Navigation and Interfaces - Game Design Essentials - page 150

Loading screens
Loading screens are fairly typical for most games and usually feature some type
of animated graphic indicating that the player needs to wait for a few moments
while the game loads.
Even if a game is already installed on your computer, your machine needs a
few moments to access any stored information that is required. The animation
lets the player know how much longer they need to wait for their game to load;
in the case of long loads, the animation also lets them know that their com-
puter hasn't crashed.
In Frozen, once the player chooses which option they want from the launch
screen, the full-screen splash art comes up next with an animated graphic of
ice cubes along the bottom, indicating the game is loading. For this design, the
splash art is also the loading screen. You can view this loading screen for free,
by accessing the game at www.starmountainstudios.com .
For standalone loading screens, the designer can create a simple animation
that lets the player know the game is loading. You may want to consider add-
ing an animation here because it acts as a type of timer, indicating how quickly
things are loading, and also lets the player know (if they have to wait a few min-
utes) that their machine hasn't frozen. In Star Mountain's game Kotsmine Hills,
shown in Figure 6.7, a standalone screen with animation reflects the look and
feel of the game: it's a spooky but fun hidden object game (HOG) in which play-
ers hunt for objects and clues to unmask a mysterious killer lurking in the town.

this graphic can be
in the form of a bar
moving across the
screen or a simple
animation indicating
that the load has
started.

FiGuRe 6.7 In this loading screen for the game Kotsmine Hills , a spotlight plays
from left to right across a series of tombstones that spells loading .