What makes good User Interface in Games?

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User Interface in Video games holds more value than most could realize. When you play a video game, the user interface is usually the number one thing you spend time “interacting” with when you play the game. In order to even play it, you have to use the options in front of you the play. It usually comes in the form of a group of menus or a small display showing the buttons that you need to use, like shortcuts for your abilities. It can display information such as your health, or the resource you need to use the abilities you have, or even enemy health and position. It’s painfully clear that without any of the information that your user interface provides, that it would become increasingly difficult to make a decision, especially if the information displayed to you isn’t pertinent to you completing the game. But really, the more important question lies behind this thought. What makes good User Interface in Games? Well to answer that, you have to take a look at the games that attempted it before. Even in early games it was pretty standard, just like the game mechanics and systems involved. The majority of the older games had only a few things to keep track of, namely score and lives. Games like Pac-man or Dig-dug clearly followed that scheme. The thing to note about games like these is that all of the information (lives and score) were put in the same spot every time. So it was safe to assume that in most cases game developers wanted to play it safe and there was no need to necessarily change the formula much. The most players would need to see in their game at the time was ammo, life force or health points, and score. However, there are some games where the user interface at this time did nothing to tell you anyt... ... middle of paper ... ...in any shape form or fashion then you have to keep in mind what is causing the problem. In most cases, its either your controls not being clear on what moves are needed to do or your User interface not giving you clear information on what to do next. It hurts the user experience when we can’t figure out what to do. If you completed a game with no problems, never once asking outside of the game to guide you the intended point of completion, not getting lost in a menu or trying to figure out why you can’t interact with something, chances are the UI you have is doing its job. Now that is some good UI. Works Cited Quintins, Desi. "Game UI By Example: A Crash Course in the Good and the Bad." Game Development Tuts. N.p., 22 Jan. 2013. Web. 08 Jan. 2014 "Cinemassacre Videos for IOS and Android." Cinemassacre Productions RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Jan. 2014.

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