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Navigating HUD Design
- 1. Navigating HUD Design Basic principles to consider while creating a HUD for games
- 6. Qualitative Study http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/134715/the_user_interface_c ontinuum_a_.php?print=1
- 7. Other Considerations • Player Agency – The ability for a player to make meaningful decisions that can affect the game world. • Games as a Medium – Taking the artistic approach, are we?
- 8. Some Tools • Theming • Signifiers • Layering info • Spatial UI • Integration • No HUD
- 9. Theming
- 10. Signifiers
- 13. Spatial UI
- 14. HUD Integration
- 15. HUD Integration
- 16. No HUD
- 17. Know Your Genre
- 18. Thank You
Editor's Notes
- This is going to be a short talk about some basic concepts to consider while you are developing a HUD for your game. For time’s sake we will not go too in depth, but the topic does have potential to turn into a rabbit hole with the endless amounts of genres in the video game world. HUDs come in all shapes and sizes, just like the games that they accompany.
- There’s maximalist HUD: mostly strategy games and certain types of simulations games fall in this category but others can too. (farmville, C&C, some TD game)
- There are minimal HUDs, which have a very low impact on screen space.
- Integrated HUDs, which could be categorized with minimal, but they use it in a different way and I’ll get to that soon.
- Some games even go as far as to not have any HUD at all. While these games I just showed you came in all shapes, sizes and colors, so do the people playing them. And each of them has preferences. Now, I will go as far to say that, games are a bit different from a UX perspective in the fact that they are not trying to be a utility in your life or sell you something (most of the time), but are trying to entertain. Because of this, players have different expectations before getting into a game of their choice.
- There have been some studies done on the subject of how players perceive a HUD in relation to their gaming experience, and they are rather new. So, new termanology has been created as well. When you are creating your game, and other UI / HUD to go along with it, you should keep different player types in mind, and which best fits what you are creating. Fictionalists – players that focus on the game as a medium or art, they give little room for distractions from the experience they are engaging in. These players enjoy the story and world. A HUD to them, is something that disturbs that. Systemists – On the other end of the spectrum are players that believe a game is a system and they are there to master it. These people generally do not find any sort of HUD intrusive to their experience, but rather welcome it in any form. Wanting to use all the information granted to them to is maximum potential. The fiction in a game is something that is just there to help reinforce the fun, but they don’t take it too seriously. Relativeists – As with any polar argument there is always a middle ground. Relativeists tend to accept HUD as a tool within the gaming experience. That is not to say you can get away with anything as a designer regarding this group of people. Information presented should be a necessity and if it fails to have context, it can risk becoming annoying for the player.
- From a design perspective, there are also other considerations you must visit when creating a HUD. Both of these can effect immersion, which for the most part, everyone can agree is a good thing for someone to experience when playing your game. Player Agency – Defined as the ability for a player to make meaningful decisions that can affect the game world. This is something that is unique to games in that players are constantly making decisions as they play a game, and agency is something that can help enhance a player’s experience. A HUD conveys the information to players to aid in their decision making, so it is an integral piece. Whether you agree with it or not, every game has a certain level of artistic value to it. The ones that are taking a thematically artistic approach will want to make some careful decisions regarding their use of HUD. This can be a sensitive area for the aforementioned fictionalists.
- Simultaniously amplifying immersion and agency is always a plus with any game experience, as it will keep your player engaged longer and they will enjoy the game more. Some HUD techniques you can focus on to improve this are: -Signifiers -Layering info -UI spacial qualities -themeing -integration
- This is often the most basic and quickly recognized approach. Not many games miss out on theming their HUD to fit the game’s fiction. From Starcraft’s perspective, you are a commander looking over the battlefield, seemingly in a command ship, utilizing its instruments to communicate with your army.
- These generally have qualitative value for the player, but still convey important information. Often in a thematic way.
- This here is a bad example. Farmville one had a lot of information to guide the player through the game and depending on your experience as a gamer, you might find a lot of it useless, especially after you know where to find quests, for example. Those could have been hidden or minimized on the left there.
- In the second iteration of Farmville, a lot of this was cleaned up and the information was only presented to the player when needed. E.g. Maximum tasks are displayed, minimized tools in the menu and even in the bottom left you can see a panel that only comes up when the information is actively changing.
- Having other elements that are not part of the fixed HUD on the screen can assist in decision making. Here in Left4Dead, a bright silhouette surrounds teammates when they are behind obtrusive structures or walls so you can keep an eye on them. Very important for survival in this game.
- HUD integration is when the display becomes a part of the game world and is generally part of the game’s lore. Now, this technique is stronger in sci-fi games, simply for the fact that it is more believable as a part of the story. In this case, your HUD is part of your helmet in Metroid Prime. It can also be common in simulation games to have all the needed info directly in the game space and not an added layer (see Flight Simulator).
- This is probably the prime example for HUD integration and theme. There are 4 elements of UI/HUD in this picture, Aiming, ammo, stasis (for slowing time) and the players life meter.
- Utilizing no HUD in a game can also work to your advantage. This generally follows more artistic games that are driven by narrative. The pacing in such games can also be much slower and decision making is not a state of do-or-die. Dear Esther is a purely narrative driven experience, and some argue it is not even a game at that point.
- With that understanding of how players perceive HUD and player agency, one should also take into consideration the genre of game they are creating. Each one has a certain level of information it must convey during play. More info will always result in more clutter for the player. Depending on the genre, this could be a problem. For example: RTS games – high amount of information the player needs to track to have a successful outcome. Here, most players can accept a cluttered screen with valuable information. FPS – As the genre titles suggests, the main idea in these is shooting, some get away with more HUD than others depending on the scope. Puzzle – most puzzle games have explicit information the player needs and HUD is always welcome here. If you can think of clever ways to use spatial elements, it is always a plus. That is, if it is universally understood. Simulation – again it depends on the type of simulation and it’s scope, but some even try to have none at all as their HUD would be intergrated on their bus, plane, tractor or whatever they are playing with.
- Unfortunately, I cant stand here and tell you which will be the best for your game, because every game and situation is going to be different, along with the most essential info you have to convey to the player. These were some basic tools and ideas to get started in the game space, but the topic could go on forever, especially because there is still quite a bit of study going on. Thank you.