Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
they can do with them.” With this approach in mind, Apple stores attempted to convey
the lifestyle just as much as the product, using clever layout and styling to reinforce the key
themes of the experience, such as using natural materials to bring a more earthy, organic
feel to their casual and clutter-free open plan designs.
Just like the exterior and layout of a high-end store, your menus and interface can
dramatically affect how people feel about the game “inside.” Thematically unsuitable
graphics, a broken menu, or a difficult menu flow can frustrate players even before the
game starts, leading to a heightened sense of frustration during initial gameplay. An
unpolished interface may lower expectations or change the perception of quality of work
that has gone into the game. We want to avoid these situations and set the user up to feel
as good as possible. To encourage a positive start, we should try to make sure that menu
systems are tidy and functional, and that they attempt to reinforce the main themes of the
game world in every aspect.
Building quality user interface and menu screens can be a time-consuming process.
If you look at most modern videogames, the menus are filled with little touches that only
developers would ever notice, like particle effects, slide-on transitions, and animations.
Most games have dedicated teams for building the menus and interface systems. Artists
(sometimes both 2D and 3D) work hand in hand with developers to build exciting new
experiences. All this comes at a cost, and it may take months of work just for the single
main menu screen of a commercial title.
Some studios reuse their menu and interface code from game to game, changing the
layout and graphics but keeping the underlying code and/or menu structure. Reuse of
menu code makes a lot of sense in an industry where we need to pack in as much gameplay
as possible and where customers demand a lot more bang for their buck.
The menu system we will be building in this chapter will not be winning any awards or
enticing players in to play. But it will serve perhaps as a structural beginning and as a func-
tional method for configuring the example games and getting them started. The great thing
about this menu is that it's completely open to interpretation. It could be built out to work for
just about any kind of game with the addition of some graphics and sounds. As you develop
your games and develop your style, having an operational menu will help during testing.
he main menu system is used by all of the example games in this topic. It is easy to
port between games and have submenus for audio and graphics options. The full screen
flow for the entire main menu and its submenus is shown in Figure 10.1.
The flow requirements are almost identical for each game, although there are a few
things that need to be variable. These are
1.
Game name.
2.
Which scene to load when we press the start game button.
3.
The filename of the prefs we save out to store options (volume and graphics levels).
4.
In the case of
Interstellar Paranoids
, the menu needs to have a Start Co-Op Game
button, too.
Options menu uses PlayerPrefs to save and load any information we need to store or
retrieve related to audio and graphics settings. The menu code should check to see that
