designing game interfaces

Game InterfacesMike Jones

Designing

Mike Jonespixadecimal.com

blog.flashgen.com@FlashGen

A primer, of sorts…

• relevant information to the player

• occupy minimal screen real estate

• design to be unobtrusive

• need not be permanently visible

• can adapt / evolve

• simplicity goes a long way

• avoid “shrink wrapping” your games

however…

The poetics of space

Sometimes the house of the future is better built, lighter and larger than all the houses of the past, so that the image of the dream house is opposed to that of the childhood home…. Maybe it is a good thing for us to keep a few dreams of a house that we shall live in later, always later, so much later, in fact, that we shall not have time to achieve it. For a house that was final, one that stood in symmetrical relation to the house we were born in, would lead to thoughts—serious, sad thoughts—and not to dreams.

It is better to live in a state of impermanence than in one of finality.

—Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Space

Fagerholt, Lorentzon (2009) "Beyond the HUD - User Interfaces for Increased Player Immersion in FPS Games". MSc Thesis, Chalmers University of Technology

Fagerholt, Lorentzon (2009) "Beyond the HUD - User Interfaces for Increased Player Immersion in FPS Games". MSc Thesis, Chalmers University of Technology

Fagerholt, Lorentzon (2009) "Beyond the HUD - User Interfaces for Increased Player Immersion in FPS Games". MSc Thesis, Chalmers University of Technology

Fagerholt, Lorentzon (2009) "Beyond the HUD - User Interfaces for Increased Player Immersion in FPS Games". MSc Thesis, Chalmers University of Technology

mix it all together…

Touch me

• touch based devices compound game interface integration

• the “fourth wall” now becomes the main input

• input precision and screen size require additional thought

• players thumbs, fingers can easily obscure areas of the screen

• the device itself becomes an extension of the interface

one more thing…

Questions?

• Articles & Publications

• Beyond the HUD: User Interfaces for Increased Player Immersion in FPS Games (MSc Thesis) - Erik Fagerholt, Magnus Lorentzon.http://publications.dice.se/attachments/beyond.the.hud.091025.pdf

• User Interface design in video games - Anthony Stonehousehttp://www.thewanderlust.net/blog/2010/03/29/user-interface-design-in-video-games/

• Replay: The History of Video Games – Tristan Donovan

Thank You

Mike Jonespixadecimal.com

blog.flashgen.com@FlashGen