2021-02-08 23:55:02 (edited by ianhamilton_ 2021-02-09 07:52:35)

It's pretty well established that menus that loop from from the bottom to the start again, e.g. if you're on the last item pressing down takes you back up to the top instead of just stopping at the bottom, are a pain in the ass if you're trying to use a menu guide and memorise where you are and how many presses are needed to reach certain menu items.

But there are increasing numbers of mainstream games where you don't need to memorise by counting presses, because a game has fully narrated menus or full screenreader support.

For those games, does whether menus loop back up to the top matter or not? and why?

2021-02-08 23:59:40

Nope, and it also doesn't matter if they put a unique sound at the loop point which is different than the sound of a normal up / down action. In fact, if the menu is narrated, or we have some way of reading it properly, i.e. not using OCR because it doesn't really track the highlight of you being on a selected option, then it's preferable.

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2021-02-09 06:13:05

Doesn't matter, might actually be better for convenience if we can reliably read the menu.

2021-02-09 07:55:51 (edited by ianhamilton_ 2021-02-09 09:20:39)

@3 sorry my wording was a bit confusing, I've tweaked it now. I wasn't asking what's preferable out of menu guide + no looping versus being able to read menus. Instead, what I'm asking is whether menus loop or not is an issue for games that have narrated menus.

E.g. the menus in Minecraft can be read, so does it matter whether or not its menus loop?

2021-02-09 11:26:37

It's more convenient if they loop in menus, but in an inventory where you have tonns of items, it could still be confusing. In the latter case a sound effect could help.

2021-02-09 16:22:34

No, it doesn't matter. But I suspect you're going to get different answers for this because this is such a preference based question. The idea lwould be games like 13 sentinels where menus wrap if you scroll one item at a time, but if you hold down a direction on the dpad it stops as soon as it hits either the menu top or bottom. That way you get both.

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2021-02-09 16:41:57

I've seen that done in mainstream games and it's a good compromise. But no, it really doesn't matter. It only matters when there is no narration and we have to figure it out via a menu guide, then it becomes difficult when they wrap around.

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2021-02-09 17:12:12

Yeah. If it doesn't wrap around we can easily tell where the top and bottom is, but without it we just have to guess what's the top and what's the bottom of the menu.

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2021-02-09 17:39:38

Hello,
I don't think the looping of such menus matter very much in vocalized menus. They can even be practical when you're at the bottom and need to move back up.

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2021-02-12 16:36:01

Any more?

In particular it would be great to hear from people who would like looping about how important it is.. critical game-breaker? really helpful? slightly preferential?

2021-02-12 16:56:57

Very slightly preferential.

2021-02-16 16:18:50 (edited by ianhamilton_ 2021-02-16 16:19:30)

Bump! This thread is super important, though I'm not able to say why for the usual reasons. The feedback given here will have direct impact on something. Reminder - In particular it would be great to hear from people who would like looping menus in games with narration/screenreader support about how important it is.. critical game-breaker? really helpful? slightly preferential?