User interaction and graphics

The question arises, how do we present our game world to the player? What kind of user interface are we going to provide for our game? What kind of view are we going to allow for our game? Are we going to design our world to be viewed as a top-down camera view? Are we going to create an isometric view of the world? Or are we going to create a first-person or a third-person perspective of our world?

Answering these questions is crucial, as when you are designing your game assets you will need to understand how they will be viewed in the game world. For instance, when designing your characters and/or 3D models for the game, if you know that you will be using an isometric view, then you will approach your modeling differently than, for instance, when you are designing for a first-person or third-person camera.

In our game, we will be using a third-person camera view for the presentation of our world.

The next question would be how to provide critical information to the player in a simple and meaningful fashion. Role-playing games require the player to manage a large amount of information and frequently make use of windowed interfaces to arrange the data for the player. This is usually designed and implemented through a Heads-Up Display (HUD). Take a look at the following screenshot:

HUD is frequently used to simultaneously display several pieces of information, including the main character's health, items, and indication of game progression. You can think of the HUD as the access point for all the information the user will be required to have access to and interact with during game play.

The design of the HUD is crucial for RPG games. Typically, there are a few key data elements that you would like to continuously communicate with the player throughout the game play, which are as follows:

• Health
• Energy
• Stamina
• Active weapon
• Active shield

• Special items
• Number of lives
• Access to main menu
• Access to inventory
• Access to skills

Once again, the design of your HUD is derived by the type of game you are designing, as well as the type of information that will need to be available to the player during game play. Take a look at the following screenshot:

Since most RPGs collect and store large amounts of data for the player character, it is very important to create an easy-to-use, yet clean HUD.

A very important thing to remember when designing a HUD is that it should never overpower the screen or become a distraction. It usually takes a few stabs to come up with a great HUD design for your game, from initial artistic concepts, to the actual implementation and testing by gamers to get some feedback before finalizing the design and internal workings.

At the end of the day, the HUD is supposed to simplify the game play for the player, and not make it more confusing. Today, many games are moving away from traditional HUDs, leaning more towards cinematic or extremely simplistic experiences during the game play. This enables the game designer to immerse the player into the world and not to distract them with a constant, static HUD.

Making a HUD that will fit into the game play and style of your game is basic. While an element-rich HUD might be extraordinary for a few games, an oversimplified HUD can be similarly successful, or more so. Everything relies upon the player encounter you need. So when you're prepared to make the heads-up display for your next game, ensure you're outlining the HUD to upgrade the player's involvement, and never over-burden the player with data.