Level Up.pdf

178 LEVEL 8 Sign Language—HUD and Icon Design
In Maximo: Ghosts to Glory, we created a variation of
context prompts called “plings” : emoticons that told
the player when they couldn ’ t do an action as well as
when they could. Need ideas for when to use these
guys? Here ’ s a short list of suggested uses for context
prompts:
• Doors, gates, and/or hatches.
• Mechanics such as cranks, levers, and pushable
objects.
• NPCs: not only for talking anymore, you can use
plings and emoticons to show their emotional
state. Catch them in a good mood and you ’ ll get a
better response/reward than if they ’ re angry,
scared, or sad.
• Items and weapons that can be collected by the
player.
• Use of vehicle or minigame. There are numerous
games that allow the player to man a machine
gun turret during the middle of regular gameplay.
• Jump locations: The Legend of Zelda games do this.
• Quick time event prompts, as seen in the God of War series: a preset
sequence of events that progress if you press the right button (see the
quick time event section further on in this chapter).
• Combat notification: icons that show when an enemy is vulnerable to a
certain type of attack.
• Secret treasure items: have your icon appear when the player is close to
a hidden item.
In addition, there are HUD elements that are self- explanatory, like fuel
gauges, speedometers, and countdown timers. Just like the others
mentioned above, keeping it clear, clean, and simple is the winning formula
for making a successful HUD system.
The Clean Screen
Ah reality. It ’ s a double - edged sword. You want your game to look like
a … dare I say … cinematic experience … but you still need to
communicate gameplay and controls to your player. What to do, what
to do?