MA Games Design Diary

Presentation:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QhkMzNZO3P9qAi6y2KUc2oVgk7tCH7yn/view?usp=drive_link Research + Development:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/16C6lPeOt6vzIOZZBhckt_PudIyyuKJZi/view?usp=drive_link Reflection  The 4-week diagnostic project challenged me to define my area of interest within game design by conducting research and producing outcomes within my chosen speciality. At the beginning of the project, I was unsure what I wanted to specialise in as I was interested in prop design, texture art, UI design and tabletop game design; however, after thorough research, I became more interested in UI/UX design and decided to produce UI designs for a conceptual first-person shooter sci-fi horror game set within a submarine.  Since I come from a graphic design background, the diagnostic project was my first proper introduction to game design, therefore I used it as an opportunity to discover resources and do broad research into game design studios, artists a...

Today, I designed the HUD for my game concept using Adobe Illustrator. Since I aim for the game to be immersive, I used a minimal number of UI elements within the HUD to avoid distracting the player. I aimed to subtly represent submarine technology in the UI elements by using a monospace font and glow effect. The red highlight within the crosshair design appears when the player loses health and the direction of the highlight rotates to show the direction of enemies, similar to how a real submarine radar works.

Today I created 3 main menu designs for my game concept. Since the main objective of the game is to escape to the surface of the ocean, the main menu changes as the player progresses using backgrounds of the ocean getting lighter to visually represent their journey.  I sourced the ocean backgrounds on  Artlist  and used Adobe Photoshop to colour-correct them and remove unwanted elements such as divers and bubbles using Content-Aware Fill and the Clone Stamp Tool.

I began today by collecting assets, such as fonts and colour schemes, which I can use throughout my project to create a consistent UI design system. I also created a logo design, inspired by submarine UI, for my game concept featuring the font, VP Pixel Hi-Res, and a glow effect.

Today I continued to create rough sketches of UI designs to help me brainstorm various concepts. My mind map of design characteristics was very useful during this process as it helped me to make connections. For example, I had the idea to use the distinct design of a submarine radar within my crosshair and weapon wheel designs. For the crosshair design, I could incorporate the rotating pulse highlight used within real radars, within my game as a Non-Diegetic UI element which alerts the player to the direction of enemies.  I also considered how UI design could affect gameplay while generating concepts, and I came up with the idea of a risk and reward UI minigame which players can interact with to open submarine doors quickly. The minigame would feature a rotating circular UI design, inspired by a submarine door handle, and players would have to press a button along with the rotation or else the door would jam and take longer to open, resulting in the player being at risk of ene...

Today I made a mind map of design characteristics associated with submarines, such as pixel fonts, glow effects and monospace fonts. I also continued to sketch various concepts for my UI designs, do research and make a  Pinterest Board  to collate inspiration for my submarine UI designs. 

My research this week has helped me a lot to identify visuals associated with submarines and develop ideas for my diagnostic project. Next week, I aim to have a clear style direction and start producing UI designs using Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop and After Effects.  Over the weekend, I continued to research game design studios and designers, such as  Room 8 Studio  and  Carlos Villarreal Kwasek . I also received my  Laws of UX  deck of cards which I aim to use in future projects to learn more about the principles and psychology behind UI/UX design.