How a Good Game UI Design Makes a Difference
When talking about video games, our thoughts are naturally drawn toward iconic characters, otherworldly landscapes, and action-packed narratives. What’s also worth your attention is the game’s UI (user interface) – the thing that holds the key to making playing enjoyable and easy to understand. Unlike UI in apps, where functionality is streamlined for efficiency, UI in games focuses on creating a visually captivating and interactive experience where player engagement and storytelling take precedence.
So, what is UI in gaming in more detail?
The game user interface is a bridge that facilitates player interaction with the game world. Hand in hand with the user experience (UX), UI elements guide players throughout the game, displaying critical in-game information, providing feedback, motivating them to keep playing, and helping them meet objectives. The more interactive, creative, and immersive the game’s UI, the better the chance of getting loyal players.
In this article, we will focus on video game UI design as a part of 3D & 2D art services and how it turns the tide in the game’s playability and player experience.
The Importance of a Good UI in Games
UI elements provide game developers with the means to guide player interactions and steer gameplay according to the developer’s vision. They achieve this by introducing visual cues that aid players in navigating the intended path within the game. These hints may vary in subtlety, yet they all share the common goal of empowering players to make informed decisions and confidently progress through their gaming adventure.
A skillfully crafted, balanced game UI is a key to player satisfaction and retention. Literally. Here are some insights about how Inkration Studio’s experts achieve this goal and keep your gaming audience engaged for the long run:
Striving for simplicity, steering clear of clutter
First and foremost, they for simplicity when making a game user interface. While some titles like Ghostrunner or Cuphead are known for their hardcore gameplay, there’s no need to add to it with a burdensome game UI. Take a minute to check these two games out – no matter the contradictory art styles and genres, they both feature simple and easy-to-understand game UI design. Inkration goes for the golden mean, balancing between providing enough information to help navigate the game yet avoiding cluttering.
When the game’s UI is overloaded with information, it can impede gameplay, leading to a loss of enjoyment. Conversely, if the game interface provides too little information, players may experience frustration as they are compelled to halt their progress in search of necessary details.
Following the game’s style
Needless to say, the game user interface should correspond to its art style and be consistent throughout the entire game. Say, if your game features a futuristic world, there’s no room for antique elements in the game’s menu.
Let’s take Cyberpunk 2077 as an example. It features a dark and edgy dystopian atmosphere, which is well-integrated into the game’s UI. The game user interface showcases neon elements and dark menu backgrounds with thin, colorful outlines, which can be noticed in Ripperdoc upgrades or component crafting sections.
Making game UI responsive and accessible
Inkration experts note that a good video game UI design must promptly respond to the player’s actions, ensuring minimal lag or delay as it fosters a seamless, intuitive, and user-friendly experience. It’s imperative, especially during combat, when the player accesses a quick selection menu to change items or abilities without pausing the game. For example, in Horizon: Forbidden West, the game slows down when the user swaps weapons and ammo. Therefore, the game’s UI must respond quickly; otherwise, during this delay, Aloy will be vulnerable to enemy attacks.
Accessibility of the UI in games is paramount, requiring features like high-contrast options, large text, and alternative input methods to accommodate all players, including those with disabilities. The Last of Us 2 has 60 options for accessibility, including aiming assistance, guidance cues that direct the player toward objectives, audio cues to indicate the presence of items and cover while exploring, on-screen prompts for evading attacks, and even vibration cues.
How Video Game UI Shapes the Atmosphere
Effective game UI designs harness the power of color to influence users’ emotions and set the atmosphere. The selection of colors is rooted in a deep understanding of color theory, where specific colors are associated with certain human emotions. For instance, the frame may be covered with red splatters resembling blood or a red filter covering the whole player’s view, indicating that the character took damage. The shapes integrated into the game’s UI are of equal significance; nuances in weight, size, curvature, and other tiny details can lead players to perceive the design differently, evoking varying emotional responses.
Personalization empowers players to feel at ease with the game interface, granting them the flexibility to fine-tune the UI to match their devices and preferences. UI in games can be intelligently adaptive, offering users enhanced control over the appearance and behavior of the game user interface. This allows for a higher degree of personalization and automatic adjustment to various screen sizes. Additionally, tailor-made interfaces provide a unique design approach with meticulously positioned objects on the screen or HUD. However, this approach often requires creating multiple versions to suit different device types.
Outsourcing Game UI Design to Make a Successful Game
Delegating video game UI design to seasoned specialists is a perfect way to make sure your game’s user interface is both visually engaging and intuitively functional, thus enhancing the overall gaming experience with no risks and overhead costs.
Inkration Studio has been creating appealing UI game designs for more than nine years, boasting an extensive portfolio of successful visuals for titles of any genre. Get the chance to get high-quality game interfaces for your games today!
