1. Game Design, Development, and Technology
CS 382
Game Design, Development, and Technology
Visual Design
Heads-Up Displays
Avoiding Obfuscation
Affordance
Mobile Game GUIs
Part 6.1

2. Game Interface Design
Certain basic tenets dominate the design of game GUIs.
SIMPLICITY
Pajama Sam 3 uses no text, relying on mouse placement to determine what actions transpire.
CONSISTENCY
Diablo II uses a consistent visual style, with the same gothic fantasy look in all of its menus, control bars, and graphics.
IMMERSION
Quake III has sophisticated graphics to enhance the player’s visual experience, in addition to mood-setting music and sound effects.
Part 6.1
Visual Design
Page 198

3. Heads-Up Displays
Most games contain persistent onscreen visual elements that indicate the player’s current status.
In Project: Snowblind, the HUD takes up a significant portion of the screen and has the potential in some scenes to be confused with the equipment that’s used as scenery
Is it really necessary to distract the user with redundant information (in this Call Of Duty 4 example, informing the user whether the character is standing, crouching, or crawling)?
Part 6.1
Visual Design
Page 199

4. Hiding The HUD
To improve player immersion, some games limit the HUD’s on-screen time.
God Of War 2 displays the health/weapons HUD only when it is needed (e.g., during battle)
In Deus Ex: Invisible War, the player can control the opacity of the HUD
Persistent on-screen elements (like HUDs) can often cause burn-in (ghost images that remain on screen even after an on-screen element exits) on many phosphor-based HDTVs, including plasma and traditional rear-projection units.
Part 6.1
Visual Design
Page 200

5. Going HUD-less
In Doom3, the ammo count may be displayed on the weapons themselves
Many modern games attempt to improve immersion by embedding the HUD within the game’s features.
Metroid Prime explains its HUD by making it appear to be a readout inside the player’s helmet, enhanced with an actual reflection of the character’s face.
King Kong attempted a completely HUD-less cinematic effect
Part 6.1
Visual Design
Page 201

6. Avoid Obfuscation
Game interfaces should not employ controls whose functionality appears to be purposefully hidden.
Want to try to sway a planet to your side? Open the specific sector, use the people finder to look at characters, go through several screens to determine their diplomacy rating, right click on them, select a mission from the drop-down menu, click on the target planet, select the mission type from the pop-up box, and confirm.
In Star Wars: Rebellion, the tiny computer screens, as well as the multiple boxes on every side of the panorama, call up additional screens of information or possible commands, but none of them are the most important functions of the game.
Want to build a ship? Use the galactic information display to highlight sectors with ports, open that sector, find which planet has the port, click on the manufacturing icon, open the build menu, and select the ship.
Part 6.1
Visual Design
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7. Promote Affordance
Game interfaces should employ controls whose functionality is reasonably apparent.
Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri uses a consistent worldview of the planet being examined in the central screen, with more detailed command screens popping out of the lower dashboard to provide details.
Right-clicking opens relevant menus
Impossible commands produce explanatory pop-ups
Important information always appears centrally
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Visual Design
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8. De Blob permits individual player calibration.
Mobile Game GUIs
While tactile-oriented platforms provide an opportunity to innovate, touch input and accelerometer controls present game developers with some challenging interface problems.
When players need to drag or directly manipulate game elements, their fingers will likely be covering what they are being asked to control.
Unlike the Nintendo Wii, mobile device accelerometers are attached to the screen itself, making the game hard to play if sweeping motions are taking place.
De Blob permits individual player calibration.
GeoDefense addresses this problem by offsetting the position of the dragged object slightly above the touch position.
Driving games like Fastlane Street Racing have the user use the mobile device as a steering wheel, with the game camera tilted in the opposite direction of the device to maintain a level ground view.
Part 6.1
Visual Design
Page 204