Megadev UI

Follow the user's visual direction and the game's existing renderer, input and clock. Menu Lab illustrates techniques; its colors, courier, items, controls and screen flow are not defaults for a new game. Megadev does not have SGDK's text, Window or DMA-queue APIs. Check the selected toolchain before using an API.

Define the layout contract

Read fonts and layout for glyph ranges, fixed fields, nine-slice corners, portraits and pattern/table budgets. Specify the resolution, safe margins, text encoding, maximum field widths and font fallback before rendering. Keep exact native pixels and test the longest actual strings. Do not silently resize art or assume Unicode fits one tile per byte.

Read navigation for action edges, bounded directional repeat, grid movement, back history and focus restoration. Use the input owner's snapshot and the game's time base. Menus do not need their own device driver or one timer per cursor. Distinguish a paused game from a paused UI.