First Impressions

[Wingy]

Have you considered having an icon menu? Crazy idea- I'm sure you've played Starcraft 1, right? Remember how the space-station was the multiplayer button, the planet was the editor, the ships in battle was single player, etc -- what if --

With text near each thing:

• You had the castle door the

Start Game

button.
• The bottom of the screen on the pathway the

Quit

button.
• A tree the

Open Mansion

(or part of the castle?)
• The other tree

Open Save

(would be better name instead of Open Game imo; could get confused with opening a mansion) (Or another pat of the castle?)
• The gate

Options

• The gravestone

High Scores

maybe?
• Another Gravestone

About

• On the other wall opposite of the gate,

Help

• Instead of having the version and the current player, add two gravestones infront of the gate for each of them? (Or maybe they are fine the way they are)

Sounds like a crazy idea, and makes the menu much different from the original game, but I think it would be cooler.

Keep in mind however, the trees are so big you might be able to put two buttons on them, if you did this idea.


Your other idea could work, though, if you didn't want to put too much work into the menu. It would mostly be on the artist' shoulders, right? (and you punching in the x,y on the screen of the button, of course )