User Interface in games
polycounter lvl 12
Hey Guys,
I am making this thread just to get some information on how the User Interface in games are made.
There are a lot of cool interfaces and some not so good how would someone like me go about trying to make my own? What skills do i need and where should i start? Whats the difference between Coding UI and actually designing it?
I know a lot of polycounters have either worked on UI or have friends/colleagues that they work with that do this on a daily basis.
If you could spit some knowledge my way that would be great also just to make this thread a little fun post some of your favorite User interfaces you have seen in games,my current favorite can be seen below.
I am making this thread just to get some information on how the User Interface in games are made.
There are a lot of cool interfaces and some not so good how would someone like me go about trying to make my own? What skills do i need and where should i start? Whats the difference between Coding UI and actually designing it?
I know a lot of polycounters have either worked on UI or have friends/colleagues that they work with that do this on a daily basis.
If you could spit some knowledge my way that would be great also just to make this thread a little fun post some of your favorite User interfaces you have seen in games,my current favorite can be seen below.
Replies
Thanks for posting that im pretty clueless about how UI's are implemented into video games, hence the reason for this thread kinda wanted to know
Thanks again! is there anything else i should know any other programs?
t's hard to come up with something unique, but still keep it userfriendly and intuitive, as people just are used to certain behaviours. often things that look good lack in usability and clearness. everybody wants to play the game and not think about the ui.
for us(wii and ds), we do it old school. we start off in photoshop and design, then we implement the stuff with maya into a general menu design. same goes for the hud. so we're free to do whatever works best.
scaleform is certainly a powerful solution. i'd check this out, if you're into pc/ps3/xbox360 to get an overview.
Hey Fade1,
You totally make a valid point, there's a lot of interesting UI Designs in video games that help the Player navigate through menus and such, UI's are even being integrated into the game play nowadays with the power-wheel in Mass Effect to the Gun modification system in Crysis.
I have a feeling that UI will start having a bigger impact as we move forward and hopefully we can get some discussion going on what works and what doesn't.
Thanks for the feedback !
Dirt 2 is a good example of something unique as shown above.
Also Dead Space had a good UI.
Companies are starting to get better with there UI's, but alot of them are still also very generic. The game that's coming out soon I think called Split Second has a really cool UI.
Logical readouts = awesome.
The best tips I can suggest are: Make it fast and smooth, lag free. Make it clear and detailed, but don't over crowd the user.
For examples of what NOT to do, see the new AVP's menu, which is slow and clunky as hell, and probably the worst menu in recent gaming years... The new Wolfenstein... Ugh... It makes me want to stab myself in the eye...
But stuff like Blur, as above, thats awesome for ingame stuff. Subtle HUD's that show you the info you need without actually showing it in big text boxes are awesome but sometimes hard to do. The main UI however is an important front end. Its the first thing players see when they load your game up, so spend more than 5mins in MS Paint on it RAVEN SOFTWARE...
I have not seen a UI thread on polycount ever! so i decided to make one as its one of the things the user interacts with the most during there playthrough of a game.
The Split/Second UI looks amazing i really like how it is part of the game rather than something that it plastered on the screen. as you said Dead Space also takes its UI and makes it part of the game.
With games trying to use there UI's in more of a unique way do you think we will see a shift in wich the UI is more interactive in the actual gameplay?
@Odium:
Very true odium! and don't even get me started on AVP as soon as I saw the UI I knew right away what kind of quality the game itself would be, which was poor!
article that might interest you.
Thanks for throwing up that article its an excellent read! the image at the end of the article is awesome: