Dev Blog 8: User Interface and Splash Screen

Hello there, my name is Allen Fortney and I am one of the artist on the team. I am more specialized in concept work but the focus of this blog post is the user interface that is being created for this game as well as the splash screen of the main menu. While creating the UI for this game I started out creating sketches and iterations of what the UI could look like. An example of this is with the splash screen which had a version that focused on a different part of the game with each iteration.

The first one focused on a place in the game called the Zen zone, an area where players can go to and interact with artifacts from the Minneapolis Institute of Art or MIA, and the vessels relaxing in the space. The second focused on the main hub, an area where the player will be frequenting throughout the game, and the space of it. The third focused on the vessels themselves and showed them in a parodied version of the evolution of man. The last iteration focused on artwork that are at MIA but done in the same style as the vessels.

After the iterations were made, the team voted on which goes forward and I advance the design. In the case of the splash screen, the one that went forward was the Zen zone design since it is a relaxing space. I took the design and cleaned up the sketches as well as added more detail to the scene and overall, cleaned it up. I also incorporated the use of more textured brushes in order to give it a more look that is more similar to that in the game if not to be more aesthetically pleasing.

After establishing the shading and the textured looks, I focused on developing color palettes since the game is not in black and white. This was done from by testing out colors from the game as well as testing out colors from popular movie scenes. Some of them came with color palettes, thanks to CINEMA PALETTES.

Images come from (starting at top) Hub space in game, 1917 (2019) directed by Sam Mendes, Nightcrawler (2014) directed by Dan Gilroy, Coraline (2009) directed by Henry Selick.

I took the base color palettes provided and altered them as I worked. With all of them, I focused on a time of day with each. The first was set at early morning, second was set at noon, third was set at late afternoon and last one was set at night. Each of the base images belong to their respected parties and are only used as references for color. After color is applied, the team voted on which color palette to go forward with and the one that continued was the one set at noon and used colors from 1917 (2019) directed by Sam Mendes.

After the selection, I took it and cleaned up the scene as well as pushed the colors further in the textures of all the objects in the scene as well as fixed areas that were a bit weak like with the Vessel characters and stone path. Since this splash screen was going to be for the main menu, I made sure that the scene was more focused on the left side when it comes to textures and material since there needed to be a space for the buttons to exist on. I even desaturated the area where the buttons would be so that they would pop out on the screen. When it comes to the buttons, they follow the same process as the splash screen but a bit faster. The example I got is off the button for Controls. I took placeholder button of Controls and used it as a guide for size and letter placement. I then made it in the style that the team agreed on which was Starry. I then refined it so that the focus was on the letters themselves.