getting it published. He looks forward to your suggestions and comments, and can be reached at mason@spin-studios.com.