Introduction

User Interface, or UI is a key part of games. Whether it is a game menu or HUD found in game, UI has existed since the early days of gaming. Thus, UI can make or break a game. Too much UI can crowd the screen, and too little will leave the player confused. Here, I will talk about how I created a balance of the screen and UI.

(Crowded UI)

(Clean UI)

CLIPS UI Elements

For this game, there are some UI parts I will need:

1. An area for spoken text and text that describes the object the player is hovering over.
2. Arrows to turn around.
3. A map and inventory button.
4. A settings and menu button.
5. A way to save and quit.

Options

There are two things I can do to fix this UI issue. I can either give the player a way to customize the UI, or have menus that pop up with many buttons, activated by a single button press. I chose the second option. This is because the map and inventory can be grouped with the menu, save, and quit options for better optimization. This is a rough sketch of the final UI:

Under the file button, a pop-up screen will appear with the inventory and map, along with all the other options. And that is my take on (and solution too) UI crowding, I hope this may also help you in your games!

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