For my user inter face design I will have UI in each of my scenes so that the player can operate the controls of the game and understand what to do clearly.
For my main menu UI I am thinking of having my main menu title at the top with perhaps a 3d look to make it stand out and look respectable. I also got this idea from a well known game minecraft as their title has it in 3d at the top standing out from the rest of the displays below of the UI.
Underneath the title of the main menu I will Have a play game button, a options button and a quit button. From my research I have found a game called Overwatch which has their buttons to the side and when you put the mouse over them they enlarge with a small shimmer of glow and tiny bit of sound to make the user feel engaged with the game with every detail.
For my game I think I will have my buttons at the side as well so you can see perhaps an image in the centre of the screen or perhaps some animations going on to show the player what my game has install for the player to experience as well as get them in the mood to play the game. To make my buttons more fancy I could add a an animation going on behind it, I think perhaps a flame animation would be best as it would set the tone of the game better as the fire could represent the danger as to what will happen when you enter the game as you could be under attack from the start.
Under the options menu I could add in a controls menu showing the player which of the buttons have a function and what that function is as to what they do. There could also be a sound option as to enable and disable some sounds such as the background sound and sound effects from shooting or walking, sound would be optional though as for my game I will be focusing more on its functionality as to getting the game to work as a whole.
For the game itself I will want to keep it clear and understandable as I possibly can so I will make sure to have the text of things such as the health is big enough to read but not too big that it ends up cluttering the space of the screen. From my research of what I have found games when it comes to their UI in their main screen of their in game they have things such as their ability cool downs in the corners of the screen on to the side as they are never in the centre of the screen but always visible. They are as well a bit transparent so they are not blocking anything out of view, from my research Overwatch does this well as they have their health bar in the bottom left with their ability cool downs in the bottom right with about 10% of it transparent.
For my in game UI I think I will have a health number, maybe a timer if I am wanting to make my enemies based around a timer and also have a score for how many enemies the player destroys. Each of them will the placed in corners of the top right and left parts of the screen as my enemies are more likely to be placed lower to the ground than the sky as I have research goblins and cyclops’s to be put into my game however I have also researched dragons but I should not have to worry about them interfering with the UI at the top corners as they could perhaps fly in the centre row of the screen while the UI is in the top row, either that or I make my UI a bit transparent. As an addition I could also have the UI texts to have different colours from each other so that they stand out and that the player does not get confused if they briefly look at it at a glance.
For the victory screen I could maybe add a fire work animation with bright and colourful colours so it gives a positive vibe to the player to make it feel grand. For the buttons on that screen they could be on a row at the bottom instead so they do not overshadow the content being displayed on the screen. For the defeat screen it could be the same except instead of saying victory it would be defeat as well as using dull colours such as black and using red for danger with maybe some rain clouds for animation to replace fire work animations.
Games Design Course - Harrison Preston 