Cheeky Intro: If you ever wanted to describe or provide context on elements in your game such as providing information on a game mechanic or item, tooltips would be great! If you wanted your characters to talk or think, bubbles are for you too. I’ll provide some examples as well as how to make both tooltips and bubbles for this guide, so you’ll be able to create some of your own.
What is a tooltip?
A tooltip is similar to a waypoint and describes certain elements in a game, website, etc. It is customary to use an arrow and box that contains information like the examples below.
A regular tooltip is extremely simple to make, but looks high quality, and can really help you improve your game. To create this tooltip (or really any tooltip), all you need are:
- 2 text devices
- 1-2 barrier(s)
- The element you’re trying to describe.
One of the text devices should have a rotated “^” in 100 size, Staatliches font, and the other text device should be the text that you’re trying to inform the player with. The arrow looks better with an outline.
You’ll also need a/an barrier(s). If your arrow will be detached, use only one outlined barrier, if it will be attached, use 2 barriers with one of them being outlined, and the other not outlined.
The next steps will split depending if you want an attached or detached tooltip.
Detached:
Just make the arrow and barrier adjacent to each other in any direction and add the informative text on top of the barrier. Result:
You can create a though bubble with the same method, by replacing the arrow with 3 circular barriers like this:
Attached:
This is a bit harder because you’ll need to layer the non-bordered barrier on top of the arrow and the bordered barrier below the arrow, but it’s about the same. Result:
Using this, you can also create a speech bubble using the same method by putting the arrow on a corner like this:
Conclusion:
Creating tooltips and bubbles are a great way to provide instruction and direction in your maps which give them extra quality. Now to top this all off, here’s a way I’ve used them in my own fishtopia game (kind of a spoiler):
