Drawing a Menu Screen? How do you do it?

[Lord Dragon]

Honestly I don't know wear to start, how do I place all the characters, would they all be interacting or will they just stand there and look pretty?

[Vegeluxia]

I read this in a book once about drawing character based manga covers, and I think it could very well apply to anything:

I like to play with the themes of my book, placing my characters in an environment similar to what they experience in the story---but more elaborate, more dangerous, and more glamorous,

I know some people really like the "go big or go home" type of game menu screens, but I honestly haven't seen very many of those. Every example I can think off of the top of my head is either a piece of scenery, or a more minimalistic piece---and I think it works well.

Maybe try looking at game menu's that already exist? Figure out what it is you like about them, and try to pull inspiration from that?

[Mammon]

I was very lazy and made black silhouettes of some of my characters and added them in, to be replaced with 'memory shards' that were essentially the CG in shard shape. It's much easier than making new art from scratch just for the main menu, but I let you be the judge of how lazy an approach that is.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/k11k3jpw65xe9 ... n.png?dl=0

[YonYonYon]

Good news, you don't have to put your characters on the main menu if you don't wanna.

The main menu is the first thing players see, so its looks will depend on what message you want to send right away. You might want to show the atmosphere of the game and put some atmospheric imagery in there, play with the themes of the game and use symbols, or make a designer main menu. Possibilities are many.

Even if you want to show characters, you can apply the same thing here. What's the atmosphere? What's the theme of the game? Are there any symbols? What about overall design?

Also, don't forget the game logo

[SundownKid]

I'm a fan of the "characters striking an epic pose" menu. But it really depends on the genre, tbh. Like for a horror game it could just be a creepy scenery or something.

[Lord Dragon]

I read this in a book once about drawing character based manga covers, and I think it could very well apply to anything:

I like to play with the themes of my book, placing my characters in an environment similar to what they experience in the story---but more elaborate, more dangerous, and more glamorous,

I'm a fan of the "characters striking an epic pose" menu. But it really depends on the genre, tbh. Like for a horror game it could just be a creepy scenery or something.

I know some people really like the "go big or go home" type of game menu screens---[/quote]

Yep, I'm a fan of using characters too, I guess 'go big or go home' is the general consensus with those

but I honestly haven't seen very many of those. Every example I can think off of the top of my head is either a piece of scenery, or a more minimalistic piece---and I think it works well.

Maybe try looking at game menu's that already exist? Figure out what it is you like about them, and try to pull inspiration from that?

I'm pretty bad at Backgrounds (so I'm commissioning all of mine), so it never really crossed my mind to use a scenery.

Also, don't forget the game logo

Honestly that sounds like something I'd forget, Thank you n w n