Life of a UI Lead
The majority of my time in Spellbreak has been advocating for immersive, cinematic moments to elevate the UI beyond menus into an experience.
I’ve been making improvements to the store and other major features to overall improve the user’s playing experience. With some of the changes has been the overhaul of our Storefront with the introduction of Bundles, Ascending Outfits, Rarity borders, and new Bundle art to showcase multiple cosmetics. I’ve also introduced more elegant confirm purchase menus that show you the cool cosmetic you’re about to buy in a better, clearer way.
I also manage outsource feedback on shop cosmetics, and manage a team of UI artists to add content across the entirety of the game.
My ultimate focus is creating a more engaging and immersive player experience across the board, dedicating myself to the overall feeling players have when they’re playing the game.
UI Kit designed by Kat Dolan, © Proletariat, Inc 2021
Leagues
Leagues
Spellbreak’s version of competitive ranking, Leagues was a major feature meant to showcase a player’s progress toward earning higher rankings in competitive modes inside the game. As the sole UI artist on this feature, I was able to work through a few different approaches and screens with the understanding that the goal was to make players feel good about their skill and time played. Alongside the wonderful badges and accolade icons illustrated by Lucy He, I developed the menus, concepted the end round rank system, and owned the entire UI/UX development process of the League system.
Moving on Up
My initial concept for our League Standing screen included a vertical ladder with a heavier emphasis on our top league, Legendary (now legend). It was important to preserve our existing vertical navigation from UX in both formats. It unfortunately became cluttered, and we ended up moving to a horizontal ladder for our league tiers, opting for a clearer progression as it wasn’t entirely obvious from the vertical ladder which direction the hierarchy traveled.
Shop
The Science of Selling
One of my first projects starting on Spellbreak was focusing a lot more on helping the store feel robust and inspiring. Since I began, I helped improved the buying experience by flushing out things like selling bundles of items, creating the formula for showing bundles, Ascending outfits (leveling up our outfit items), and helped concept a purchase concept for our items. It’s been a great sense of accomplishment seeing how far the store has come in such a short while.
Misc Features
Feel Good Leveling
With the help of Logan Wagoner’s flipbook VFX seen in the video, I developed a new level up motif to reward players for accomplishments in Spellbreak. We focused on something that fit the game at large but introduced a feel good moment to help players reap the sense of accomplishment. I was responsible for the overall design and animation.
