Game Design 2Lecture 9: Immersion through UI

http://www.comu346.com

david.farrell@gcu.ac.uk

2011

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 Fagerholdhttp://slidesha.re/bjxr4I

Immersive UI

•Trend towards minimal HUD

•UI as transparent as possible to not distract player

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

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

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

What doesn’t work?

•UI seems conflicted

•there are traditional non-diegetic HUD elements such as: ammo; interaction opportunities; health etc

•The non-diegetic elements fade in and out

•Some elements of the UI don’t provide the player with enough information

What does it mean?

•The struggles of FC2 show that it is nearly hopeless for (FPS) games to be playable and 100% diegetic

•If you make a late decision to compliment your diegetic components with non-diegetic, the design will suffer - best to plan

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

•in addition to the holograms, Dead Space also draws interface on the actual player avatar

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

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

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

Case Study: TF 2

•Uses mixed methods to communicate

•very much a “whatever works” approach

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

What doesn’t work

•the mix of styles can be perceived as a bit messy

•inconsistencies can require more cognition from the player

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

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