GAME 3001 Submissions
Ewan Couper
P1219306x
The Diegetic UI Project
For my second brief of 3001 I chose to undertake diegetic UI project which deliverables included, collated research, design explorations, design sheets, finished in-game concepts and visualised UI elements. The interface was to be designed for a first person infiltration game set in the near future, there would be a squad mechanic that the UI would need to accommodate for, as well as the inclusion of an inventroy system, weapon upgrades and mission interfaces. The goal was to keep the player's interface as imersive as possible and a minimal break from gameplay in a realisitc style. The aethetic the client wanted was a gritty one based in the real world and real world technology such as phones, tabletc, etc. although the setting would be near future which allowed for some wiggle room in modifying the tefchnology to suit the interface's needs.
Initial Research
To begin with in my research I read a number of master thesis and papers on UI design touching on best deisgn practices, diegect implementation and the importance of the HUD in first person games. I also read a number of post and articles online on sites such as gamasutra which you can find linked below along with links to the above papers mentioned. To compliment this I looked into the functionality and design of existing HUDs on the market ranging from Diegetic example such as Dead Space and Halo to more traditoinal HUDs seen in Call of Duty and Splinter Cell. through this research I was able to gain a solid foundation on the important aspects and elements that a UI designer needs to incorporate when creating HUDs and menus for a video game and by breaking down HUDs already on the market I was ab;le to see alot of these practices in action.
Alongside my reasearch into HUD functionality and design I also pursued the UI's aethteic design intial focusing on a more military and utalitarian style which I felt would play well into the game's militray and gritty narrative. I compilied graphics from across the board from exisitng and experimental military interfaces, to film and games that I felt played into the utalitarian route I was pursuing.
I used coggle, a mind mapping website to collorate my thoughts and links from my research and dsign phase to help centerlise a lot of my early exploration during the project, the map can be found here but I've also provided an image of it below.
Gamasutra
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/4286/game_ui_discoveries_what_players_.php?print=1
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/130948/off_with_their_huds_rethinking_.php
Cooper.com
http://www.cooper.com/journal/2010/8/diagetic_interfaces
Beyond the HUD, Erik Fagerholt & Magnus Lorentzon, Chalmers University of Technology
http://publications.lib.chalmers.se/recordsBeyond
Less is More, Stefanos Papalamprou, University College of London
Development
Keeping to the utalitarian aesthetic I had researched I rapidly produced a number of thumbnails and sketches exploring the direction of the HUD's manifestation within the game world. I stuck closely to the idea of existing phone and tablet technology mixed with emerging wearbale devices such as Google Glass and smart watches. While I intially explored a wrist/lower arm mounted device I felt this design was challanged in a number of ways witht the biggest issue I felt was a lack of cohesiveness within the screen space. There's a clunkyness to the device design which takes up a lot of screen space that compromises the players view of the center of the screen. There's also the potential issue of changing arm positoion for different guns resulting in the HUD moving across the screen which in high pressure situations will cause the player to have to constantly re-adjust where they are looking which is an undesirable experience. Clipping with guns, animations among other technical issues could also potentially come into play once the design is in engine. This was also feedback I was reiceving from Mike and Craig and having discussed the design with them they advised to return to an earlier idea of the HUD on the gun.
For the new Smart Scope device I returned to research to quickly establish the style of the device itself before quickly developing the design before taking it into 3Ds Max and creating a concept mesh I could use through out the project. With the gun design and function locked I focused once more on the interface however I very quickly hit a hurdle, namely knowing what information I needed to present. Using the brief I was able to develop a game idea based on the needs and demands of the brief from which I was able to make a much more informed design process for creating the interface. looking at games such as Republic Commando and the recent Halo 5 I was able to pull a number of mechanics and information that the player would want and need to see during gameplay. With these mechanics as a foundation I produced a first pass of the HUD after a few iterations of the three HUD modes. The first, combat mode, is the default HUD experience displaying combat information, health and weapons for both the player and their squad members. When the scope is flipped 90 degrees over the gun the interface enetrs a scoped mode which has a streamlined experience then the combat mode with a focus on the environment, scanning for objectives or enemies and an aim Down Sight (ADS) which is the most traditional aspect of my HUD fucntioning identically to many other games on the market like Halo and Call of Duty. With the base design I moved onto testing colour pallettes and creating a number design sheets on animation, colours and player interaction.
Please note that the gun mesh used was downloaded, I modeled the device concept.
Final Submission
Overall I feel the project has gone well although I find it hard to say so with any confidence down to a lack of comparison to benchmark myself against. Though, for the most part, I've met the brief's desired deliverables and have even began to reach for the strech goal with my animations. Though I feel slightly unclear that the direction I've taken may have begun to conflict with the brief with more focus on practicle functiuonality where the brief may pefer an outcome with more focus on aesthetic and narrative intergration. That's not to say those aren't important nor explore aspects of my project but I feel my approach has been more from a UI designer's perspectives than say a purely conceptual one. In that way i could feel later during the project a lot of conflict about taking it forward, while I worked towards fufilling the brief's needs I personally was wanting to take my design into Illustrator and Unreal to test in engine to feedbak into the design process.
For a three week project i doubt testing in engine would have any meaninful capacity but it highlights some of the growing frustrations I had during the final days of the project. Having been one of the first to work on this project I've experienced a kind of isolation as the project had developed and I've felt a need for more specific direction or guidance due to my inexperience with interface design. In short i didn't know if I was makingthe correct design decisions and while I recieved and implemented the productive feedback from the tutors the lack of experience was becoming more apparant as I wanted more specific advice. At the end of the day though I don't know how much of that comes down to my mind-set whilst working on the project, especially in it's later stages.