SUMMARY
Role
UI/Heads Up Display
Intention (SMART Goal)
By Oct. 12, as part of team 6 as UI/HEADS UP DISPLAY, I will have evidence of a functional main menu and HUD with a health bar and similar necessary elements by following AIA’s Unity UI Tutorial | An introduction for Session 1. I’ve set this goal now to gain a basic understanding of my role before I jump into a project where these skills will be required.
PRE-PRODUCTION – INQUIRY
Leader(s) in the Field / Exemplary Work(s)
Oscar Mar is the UI/UX designer for many games, most notably Valorant. According to his website, he does everything related to visual effects, but his preferred role is GUI design. His style is varied, but with a focus on futuristic, cyberpunk imagery.
A long form interview can be found here.
Training Source(s)
- 1:03 UI is how a player interacts with a game
- 1:20 UI is made up of all the visual elements of a User Interface
- 1:28 UX stands for User eXperience
- 1:32 User experience is the entire information architecture of a game – where information is stored and can be accessed by a player
- 1:43 UX designers do their work first, deciding how to display info with the fewest possible interactions
- 1:59 UI designers make the visual elements of this so far invisible HUD
- 2:09 UI and UX designers work closely, and sometimes are the same role
- 2:23 Guiding Principles of visual design
- 2:47 Understanding Your Audience
- 3:32 Some games require more or different UI
- 4:05 UI is more than just HUD
Project Timeline
Timeline for session 1 is two and a half weeks of production.
I will spend around a week of this learning how to implement my features, then the remaining week and a half to code them and make them into a somewhat finished product that I can present as a result of my work.
Learn elements of a good UI – watch videos, color theory, visual design etc.
Dust up on my C# skills – youtube tutorials again, likely use Brackeys’ Visual Studio Code tutorial series
Learn how to code a UI in my selected game engine, likely Godot or Unity. – Use linked training source videos
Brainstorm what elements will be necessary for my game
Design and implement UI in project – Use gained knowledge to create a UI for my game
Create sound prompts and click sounds for UI
Finish basic elements of game code, produce MVP
Detailed Character sprites as necessary
Create basic sounds for project, including musical score?
Polish game to end with finished project
Proposed Budget
Monetarily, zero. Timewise, around an hour a day, with the possibility for more in a crunch.
Learning how to design a UI will be around 6 hours. Learning how to code the UI will be another 9 hours, and then the implementation will be anywhere from another 4 hours to the rest of the time available. Any additional work will be done at home as unpaid overtime.
Evidence of Team Planning and Decisions
My team put much of our planning into this google doc.
PRODUCTION – ACTION
The (FILM, SOUND, or GAME Creation)
https://itch.io/game/edit/2051724
This is our Itch Game, made in Unity.
Skills Commentary
This is our slideshow of evidence that we used to prove we actually made our game.
POST-PRODUCTION – REFLECTION
21st Century Skills
Ways of Thinking (Creativity, Innovation, Critical Thinking, Problem Solving)
I had to troubleshoot issues in scripts, and I learned many new things about the Unity engine and C# this session. I also spent time learning how C# worked to develop my own code blocks for situations I couldn’t find tutorials for.
Ways of Working (Communication & Collaboration)
Being one of two UI designers on the team, we worked together in our research and implementation of it. I was also the team leader, so I hosted team meetings in a separate room where we planned our game’s features and a timeline to produce it.
Tools for Working (Info & Media Literacy)
I used YouTube and multiple different forums like Github, StackExchange, and Unity’s own to learn about new concepts and troubleshoot my own code.
Ways of Living in the World (Life & Career)
I learned quite a bit over this long first session, mainly how to navigate Unity and some basic C# coding skills. I also learned the difficulty involved with managing a large team, as well as further improving my leadership skills, which is a skill I believe will be very useful for any future career I may have.
Reactions to the Final Version
“The track looked a little sharp” -Finn
“The music was good” – Blake
Unfortunately, the timing for our Advisory Committee didn’t work out, and we did not get commentary from them on our game.
Self-Evaluation of Final Version
I’m proud of what we managed to produce, but I won’t deny that it was a far cry from what we had originally planned to create: many of the game’s features were missing, including the entirety of both UI and the menus. If we had spent some time learning Unity in advance (which many — including myself — did not), we may have had a chance at a more polished game.
Grammar and Spelling
Grammarly/my ego.
Editor
Lex