

Its nice, but doesn't make the best use of available space or have a very nice aesthetic feel. Below is my first draft of the main/root interface that you would see immediately after opening the character menu.

Here's a list of points about this draft.
(01): I made the top menu a bit shorter in height. I'm trying to make the middle menu have as much vertical space as it possibly can. I also changed the "Formation" option to "Party" and changed "Exit" to "Return" (because exit might imply that its an option for exiting the game, not just the menu). I swapped the position of the Party and Save options as well.
(02): The middle window contains a summary of the active party characters and there status. I used the full body character portraits here, although they had to be shrunk down to fit in the available space.
(03): Instead of creating menu window borders between the characters, I tried using a simple separator line.
(04): The HP/SP numeric text I replaced with HP/SP colored bars, the same that are drawn in battle mode. I did so because its easier/faster for the player to get an idea of his character's status instead of having to think about what 456/789 HP really means.
(05): "Lv" I replaced with "Lvl" (for no good reason) and "XP to next" I replaced with simply "Next". I think its intuitive enough that the player will understand what Next means. I placed the Lvl and Next text and values on the same line because again I'm trying to conserve vertical space. I think it looks decent. I do worry a little bit about not having enough horizontal space though.
(06): The bottom window I shrunk a little bit so its the same height as shop mode's bottom menu. I did this for two reasons. First, the location graphic (a hefty 500x125 pixel image) was taking up a lot of horizontal space and it could be a problem when we're trying to display long text of the current location. I shrunk the graphic to 400x100 and I think it actually looks better at this size because it doesn't stand out too strong in the interface. The second reason I changed this is that there's a lot of display code in shop mode that could be re-used for menu mode if the bottom window is of this size. Specifically the item/weapon/armor previews in shop mode could work in menu mode and present a consistent interface. Not to mention its less work if we don't have to write code to draw the same set of information for two different window sizes.
(07): "Time" and "Drunes" were placed on level height and their values drawn immediately beneth them. This looks much better than having them left aligned with the side of the window and leaving an odd blank space between them and the location graphic.
Here are some thoughts and answered questions that I have regarding this first draft.
(A): The separator lines between characters should be made less thick (its 3 pixels wide in this drat) and perhaps make it semi-transparent at 50% alpha. The lines stand out too strongly and prominently as they are now.
(B): My biggest quandary is the vertical order of character data/visuals. I don't know which way is best. The visuals we have to present are: name, HP/SP, portrait, and lvl/next. Is the current order the best? Would it look better if it was name, portrait, HP/SP, and then lvl/next? Or how about name, lvl/next, HP/SP, portrait? Maybe I should just make another draft with numerous different styles side by side and we can choose the one that looks the best?

(C): The top menu is running a little tight on space. I'm worried that translations of these names may not be able to fit in that space. I could try reducing the font size a notch to make more room.
I look forward to seeing what you guys think.
