MA Games Design Diary

During week 7, I read Rules of Play by Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman and The Art of Game Design by Jesse Schell and took notes to use for my DE4401 essay.  Book Notes:  After submitting my essay, I returned to project 2 and continued to define my style direction by adding to my  Pinterest board , collecting further  examples of existing UI designs and creating a mood board.   Initially, I came up with the idea to make a crosshair design inspired by a submarine radar which indicated the direction of enemies. Since my game is based within a submarine, I later decided that a radar-inspired crosshair wouldn't be useful to the player as the environment isn't very spacious. Instead, I came up with the idea to create a unique crosshair design for each weapon. I aim for each crosshair design to be distinctive from one another to quickly indicate to the player what weapon they are using/switching to. I also intend for the ammo count of each weapon to be incor...

During week 6, I read The Gamer's Brain by Celia Hodent and Flow and the Foundations of Positive Psychology by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and took notes which I will use to inform my DE4401 essay.  Book Notes:  I also narrowed down my intended style direction and created a mind map summarising the design characteristics I need to use to achieve a 1980's interface-inspired design style.

During week 5, I researched how UI and UX design impacts player experience by watching 4 presentations ( Bridging the Gap Between UX Principles and Game Design ,  From Rational to Emotional: Designs that Increase Player Retention ,  Immersing a Creative World into a Usable UI  and  Leveling Up UX/UI In Game Production ) and taking notes which I can use for my project and DE4401 essay.   Presentation Notes:  Bridging the Gap Between UX Principles and Game Design From Rational to Emotional: Designs that Increase Player Retention Immersing a Creative World into a Usable UI Levelling Up in UX/UI

During week 4, I watched 3 GDC Vault talks ( AAA Gaming While Blind ,  Accessibility Best Practices: Mobility Considerations  and  I Can't Hear You: Considering Deaf Gamers ) by EA Sports Accessibility Lead, Karen Stevens. The talks taught me valuable knowledge, such as the industry standards for subtitles and closed captions and how to create UI designs accessible for visual, motor and auditory disabilities. GDC Vault Talk Notes:  AAA Gaming While Blind Accessibility Best Practices: Mobility Considerations I Can't Hear You: Considering Deaf Gamers I watched other talks and presentations about accessibility such as  Designing for Colour Blindness in Games  and  Breaking Barriers: Combat Accessibility in 'God of War Ragnarok' , and discovered useful resources such as  Color Blindness Simulator  and  Game Accessibility Guidelines .  I visited the library again and loaned Emotional Design by Don Norman, User Friendly by Cliff Kuan...

During week 3, I sketched my initial ideas for non-diegetic UI designs, such as the HUD, crosshair designs and the weapon wheel.  Following on from project 1, I further defined what encompasses a UI design style by creating a mind map that I can use as a reference during project 2 and future UI design projects.  I visited the library and loaned Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug, Designing Interactive Systems by David Benyon, The UX Book 2 by Rex Hartson and Pardha Pyla, and The Computer Game Design Course: Principles Practices and Techniques for the Aspiring Game Designer by Jim Thompson.  On Monday I watched the  Half-Life 2: 20th Anniversary Documentary  and spontaneously bought Half-Life: Alyx in the 20th anniversary franchise sale. I was inspired by the UI design in Half-Life: Alyx, which replicated the style of digital screens, and I thought a similar style could work well for my UI designs as I intend for the overall style to be inspired by retro interface...

During week 2, I researched a variety of UI and UX designers within the game design industry to understand the thought processes behind their creative decisions, explore design techniques and see how they displayed their designs within their portfolios. I researched the work of Anna Kuźmińska, Carlos Villarreal Kwasek, Marc Sodermanns, Maria Capel, Oliver Janoschek, Piotr Michalczyk, Room 8 Studio and Sprung Studios, and presented my research in the document below.  This week I also further defined my project by creating a project brief  outlining my main objective, game concept, aim for gameplay and design outcomes. 

During week 1, I researched for resources that I could use for project 2, my essay, and future projects. I compiled the resources I discovered into 3 documents which I can continuously update. List of Resources   List of Game Studios + Developers List of UI + UX Designers I also visited the library to get books for project 2 and my essay. I got The Art of Game Design by Jesse Schell, Designing with the Mind in Mind by Jeff Johnson, Interface Design by Dave Wood, and Universal Principles of Design by William Lidwell, Kritina Holden and Jill Butler.