This document discusses game user interface (UI) design and immersion. It provides case studies of Far Cry 2, Dead Space, and Team Fortress 2. Far Cry 2 aimed for a fully diegetic UI but struggled with balancing immersion and functionality. Dead Space used diegetic holograms and player avatars to render interfaces atypically while preserving functionality. Team Fortress 2 mixes UI styles without a consistent theme but largely succeeds through prioritizing information delivery over immersion. The document advocates balancing immersion and functionality, as diegetic interfaces can reinforce fiction but are difficult to design properly.

1. 2013
Game Design 2
Lecture 7: Immersion through UI
http://gcugd2.com
Sunday, 3 November 13
david.farrell@gcu.ac.uk

2. Reading
• Anthony Stonehouse
http://bit.ly/9isY6D
• Erik Fagerhold & Magnus Lorentzon (2009)
http://bit.ly/d0HfcW
• Gamasutra (Marcus Andrews @ EA:DICE)
http://bit.ly/9H6xuL
• SlideShare presentation from Fagerhold
http://slidesha.re/bjxr4I
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3. Immersive UI
• Trend towards minimal HUD
• UI as transparent as possible to not distract
player
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4. Terminology
• Diegetic: Interface included in the game world
• Non-diegetic: Interface rendered outside game
world
• Spatial: UI Elements resented in game’s 3D space
but not be an actual in-game entity
• Meta: Representations can be in game but aren’t
necessarily visualised spatially for player
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12. Case Study: Far Cry 2
• Goes to great lengths to make UI diegetic
• especially hard for FPS games
• Uses in-game gadgets perform traditional
HUD roles
• map
• time
• weapon condition
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15. What works?
• Novelty factor
• diging bullets out of arm
• Ubisoft promoting UI in marketing
• Interaction with NPCs
• you can see what that character is doing
• injury rescue
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16. What doesn’t work?
• UI seems conflicted
• there are traditional non-diegetic HUD
elements such as: ammo; interaction
opportunities; health etc
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19. • The non-diegetic elements fade in and out
• Some elements of the UI don’t provide the
player with enough information
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21. What does it mean?
• The struggles of FC2 show that it is nearly
hopeless for (realistic FPS) games to be
playable and 100% diegetic
• If you make a late decision to compliment
your diegetic components with nondiegetic, the design will suffer - best to plan
Sunday, 3 November 13

22. Case Study: Dead Space
• Fully diegetic interface.
• Unlike most games, they had an explicit
direction that all UI elements be ‘in the
game world’
• Fairly traditional HUD system with a twist
• all rendered as in-game holograms
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24. • in addition to the holograms, Dead Space
also draws interface on the actual player
avatar
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26. What works?
• Sci-Fi Fiction lends itself to diegetic UI
• “typical UI, rendered atypically”
• Perspective
• Using player avatar as a canvas is a great
way to promote immersion
• largely depending on setting & 3rd
person camera
• Preserving Functionality
• preserves functionality but adds style
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27. What doesn’t work?
• Functionality breakdown
• the holographic 3D map failed to aid
player navigation leading to the
implementation of another,
complimentary feature - the ‘locator’ that
has a completely new diegetic spatial
method
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29. What does it mean?
• Fairly traditional interface rendered in
novel fashion.
• May be unrealised potential benefit of
diegetic & innovative UI
• Whilst the UI may have helped in the
marketing (& sales?) its benefit to the
gameplay is subjective
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30. Case Study: TF 2
• Uses mixed methods to communicate
• very much a “whatever works” approach
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34. What works?
• Mix of UI elements from each of the
categories provides for lots of info without
a cluttered HUD
• shows that UI components don’t need to
have an immediately obvious theme or be
immersive to work
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35. What doesn’t work
• the mix of styles can be perceived as a bit
messy
• inconsistencies can require more cognition
from the player
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36. What does it mean?
• TF2 has hardly any diegetic qualities but
largely succeeds in UI design.
• Shows that players will tolerate mixing
styles in an interface
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37. Summary
• Diegetic interface elements can help to
reinforce the fiction of a game and can
help keep the player immersed.
• Diegetic elements are harder to design and
integrate than non-diegetic elements
especially in FPS games like Far Cry 2
• When there is a trade off between
immersion and functionality - functionality
must be given priority
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