Game
Carnage in Space: Crucible
7 years ago

Menus!


That’s right, today’s topic is MENUS! Everybody’s favorite feature in a video game, am I right? Okay, maybe you’re not convinced but as a UI enthusiast I sure care about them.

Anyway. A lot of the menu design and implementation is copied directly from Ignition, so I’m just going to talk about the stuff that’s new to Crucible.

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First off, you can finally access the game settings from the pause menu mid-level. I actually had to do some odd things to make it work - the menu isn’t actually in the same layout (or “screen” or “room” or whatever) as the level - it actually saves the state of the game and takes a screenshot to show the menu on top of! This was easier (and probably more efficient) than inserting the settings menu itself into every playable layout.

Second, I added icons representing each of the gamepad buttons. This really should have been in Ignition to begin with, but now it’s easier to tell at a glance what all the buttons on your controller do. And yes, they are customizable. I know I like putting my weapons on the shoulder buttons, but maybe that’s not your style.

Third is just a minor touch - the cursor is animated! You can see in the GIF, it stretches every time it moves so it’s easier to tell where it goes, especially when you press the Cancel/Back button.

Tune in next time to hear me gush about something else!



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