game design
ux/ui
creating the setting
stage one
ui within the world
I wanted the player to have clear navigational goals.
The original beacon symbols (left) were scrapped and I chose to use light to direct the player instead (above).
starting ui design
stage two
Creating windows
I had two goals: to make the boxes non-intrusive, and to make them fit in within the universe.
player character ui
Expanding upon the theme of minimal UI and using the third-person camera to my advantage, I removed the health bar by putting it in the player's suit/character. All character designs will have cracks where light can stream through. The light will dim as the character takes damage.
Instead of numbers and letters, I have created a "chip" system. Removing numbers and letters makes the game more accessible (i.e. dyslexia), while also contributing to the world building of an alien society that foregoes our earthly language.
adding variation & Cleaning up designs
As I worked on my designs, I noticed that I had a lot of blue. I started thinking of ways to implement more color and variety. My solution was giving the player freedom to use different accent colors. That way, players with colorblindness or other visual disabilities would have options.
On top of that, I made the icons and graphics a little more interesting. There is more depth in the colors, and a lot of the shapes are more organic. The more boxier icons are strictly for use in pop-up menus.
Early Ideation/concept
