As technology allows for greater and greater realism, it is increasingly important for games to distinguish themselves by presenting unique and immersive visual styles. This includes blending the user interface into the game world itself to an extent; for example, having a PDA that appears in front of the player's vision in 3D rather than a simple "menu." This session covered several artistic and design techniques for accomplishing seamless integration of games and their interfaces.
Step 1: Moodboards This stage involves mocking up several composite images that illustrate the overall graphical style and color scheme of the game itself and its interface. The goal is not to design any interface elements yet, but simply create an overall mood or atmosphere.
Step 2: Concept Statements For each moodboard, a concept is written. Each concept is simply a single sentence which fits with the chosen moodboard. Any further artwork which is done for a given moodboard should fit with the concept statement.
Step 3: Motion Comps Motion compositions provide demos of all menu and user interface behavior, animations, and so on. These are typically produced with a tool like Flash. Doing motion comps allows the designers to experiment with several alternatives without worrying about making them work in the game itself.
Step 4: Asset Creation Once a motion comp is completed and selected for use, it is broken up into the actual assets that will be used in the game. This typically may involve creating the actual texture images and meshes used to render the UI. However, with middleware such as Scaleform and Anark Gameface, it is possible to model the motion comps and then directly use the modelled UI in the final game, with only minimal conversion. Such tools trade flexibility and control for a lower learning curve and faster iteration time for changes to the interface.
Step 5: Implementation During the final phase, the UI is hooked in to the actual game logic and made fully functional. The more decoupled the UI behavior is from the game logic itself, the smoother this process will typically go.
Final Takeaway The session presented a solid plan for creating compelling and visually fresh interfaces with a minimum of technical fuss. Leveraging middleware UI tools is strongly recommended for minimizing turnaround time.
Southwest Gaming Expo
