I am building Threshing Day Game, an illustrated fantasy choice adventure. One design problem kept coming up: a reader can enjoy the prose and still have no idea what their last choice actually changed.
The current interface pairs the scene and choices with six live conditions: health, stamina, focus, composure, dragon attention and danger. These are resources and pressures inside the fiction, rather than a personality assessment of the player.
Show both the value and the change
A bar alone gives a rough impression. A number gives precision. A signed delta answers the immediate question: what did that choice just do? The readout combines all three, and exposes the bar as a meter with its current value and limits. This also makes the information available without depending on its gold fill color.
Let story and interface explain each other
A choice should be understandable in its scene before the player presses it. Afterwards, the numerical change should support the consequence described by the story. If danger rises after a reckless approach, the scene needs to make that pressure legible. Otherwise the readout becomes arbitrary bookkeeping.
Keep returning inexpensive
This project saves runs locally in the browser. It does not require an account, but that means a save belongs to that browser rather than following a player across devices. Music starts off, so opening the page does not unexpectedly play sound. A downloadable ending card gives a finished run something tangible to leave with.
Scope and disclosure
This is an independent fan project with original gameplay, developed with Codex and AI-assisted illustrations. It is separate from the official Dragonkind game, and there is no runtime AI generating responses to players. English, Czech and European Portuguese are available.
You can try the current adventure and see how the scene, readout and choice panel work together. The question I am still using to judge the UI is simple: can a player explain why their last choice changed the situation?
Disclosure: this development note was drafted with AI assistance from the actual project implementation.
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