The unique UI design not only fits the worldview setting and atmosphere of Alien Marauder, but also deepens the players' first impression and experience of the game. Therefore, our R&D team pays great attention to the design and spends a lot of time and effort to polish it.
The main "Retro Steampunk Style" version 1.0
Early in the project's inception, the game's overall UI is a retro steampunk style, the designer's inspiration comes mainly from the Pirates of the Caribbean style and mechanical style.
As you can see from the picture below, we can see that the UI design of version 1.0 is more inclined to show the information to the user as comprehensively as possible in the overall layout, without taking into account the player's habits in the process of operation.
During the internal debugging, we found that the UI design of version 1.0 showed the important data completely, but there were many inconveniences and problems in the actual version use such as:
1. If the player clicks on the function buttons with the mouse, sometimes they even need to span the whole computer screen, such as the "Repair" button, which is on the lower left side of the screen, and the "Menu" and "Home Base "buttons are at the top left of the screen. For new RTS players who are not used to using a hotkey, it is not very convenient.
2. Although a lot of information is placed on the Hub, it does not highlight the key information visually. For example, the time of the insect wave is very easy for players to ignore.
3. Failing to match the backstory of Alien Marauder to a high degree: the backstory has always conveyed two important concepts - technology and the future. And these two concepts need a richer design approach to express these ideas better.
Iterate on the foundation of the updated version 2.0
Based on these three major issues, we have optimized and iterated over version 1.0
One of the most obvious visual changes in version 2.0 is that the overall layout has changed significantly:
1. The function bar in the upper left corner in version 1.0 was moved to the lower right, and all the buttons that need to be operated were placed at the bottom of the screen to improve the sense of interface operation.
2. The information sidebar notification box was added, so that players can immediately notice the key information.
3. The overall interface is more concise, reducing the sense of heaviness and increasing the sense of technology.
In July 2020, we had invited a group of players to participate in the first closed beta test. They gave us feedbacks and there were imperfections in the interface interaction and inconvenient operation, as well as feeling that the game's technology was not particularly obvious.
This is obviously an unexpected and unintended result for UI designers. For this reason, we listened carefully to the players' opinions and analyzed them together according to their habits and game objectives, and came to the conclusion that the key information is still not obvious enough, and the current layout will make players lose their focus; secondly, the visual feeling of the interface is also not beautiful enough.
In order to be able to give players a better visual and operating experience, UI designers stayed up late working their butts off in order to change a lot of the first 2 versions of the design, and the main interface for a further overhaul.
Focus Futuristic Technology version3.0
First of all, in the overall design level, besides sticking to the previous simple information distribution, we will pay more attention to the portrayal of futuristic and technological feeling, and make each UI lighter; secondly, the designers studied the interface flow of many console games and found that besides the simple UI, the console games will use a lot of special “shader” and dynamic effects to render the atmosphere of a more technological feeling.
In addition, the focus on the combination of model and UI is also a major feature in the packaging of many systems. We hope that when players experience each system, the immersion will be a little stronger and they will be able to receive the worldview-related settings from the interface level.
Therefore, the main interface of version 3.0 is cleaner than the previous 2 versions, the main interface has all the functions categorized and organized, so that the function partition is clear.
The Hub interface of the survival mode is divided into six main areas:
1. General information: Hero, soldier information and winning conditions
2. Vexan information: No. of vexans and incoming insect wave alert
3. Resource information: The number of all resources
4. Location information: Map, pause button, acceleration button, and survival time
5. Detailed information: Detailed information about the vexan mastermind in the corresponding map, the time of the next attack, and the detailed properties of the mouse-selected element
6. Function console: including all function buttons and chip reward display
The Hub interface of the defense mode is basically similar to the survival mode, with a few areas changed.
1. General information: Added instant information reminders, players can quickly understand the status according to reminders
2. Vexan information: Red warning reminder information, more prominent sense of tension in the defense mode
3. Resource information: Added vexan information and reward table, and you can control the information bar by clicking the mouse to expand or collapse
Behind each UI design, we hope to interpret the two concepts in Alien Marauder: technology and future, more accurately. Secondly, we hope that each time we sort out the system structure, we can give players a better sense of game interaction and experience.
Thank you for your patience in reading this captain, if you have suggestions and comments on the art and other aspects, please feel free to give us feedback, it is very valuable to us. Please also support Alien Marauder more in the future!
There is no end to this journey to the alien planets, and we are always on the move!
Changed depots in beta branch