Project Herald UI - Patron Input

Voted for one; personally, I think it's the most flexible option, especially if you have access to their faces for if they're not on screen for some reason. This lets you have scenes where the focus is on the character you're speaking to as well as scenes where you're talking to somebody but the focus is on something else, or someone else; one example from Infinite Stars is whenever we see the crew communicating with other ships via holo display. We have the other person in focus, and then the faces of other characters speaking when appropriate, which not only makes it clear what's going on and allows you to have any number of speakers in any situation, but additionally can give a contextual sense of space, like when we're in those communication scenes you feel like everyone is focused on who is being talked to but the other characters are by your side watching with you. The other thing worth noting that you can play with is the size and positioning of the sprites. Different scenes might call for different sprite placement, and can also emphasize the depth of your backgrounds. So if you have a background that's a long hallway or alley, you can have sprites further back, or pull sprites closer if a character is in your face and you want to emphasize proximity. This can be a bit of a style thing so you might want to be thoughtful if you move sprites around, how you go about it in terms of speed; I think a few inches and a second or two can make the difference between a dramatically fitting sprite movement or a comedic one that punctuates a joke, and of course both have their place. In the end though I think transforming sprites is a bit of a style thing, so I think it's something worth considering but sometimes just having them like they are in the first screenshot is the best thing for a scene, it just depends on the tone and context and stuff too. I don't personally think Option Two's theatre of mind gain is substantial enough to offset the loss of clarity, and Option Three to me is just like Option One but repositioned for context; that is to say, it would make sense if the norm was Option One, but to have people up closer or shifted around whenever the scene would call for it, so I think if you wanted people closer, Option One lets you do that without framing things that way ALL the time, which like you said obfuscates the backgrounds too which is no fun, since backgrounds are every bit as critical as character sprites in establishing context and immersing the reader and what not. So to recap, I vote one because I think it will let you get away with pretty much whatever you want or need, and has the most clarity and character space in terms of its neutral/"default" state.

Toastywafflz