PERSONAL PROJECTS
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This section of my portfolio includes a variety of personal projects and exercises exploring the different aspects of game design, from UI to balancing and so on. Almost everything on display here is constantly being worked on and improved upon on a daily basis. I try to update this page as often as I possibly can!
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I hope you'll find this as interesting as I do. Enjoy!
Brawlhalla Menu Flow Deconstruction Exercise
The simplicity of Brawlhalla's presentation manages to conceal the extreme complexity of the systems that make up its great user experience. In this particular case, I wanted to delve deeper into the game's UI and navigation flow, deconstructing it into simple shapes or nodes in order to better understand the logic behind every step the user has to take to navigate its menus, both inside and outside of a match.
Feel free to check out the entire board here!
Every good game needs to make sure that the user gets to where they want to go. Brawlhalla's menu ensures that the myriad of its elements can be reached, but it does that a the cost of a LOT of convoluted steps through sub-menus that aren't that easy to find the first time they are being looked for. The flowchart that I created deconstructing the entire set of menus of the game demonstrates just how many elements these menus contain.
So I tried to understand the navigation path and potential roadblocks within the menu design. This helped me notice that every menu has a list of options, which usually point to another menu or input decision.
How I would personally improve upon it
In my personal opinion, the issue isn't tied to the architecture of interaction with what's presented on screen. Instead, it is likely a problem of the general functionality of the menu system; and that's solely from a design (not technical) standpoint, might I add.
I would start solving such an issue first by helping the player keep track of where they are inside the navigation flow. The best thing I can think of would be a system of coloured tabs that gradually appear as the player progresses through the menu flow. Each colour would be associated to a specific phase of the creation of a match, thus creating a sort of UI map that helps the player keep track of everything they have done that far.
These tabs would also allow to be clicked on in order to jump back or forth between the stages of preparation, instead of having to repeatedly press the back button without even knowing when to exactly stop. Incorporating such shortcuts allows to circumnavigate entire menu sections and avoid having too many entries and exit points on the same screen. This organization into tabs also allows to anticipate and solve future problems should the team decide to add or relocate features.
Secondly, I would try to identify the menu's core elements and areas in order to change their scope, giving the right amount of space and attention to each one. This kind of simplification allows for the UI map to be easily updated with every change made, without losing functionality. I would then work the details as I refine the less important and less visited submenus of the UI map.
This would leave me with a generally 'high level' version of the UI that lets the user easily and intuitively navigate the menu.
Finally, I would try to further uniform the detailed listing of options and features to help determine the template patterns and reuse of components.
In conclusion
It is tempting to provide as many usability features and shortcuts between screens a possible; however too much redundancy might prevent players from developing a consistent mental model of the UI flow. That's why I would only try to minimize the effort needed to navigate the areas more than the number of actual areas. I think that the most important thing to keep in mind is to make the main actions accessible quickly, from a central location, and move the more complex actions deeper in the flow.