MA Study into Customisable Game UI

One of the features of my concept is the ability to rescale the in-game HUD. Although this ability has been showcased in a few games, it is not a mainstream feature that is implemented as industry standard. I believe that this needs to change. The Adobe Suite allows users to set sizes for windows within their software. This is as simple as click and drag. For today we will be focussing on Adobe Photoshop to demonstrate, however all Adobe programmes operate using the same controls. The Adobe help page states that 'to resize a panel, drag any side of the panel' .  ⁽¹⁾ This allows users to quickly expand or shrink menus to their own personal preferences and maximises personalisation. However 'Some panels, such as the Colour Panel cannot be resized by dragging ' .  ⁽¹⁾ So users do not have this freedom with every single tool and menu in the programme. Panels can also be expanded and collapsed to predetermined sizes.  '[users] can collapse panels to icons to reduce clutt

One of the features of my concept is the ability to change the colour of the in-game HUD. Although this ability has been showcased in a few games, it is not a mainstream feature that is implemented as industry standard. I believe that this needs to change. The Adobe Suite allows users control over the colour of their workspace. This is as simple as selction from a menu. For today we will be focussing on Adobe Photoshop to demonstrate, however all Adobe programmes operate using the same controls. The Adobe help page states that  'the Photoshop workspace is easy to use and includes a number of usability features .  ⁽¹⁾ To change the colour of the panels, users must go to the programme's menus and select a colour swatch.  'Choose 'Edit' > 'Preferences > Interface' .  ⁽¹⁾ The colour range is limited however as users are only available to choose from a monochromatic palette .  '[users] can customise the interface to sport one of the following colour the

For as long as I can remember, I have used the Adobe Suite to create art. From being taught graphic design by my dad at a young age, to designing logos as a freelance designer and now to creating websites and game UI.  I am very familiar with a large number of the Adobe programmes and I can't help but notice their freedom when it comes to usability. I would like to explore this in a little more detail. All of the menus are moveable and free float in the workspace. They are scalable and can be resized to the users' preference. And colour selection is available, however only in greyscale. In the next few posts, I will be breaking down each of these features and how they work in order to demonstrate that these features already exist and may be transferrable to the gaming industry.

After theorising that players could customise their game interface's colour and layout, the next logical step is to rescale these elements. Many games already implement a slider to adjust UI scale, however this seems to scale all UI elements evenly. While this can be good, some players may want to scale certain elements differently. For example, someone with poor eyesight may only want to increase the size of the text but not the buttons; where someone else may have perfect vision but also suffer with manual dexterity issues, meaning that they would want to increase button size so they are easier to hit. But what if we could let players choose sizes for themselves? They could drag corners of certain menus or panels to increase their size or even choose from presets.   What if players could customise their own game space to their exact needs?  I realised that this ability already exists in design software that I myself have used since I was a child. Programs like Adobe Photoshop, Il

This is my design for the a sci-fi third person shooter HUD.  I decided to go online and search for game screenshots. I found this and decided to create a HUD with no context or ideas about mechanics. I wanted to focus purely on the aesthetics of my design working with the aesthetics of the game.  I included the key display elements: Player Health Bar The player health bar shows how much damage the player has taken so far. I decided to create a bpm/ecg monitor as the health bar in this game. In the upper left, I created fading heartbeat waves along the bar and provided a number readout for the health points out of 100 (maximum health). In a real game, the beats would become faster and more strained the lower the player's health. Ammo As seen in the screenshot, the player character is holding a pistol in their right hand. Keeping an eye on ammunition is vital to winning shooter games so a readout on this is key. On the lower right, I included the currently equipped gun along with th

This is my design for the a hardmode boss fight HUD.  I decided to go online and search for game screenshots. I found this and decided to create a HUD with no context or ideas about mechanics. I wanted to focus purely on the aesthetics of my design working with the aesthetics of the game.  I included the key display elements: Enemy Health Bar The enemy health bar shows how much damage the boss has taken so far. I decided to match the colour of the bar to the monster's eyes as they are the brightest part of the screenshot. At a closer look, I noticed that the monster is scarred from previous victories. I used this as inspiration for little cuts that I took out of the health bar. I wanted the bar to be just as battle scarred as the monster. For the name, I found a random name generator  ⁽¹⁾  online and chose a name that reflects the aesthetic of the boss. Player Health Hardmode is becoming a popular difficulty selection as players are looking to challenge themselves more often. In th