At the Game Developers Conference in March, Bungie’s David Candland gave a really cool talk about the evolution of Destiny’s UI. Among other things, he showed a bunch of prototype menu screens, and also explained the complicated process of fine-tuning a video game interface.
Destiny has a hell of a user interface. It’s nice to look at, but like many things in Destiny it’s also nice to use. Just like any part of any finished video game, it went through a lot of rough drafts to get to where it is now.
You’ll spend a lot of Fallout 4 fighting irradiated super mutants, giant killer cockroaches, and deadly cyborgs. You’ll spend just as much time fighting the game’s awful user interface.
A good video game menu is like a good roadie: It stays out of the way. But still, far too many menus waste far too much of our time. People want to play games, not mess around in menus!
Here is World of Warcraft's user interface, completely redone so that it looks more futuristic. It's damn cool.
It wouldn't be Mass Effect Week if we didn't link one more time to "Mass Effect Massive Interface Fail," game designer Krystian Majewski's incredible three-part takedown of the first game's awful user interface. It's a funny, damning, and wonderfully thorough analysis. If you've never met Honk Shepard, now's the time.
Far Cry 3 is a really, really good game. One of the year's best, I'd wager. I've had so much fun with it that I'm playing it again, just for the heck of it, and shooting for 100% completion.
For lo, we did climb to the top of Video Game Mountain. We spoke with the burning GameCube, and we did return with The Ten Commandments of Video Game Menus. And they were good, even if the games weren't always.
