Introduction to game interfaces, with notes on Jesse Schell's The Art of Game Design

1. GAME INTERFACES
Data, Feedback, Channels of Communication

2. Source material:
Jesse Schell, “Players
Play Games Through an
Interface,” The Art of
Game Design: A Book of
Lenses

3. GAME INTERFACE
➤ “Interface” can mean many things:
controllers, display device, control
scheme, virtual character, how a
game communicates information
➤ Key concepts from Jesse Schell’s
chapter:
➤ interface data flow
➤ feedback
➤ channels
➤ dimensions
➤ modes

5. INTERFACES: INPUTS & OUTPUTS
➤ Interface is everything between the player and
the game world
➤ Physical input – some way for players to
touch/interact to make changes in game
world
➤ Physical output – some way for player to
see what’s going on in the game world.

6. GOALS OF AN INTERFACE?
➤ To make players feel in
control of their experience
➤ To communicate information
needed for gameplay
➤ To facilitate feedback – data
flows in a loop between
player and game, round and
round.
➤ Other design considerations:
immersion, accessibility,
thematic/metaphor, balance
and simplicity vs. complexity

7. THE VIRTUAL INTERFACE
➤ The conceptual layer that exists between the physical input/output
and the game world
➤ Virtual interface has both input elements (virtual menu where
player selects things) and output elements (score display, etc.)
➤ Virtual interface can vary from minimalist and thin to dense,
packed with virtual buttons, sliders, menus, etc.

8. THE CONCEPT OF INTERFACE MAPPING
➤ Process by which data is mapped onto and through different
interface elements. How the interface elements work
together; how changes to one element affect another.

9. INTERFACES COMMUNICATE INFORMATION
➤ Jesse Schell: “Choosing how to map game information to
channels and dimensions is the heart of designing your game
interface”
➤ Channel of information: A way of communicating a stream
of data to the player.
➤ Examples: part of the screen (top, bottom, corner), the
avatar, sound effects, music, border, in-game object, etc.
➤ User Interface/Dashboard often includes different channels of
information
➤ Different channels of information will have different
dimensions: quantity, color, shape.

11. INTERFACE MODES & MODE CHANGES
➤ Interface modes are changes in one of the mapping areas. Different modes
map different interface elements
➤ Changing mode will feature/foreground a different mapping of interface
elements. Mode changes are often activated by a specific input (button)

12. FLORENCE AND USER INTERFACE

13. FLORENCE AND USER INTERFACE