In the previous screenshot of Gridblaster, the status display was added to the game. I made it with The Gimp and here’s how I did it. It’s actually very easy.
I started by creating a vertical bilinear gradient. I set the dark color to #899C89 and the light color to #B5CDB5.

01_01

Next I added the inset line. I selected a two pixel wide vertical strip and with the brightness tool (Tools > Color > Brightness/Contrast), I set the brightness to -50. Next, do the same two pixels to the right but set the brightness to +50. This creates an inset line effect. If the effect is reversed, a light line on the left and a dark one on the right, a raised line will appear.

01_02

The next step is creating an inset area that will form the border of the actual display. This is, again, done with a gradient. First, however, a selection is made. Using the rectangle and circle selection tools, a rectangle with rounded corners was created. The the dark color was set to #879987 and the light color to #B4CCB5. Note that I picked these on sight, there’s no formula or something for figuring out what looks best. I then applied a linear gradient fill to the area, wich yielded the following result:

01_03

And then finally the display area itself. With the rounded rectangle still selected, I shrunk the selection by three pixels (Select > Shrink) and filled it with black. The result is a black display that looks to be sunken into a metal bar.

01_04

This status bar will serve as a background for Torque’s built-in GUI (graphical user interface) builder.