Yeah, it's one of the reasons that I'd rather do a closed alpha than an open one with this. But, even by the time we start the alpha, I think this will be in much better shape. It's just one of those things where "we didn't even try yet" sort of thing. While we were still adding mechanics, it was pointless to try to really perfect the GUI, and that would potentially also lock us into ruts in how to think about it.
So we just got the information up there first, slapdash, but well enough for us to really work on perfecting the game underneath. While at the same time taking notes on ways the GUI probably needs to look in its final form, and being careful with the underlying data such that it can actually be concisely represented (and thus not inherently dooming the GUI). Now that the underlying game is just about done (some expanded content aside), it becomes time to organize the GUI and do all that stuff.
I just thought it would be interesting for folks to know kind of the process there. That process lets us only have to design a "real" GUI once, rather than trying to redesign it repeatedly as the prototype evolves. We made that mistake during Valley 1 and it wasted a lot of time, and I think the ending interface was weaker for it because of that process, rather than stronger.
