Designing the HUD
The HUD is one of the most notoriously difficult screens. All players will come to rely on and use this screen the most, so it was important to make sure the text was easy to parse and displayed the relevant information. I opted to balance the bottom sides to match the weight, and kept the enemy health simplified.
Since the game was going to be on Switch, it was even more important to keep everything bold and in charge. It underwent some rework as we added complexity in game, but retained the same energy.
Ability Tray
Displaying the abilities was perhaps the biggest challenge involved in this project. They had to be legible at small sizes, and communicate an on-screen name, description, and cost.
Complicating the feature is the fact that some had “tiers” which was effectively the power but stronger. We explored a couple difference ways to show and select the tiers, but inevitably ended up going with each tier as its own icon to help declutter the action bar.
In addition to the tiers, there were also special icons that used a different powersource. It was certainly a challenge juggling this menu!
End Match UX
Juggling a lot of rewards is always the bane of any end-round match up! I had a lot of fun figuring out how to make a modular and reusable end round that we could tint and adjust. I initially had budgeted for a heroic illustration per end round that unfortunately fell out of scope.
If I had a chance to rework this without the illustration, I would have tinted or composed new backgrounds to really sell the win/lose state of this moment.
