Let's have a vidya UI/UX thread, I recently got into a /gd/ career and developed an appreciation for them.
Post UIs you liked or hated, ones you believe you could easily fix, elements you'd like to see more of etc.
Pic related is one of my favorite utilizations of UI in a game ever, the different visuals depending of race did wonders for the atmosphere and general feel of the game.
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I miss skeuomorphism in videogames.
It's one of the medium that really suffers from flat design.
I prefer the UI in the original Witcher to the sequels, you could really feel the Polish in it.
For a recent example, I like the UI in MGSV.
The indicators are subtle enough to not get in the way, like the guard's detection indicator adds some grain and a white mark on screen, and taking damages cover the screen with dark thick blood, but it doesn't look as garish as most FPSs.
You can also customize it to only show ammo when needed.
And because it was designed with consoles in mind you can easily navigate the menus with a keyboard.
There really was no excuse for game trends to follow the general software trends, the target audiences are completely different. Laziness is the only reason.
Need For Speed has been in bad shape as a series in general ever since ProStreet, but I really like the visual elements in Payback, they strike me as a nice balance between game-y and professional.
I've grown to hate the generic Source engine menus over the years, despite their utilitarianism.
>Love
Simcity 4
>Hate
Cities: Skylines
H3 has perhaps the cleanest 2D UI of any game of its complexity, and is probably the reason why it has outlasted all the other installments
The BotW one is fantastic. Minimal and practical, and the map is really gorgeous.
Why is it so... not sure, bright? Or is the gamma just turned way up?
All the screenshots i see seem to have this milky aesthetic to it, but I'm having trouble describing what it is. Like the whole game is discolored, covered in fog, i think it makes the game look really bad
The real thing is way more brilliant, that's not my screenshot.
It's got different black point/contrast/saturation choices than most games, as well as draw distance problems it masks with fog.
too bad, could have been prettier if they went for something more fable-like
or not idk
As bad as it was on PC UX-wise, Oblivion's UI was at least visually appropriate, as opposed to Skyrim's awful Apple/clean glass aesthetic.
The minimalistic, clean, primitive shapes UI meme needs to die in a fucking fire. For some unholy reason nearly every modern vidya does that shit. It doesn't look good. It isn't creative. It functions, but guess the fuck what, you can also make a functional UI that doesn't look like something out of a generic smartphone app you talentless hacks. Back in the day UIs had CHARACTER
I have a strong dislike for FUIs as well. Every one of them looks the same
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Persona 5 wins my heart by huge margin. It's so ridiculously absurd that it spins back to actually good.
For the more normal UI though, I like FFVIII's menu. It's straight to the point. The same is also true for IX.
what's a FUI
looks like too high gamma to me
nobody seems to agree on what the F should stand for but it covers tacticool things like these
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Blizzard generally used to have fantastic UIs, though recently with Overwatch they've been straying into generic/uninspired territory.
Dubious functionality, but still memorable for me.
Current Blizzard is a far cry from the Blizzard that made Starcraft, Diablo 1/2 and Warcraft 1/2/3.
UI was far too big in the W3. It covers almost half of the screen. This combined with a camera that can't be zoomed out far enough made it really hard to navigate in big battles.
it's like the opposite of skyward sword
i... want to play
>talentless hacks everywhere in the industry
>designers that make stuff like pic related relegated to selling UI kits and designing for cancerous mobile games
Jesus Christ that font
Inventory screen was pretty horrid in BotW though. So many pages of bokoblin butts to scroll through. Though maybe that's a problem with the oh so popular garbage collector crafting system rather than UI itself.
Trust & Betrayal: The Legacy of Siboot is a forgotten masterpiece of crazy ambitious game UX. It lets you actually speak to its characters in a fairly free-form way by inventing a whole fictional language (that is justified in the story). Read the manual and play it, OP.
...
>I miss skeuomorphism in videogames.
say that to every 90s RTS/RPG with complicated techno shit all over the menus
I love the UI in C&C 3 Tiberium Wars. It's really intuitive. You don't have to search for anything or scroll through long lists of units. You basically need only 2 clicks to do anything you would like. It also takes up just enough space on screen to look good, detailed and don't cover the battlefield.
PS2 and later racing games are cluttered as hell, and HD made them even worse.
why?
functionality over aesthetics is too german of a trait.
You aint a nazi are ya boy?
Homm 3 ui is so fucking comfy, that leather, man. And the sounds are fucking great too, just clicking accept is orgasmic
Personally I also love NWN's
Phone here. Dead space is be all end all of ui's.
>relegated
Wait, are you saying your pic is good or bad?
There was initially nothing wrong with the menus themselves, I even liked them, until in the last decade or so it became apparent Valve was just lazy and not utilitarian, and that retrospectively affected my opinion of them.
Please user, it still hurts.
This.
I miss games with multi-window interfaces that used your standard GUI widgets. Let me dump a few.
1/7
Stylistically it may not be everyone's cup of tea (especially since it's a UI kit that has to cater to a wide audience), but the designer definitely has the skills necessary to create quality visuals.
2/7
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7/7
What's that building above the ziggurat on the left?
huh idk dont remember that one
It was inevitable, even if they had managed to keep the original team; they would've changed as people.
I think it's from it's beta.
DQ/FF-style menus: good or bad?
Thanks to WoW, Warcraft 3's icons are some of the most iconic design elements in all of vidya.
Reminds me of pic related.
>fantastic
Not really.
Selected weapon on top left have next to no meaning, remaining arrows is useless most of the time, considering how often do you change types of them and informed of the amount of each type of arrows.
Active power icon is good, divine beast icons could be a little smaller considering how manu there are in the end.
Minimap should have an option to turn it opaque and change it's size. Most of the time it was either too small to make much sence - had to switch to fullscreen map - or it was too big for the task at hand - like running straight for one of my beacons.
Temperature meter is not really existent - the way link shivers or overheats is a good indicator on it's own.
Weather forecast is really usefull, but it would be really pleasant if one could use some indirect indicators. Like small birds starting to fly low or sing in disturbed manner before the rain, etc.
Noise meter is a joke. One should bother about only when crouching, so better make that opaque and appear like some overlay near the center of the screen.
Hearts and stamina are perfectly implemented.
I really tried to get into Dragon's Dogma on PC, but holy shit those menus.
Current blizzard is more like a scorching summer day compared to old blizzard
Man, Dead Space is such a masterpiece
>rocks on the UI
Into the trash it goes
OH YOU. But yeah, compared to the other ones, the vanilla one is still nice.
Dead space comes to mind where everyone agrees it has one of the not in your face UI
It grew on me.
But its got problems with HUD clutter that is present in all modern games, something absolutely detest.
Like why the fuck do I need a popup that takes up 1/5th of a screen for hints/events and other bullshit?