[color=#141414][font=Georgia,]
Ok this game is very much in active development right now, prior to this I've written a large wall of text, but I think here im just going to sum the game up and give the latest screenshot, if any questions are raised feel free to ask! - Also looking for suggestions.[/font]
[color=#141414][font=Georgia,]
AI.You is going to be a sandbox game, text based, so I guess a mix of games such as terraria, the sims, runescape, sim city etc. The goal of the game is that you tend to your own virtual world. Think Animal Crossing where you can pop in for 30 minutes, build a new 'project', tend to nature, make a new meal, meet some of the 'AI'. This is by no means a casual game, and the very fact that its text should highlight that im going for gameplay above graphics here.[/font]
[color=#141414][font=Georgia,]
The game is being coded in C# and I have no release date set, but it will likely be open source on donation basis.[/font]
[color=#141414][font=Georgia,]
Today I was finishing up some work on the basic random world generation, menu, text engine and allowing the game to be savable.[/font]
[color=#141414][font=Georgia,]
Here is a screenshot of the menu as it stands:[/font]
[color=#141414][font=Georgia,]
[/font]
[color=#141414][font=Georgia,]
I welcome any suggestions as to how to lay out the menu, maybe a nicer color scheme etc, I would have used things like Cyan and Green but aside from it not looking overly professional like that, I also want to use those colors for signifying when the player has done something interesting in the world.[/font]
[color=#141414][font=Georgia,]
Ok, thats all of now. Like I say there is a LOT more than I've explained here and its all written down, so if anyones interested I'd be happy to post the 'overview' of the main game features that I wrote.[/font]
[color=#141414][font=Georgia,]
Right now Im looking for feedback and suggestions. (To clarify its staying text based, so don't ask for 2D/3D.)[/font]
[color=#141414][font=Georgia,]
Thanks for your support, Nytician.[/font]

I keep coming back to this post thinking to myself that my thoughts are too nebulous to actually post something decent. Trouble is nothing is really gelling in my mind. I would suggest that you look into the field of "Human Computer Interaction" (HCI) with regard text interfaces. You can find quite a bit of literature with regard to both placement and colouring of texts. With regard coloured texts Vs background there is a lot of existing debate about what is best i.e. dark background with light text, the reverse of this, complementary colour schemes etc. My basic advice is that you might simply want to:

1. Create an interface in options that allows the user to define the colours they prefer, or;
   
2. Make a number of different pre-defined colour schemes and have them choose one that works best for them.
   

With placement of text, centre of screen for menu might seem more attractive.

Unfortunately that is about all the suggestions I have and no doubt I will keep coming back to this with unformed thoughts niggling at me. I do wish you the best of luck in completing your game.

Thanks for your response Stormynature, I see what your saying. Unless it becomes an issue though I personally think I'm going to find a suitable colour scheme and stick with it, purely because I think it will look more professional. (Yes I know this is a text based game). I'm aiming for a complementary colour scheme that looks nice as default but then sometimes I can jazz it up a little depending on what im currently wanting the game to do.

Aside from this, I have a short progress update.

Today I'm working on text wrapping (needed to be done at some point), after this I want to work out how to load the data efficiently back into the game which shouldn't be too hard. Yesterday I spent some time prototyping inventory, skills, projects etc and it looks like it will be quite interesting to see come together.

An example of this is the storage for items, I plan on having an items struct which will contain variables and a constructor to assign them. I will then proceed to store these using a storage class. I will store all the items in one List<items> and then create a storage method which will take in size of storage, name etc and use this universally for player inventory, house storage and any other places where I may want to store items (chests etc).

Everything is beginning to take shape but im holding off taking too many screenshots right now, partially because the content as of yet is rather boring but also because im changing a lot of things I want to wait till I have something interesting to demonstrate.

Thanks for your response.