EMITIME

EMITIME is a project and game prototype created by Marco Ng and his studio Overworld Games. I had a chance to chat with him about game development, University and about UI/UX design and helping him improve it within the game for a better gameplay experience.

Starting Design

The original layout and system Marco had in place.

The first design of the Card Deck in the subject game, EMITIME.

The Work

What did I do?

Marco and I met in September 2023. He shared what he was working on, at the time a prototype and demo version of Emitime. I took a liking to the style of the game, but I noticed a few issues with the User Interface and gameplay systems that could be improved with a little bit of tweaking and changing. In about 10 minutes, I took a look at what Marco had and sketched an idea of things to change based on gameplay requirements, and what I thought would be a better layout and system. For this 10 minute sprint to offer some advice, I just picked out the card selection menu as it felt like the screen I could help most on. As I'm typing this, I'm helping Marco overhaul the game play UI so this page may get updated soon with a newer HUD as well.

Analysis

What I did next.

I took the original UI I saw and looked at the individual elements that were required for the gameplay and needed to be a part of the new design, as well as components that could be hidden or demoted in visual importance. As pictured below, I constantly considered the flow of the player's eyes and made sure that there was a process going down towards the bottom of the screen.

Key Changes and additions:
- "BP" bar: Player can now keep track of card cost in page selection.

- Redraw button moved into the center of the screen with gameplay elements.

- Card slots moved in with the card information, grouping the elements.

- Card cost and element made more visible to the player.

- Cards selection compacted into the space with overlapping.