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Chapter 3 Story Composition
Navigation
map
Score
Ammo
Health
Map is semitransparent
to allow objects behind
it to be seen
Goodheart-Willcox Publisher
The score could be smaller to not take up
so much gameplay area. Additionally, the
HUD is cluttered with buttons and copyright
information that are not important to the
gameplay. These features could be placed
on a title page that is shown before starting
gameplay and a high-scores page that
appears at the end of the game.
A great idea for features shown in the HUD
is to make them semitransparent. This
allows the player to see both the displayed
data and anything underneath the HUD.
Below is one example of how the HUD
for Absolute Zero may be improved. This
redesigned HUD allows the player to see
a larger gameplay area and minimizes the
HUD elements as distractions. It allows
attention to be focused on the gameplay and
not design elements. Players will have an
easier time identifying the most important
gameplay data while staying immersed in
the game action. Only the most important
features relating to gameplay are displayed:
ammo, health, navigation map, and score.
The ammo status is displayed at the top-left
corner. It is far less dominant, but still easy
to read. Health status is displayed in the
bottom-left corner. It remains similar to the
first version, but is smaller and out of the
way of the gameplay. The score is displayed
in the bottom-right corner out of the way
of gameplay. The navigation map is much
larger and is semitransparent.
The size of each feature is determined
by how important it is to see the
data. Redesigning the HUD with a
semitransparent navigation map allows
the map to be larger while not hiding the
obstacles and objectives underneath. The
objects in the map itself are easier to see
because they are larger.