2. Content
• Principles of UI Design
• Design process
• Simplify Game UI
• Interaction models *
• Camera models *
• Visual elements
• Audio elements
• Input devices
• Navigation mechanisms
3. Principles of UI Design
• Consistent style and functionality
• Immediate feedback
• Limit number of steps for action
• Undo
• Minimize physical stress
• Don’t overload the player’s short-term memory
• Group controls on the screen
• Shortcuts
4. UI Design Process
• Define gameplay modes
• Choose screen layout
• Select visual elements
• Define control mechanism
• Shell Menus
5. Define Gameplay Modes
• Primary first
• Secondary (customization, story telling, …) later
– Gameplay - What the player has to do?
– Camera mode
– Interaction mode
• How game is moving from mode to mode?
• Modes share elements
– Visual elements
– Controls
– Menus
– Input devices
7. Select Visual Elements
• Tell the player what he needs to know
• What part of game world?
• Information about resources
• Feedback elements
8. Player Needs to Know
• Location
• Action
• Challenge
• Success or failure
• Resources
• Progress
• How big is the danger of failure?
• What next?
9. Define Control Mechanism
• Let player do what she wants to do
• Key actions (for challenges)
• Feedback to actions
• Input devices
10. Players Want to:
• Move
• Look around
• Interact with NPC
• Use objects
• Manipulate objects
• Construct and demolish objects
• Financial transactions
• Give orders
• Customize
• Talk with players
• Change Options
• Pause, Save, Quit
11. Shell Menus
• Start, configure, save,
load, close
• Before / After play
• One click away
• First thing the player see
• Last thing the designer
plan
12. Simplify Game UI
• Less accurate operations
• Less functions - e.g. no fuel consumption in
racing game
• Automation - e.g. gear shift
• Broad interface - e.g. plane cockpit
• Deep interface - hierarchical menus
• Context sensitive interface - e.g. content
sensitive pointer
17. 2D
• Single screen - entire world on one screen
• Side scrolling - platform games
• Top scrolling - fixed speed, top-down perspective
• Painted backgrounds - e.g. Adventure games
18. 1st Person
• Avatar interaction model
• No camera adjustment
• No need for avatar design (except mirror)
• Easy to aim
• Easy to navigate
• No customization
• No avatar animation
• No body language
• No facial expressions
• No cinematic camera angles
• Difficult to conduct combined moves
• Can create motion sickness
19. 3rd Person
• Camera following avatar in the short distance
• Raised up perspective in mass fight scenes
• Camera behavior when avatar turns
– Always turning where avatar looks
– Camera turns after 2 seconds
– Camera turns when avatar stops
• Influenced by landscape objects
– Semi transparent object
– Crane camera up and tilt down
– Semi transparent head
20. Aerial Perspectives
• Top-down - 2D map
• Isometric - 2D, 30-degree from the horizon, 45-
degree from north-south
• Free roaming camera - 3D "isometric”
• Context-sensitive camera modes - camera
follows, depending on action
22. Visual Elements
• Main view - game world
• Feedback elements – indicators and maps
• Character portraits
• Screen buttons and menus
• Text
23. Feedback Elements
• Digits - large value, small area
• Needle gauge - large area, easy to read
• Power bar
• Small image repeated multiple times
• On/off lights
• Icons
• Text indicators
• Mini map
• Radar screen
• Color
24. Audio Elements
• Sound effects
• Vibration
• Ambient sound
• Music
• Dialogue and voice over narration
26. Navigation Mechanisms
• Screen oriented navigation
– Top-down and isometric perspectives
– 2D side scrolling games
• Avatar oriented navigation
– Touchpad for movement
– Mouse for camera
• Flying
• Point and click navigation
Notes de l'éditeur
Translator between real world and game world - button press to action
Making the game visible, playable
outputs - visual elements
inputs - control elements
Different:
- not everything presented (challenges)
- Genre based UI standards (elements, sets) - UI should be familiar, no innovation in UI
Immediate feedback - game responses to players actions immediately … somehow
Limit number of steps for action
- max 3 buttons
- max 3 clicks in menus
Undo
- for correcting errors (genre specific)
Minimise physical stress
- place commands on most easily accessible controllers
Don’t overload the player’s short-term memory
- don't require to remember too many things at the same time.
- Present important information constantly on screen
Group controls on the screen
- information can be grasp with a single look
Shortcuts
- for experienced players
In the production phase
Prototyping (e.g. PowerPoint, Flash, ...)
- Problematic in smart phones - no standards for screens
What happens in the game world?
What to do next?
Is the effort successful or not?
Location
- game world view - main view
- map
- audio ambient feedback
Action
- avatar activity presentation
- sound effects
Challenge
- presented in the main view
- text description
Success or failure
- animation in main view
- UI indicators
- sound effect when the indicator changes
Resources
- items and numbers
Progress
- score
- summary feedback (don't mock)
- additional bonus
How big is the danger of failure?
- worming indicators
What next?
- signs
- glues, ...
Look around
- moving avatar or camera
Interact with NPC
- attacking
- talking, ...
Use objects
- picking up
- placing down
Manipulate objects
- switches
- doors (fixed states)
Construct and demolish objects
- materials
- place
Financial transactions
Give orders
- 3 steps: subject (NPC), order (verb), object (target)
Customise
- Avatar
- Vehicle
- additional gameplay mode
Talk with players
- in multiplayer online games
Change Options
- difficulty level
- customize controls
Less accurate operations - less realistic but easier to play
Broad interface
- large number of options simultaneously
- complicated to learn
- fast to use when learned
Deep interface
- few options but several selections in a row
- mac 3 levels
- most frequent actions in the upper level
- easy to learn
- fast use is not possible
- short cut keys
Avoid obscurity (ähmasus)
Be clare what the buttons and menus do?
- Artistic over enthusiasm - design UI as attractive as possible = meaningless details
- The pressure to reduce UI screen usage - small ikons can't deliver the needed information
- Developer familiarity with the material - test UI with someone who is not familiar with it
Avatar-based – buttons for navigation
Multipresent - areal perspective camera mode, give orders to units
Party-based - point and click navigation + areal perspective
Contestant - no navigation, buttons related with decisions (answers)
Desktop - business simulators, shells – fields
3D preferred but don't do it If you have no resources and skills
Used in web, mobile and retro games.
- Active camera mode - always turning where avatar looks (only seeing avatars back)
- Passive camera mode - camera turns after 2 seconds (e.g. Super Mario 64)
- Camera turns when avatar stops (e.g. Toy Story 2: Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue) - for
- Top-down – e.g. iPhone Flight Control
- Isometric - e.g. Sim City. Player can truck or dolly only - fixed camera angle
- Free roaming camera – Player can crane, tilt, pan - flexible camera angle
- Context- sensitive camera modes - 3D avatar or party. (e.g. Ico) - rich visual experience. Suitable for exploring (not for action)
- Windowed views
- main world in the window, other items around it
- when lot of controls are needed
- less immersion
- Opaque overlays (Non-transparent layers)
- main world occupy full screen, items on top of it
Semitransparent overlays
Character portraits
- avatar or party member or dialogue partner
- feedback element (e.g. Doom)
Screen buttons and menus
- PC mostly
- Mostly used in desktop mode
Text
- Localisation - translating. Save text in text files. Don't embed text with images.
- Typefaces and formatting
largest element
Stored in separated files
Provide feedback (in game)
positional audio – volume depends on distance
adaptive music (synchronized layers and volume levels - e.g. Avol)
- accelerometers - based on gravity?, e.g. Wii remote, iPhone tilt sensor
- GPS - augmented reality games, work only outdoors and large scale accuracy
- Directional pads - D-pads (arrows on keyboard)
- Joysticks - turns back to centre
- Mouse - relative data
- Touch screens - multi touch
- Airplanes - different controller for speed, mess with arrows
- Helicopters
Point and click navigation
- e.g. real time strategy, roll games, adventure games
- sometimes adding control points