So, I'm experimenting with trying to move the game into widescreen. The original game was intended to be in 4:3 aspect ratio, but I've started to think that maybe I should shoot for 16:9 and 16:10, since they tend to be the most common screens available.
However, I'm worried that the widescreen version might betray the original intention of the layout, which was to a) replicate the feel of the Gold-Box games and b) keep the artwork as an abstract (which can be harder to pull off when the graphics are larger).
That being said, I've seen games with worse graphics pull this kind of thing off. But, I'm torn. So any feedback about the layout would be great. If you like it, let me know.
Also, if you like it, let me know if I should use character portraits instead of character icons on the main screen. If you don't like it, then it won't matter.
One final thing...please ignore the panel at the bottom of the screen. I haven't done anything with it. If I end up sticking with this, I'd like to add a compass down there at some point and display the location information differently.