gui opinions needed

[cliffski]

I just cant deicde how to do the background GUI for my politics (http://www.democracygame.com) game.
Basically its a strategy game where you run a country, making political decisions that decide how the country gets on and whether or not the various citizens will vote for you.
From a GUI Point of view its very challenging because the whole game is abstract. Im representing the voters by icons in the screen center, and your policy decisions by icons around the edges of the screen.

The problem is what should the background be? Ive tried lots of stuff but I'm just not happy. Im even considering having an animated background. Im still at the stage where Im happy to redo big chunks GUI wise, if it makes the game look nicer. I'd like to know what people think:

Here are 3 screenshots:
click here for gui test page (http://www.positech.co.uk/democracy/guitest.html)


This game design business aint easy...

[3dben]

For what its worth...

Overall its too dark. Maybe use something that would look like the inside of a major stately building.. roman pillars, flags draped over the walls, roman stone, dark to mid range oak, etc.. Make it look solid and give it some depth.

Im not sure what all those icon's are, but could they be little people instead walking around deciding where they want to go? Maybe have little icon's above their heads (the sims spring to mind) stating their current opinions?

-=ben

[luggage]

to be honest it took me a while to figure out they were different. :)

How about a subtle background where it's kind of representative to how you're doing? Not sure if it fits in with your game but maybe something like coins on the background, there's more coins the better you're doing (obviously still really subtle as it doesn't want to detract from the main game)? You're still left with what to display when there's few coins though.

[BantamCityGames]

I think they are all too dark right now. I think a brighter, but desaturated background image (or collage of images) would work better. I'll think more about it and post here if I come up with anything specific.

[cliffski]

I was wondering about maybe morphing or swapping the background image to represent how you run the country. so as taxes rise it could change from an image of Bush to maybe one of karl marx ;)
Im also concerned about the icons for people. I need to have multiple people to show percentages, nad colored, but im thinking maybe artist drawn cartoon people might be better for distinguishing the groups without using tooltips?

[luggage]

How about to show percentages you could draw a circle around the icon? full circle 100%, half for 50% and so on. Or the icon is drawn on a pie chart?

[Yossarian]

Definately needs the back brightened up. How about using collages of images based on the section... police images for the law and order, gold coins and stock tickers in the economy, etc.

Could draw them in nice and bright first, and then maybe have a colored circle that fades (alpha?) them into the back. And the color could slowly change with how happy people are overall. Nice and green when they're happy, red and brooding when they aren't.

I think cartooning it up a bit is also a good idea. Nobody wants to take their politics *that* seriously :D