gamegui.net blog

Contributors Wanted!

2009-09-24T05:17:00.000-07:00

Since I've gone independent I don't have enough time to keep this blog alive all by myself...

So if you're working with game interfaces and would like to contribute, please drop me a line at info@[this domain]!

Windows 7 - Oh why don't they just give up...

2008-10-29T02:55:00.001-07:00

Oh why don't they just give up? I doubt they'll ever be able to fix the mess that is Windows. They aren't brave enough to make radical changes where they are needed...

They added some real improvements it seems, but mostly they're just trying to fix stuff that was obviously broken in previous versions (they way you select wireless networks, reducing the amount of popup-warnings, etc.) or adding things that Mac OS has had for many many years (the taskbar-stuff - try right-clicking an icon of a running application in the dock..., again the wireless network selection, more overview in the control panel, etc.).

I don't see myself switching back to Windows in the next couple hundred years...

New XBox360 UI

2008-10-29T02:39:00.000-07:00

The "New Xbox Experience (NXE)". They're completely changing the user experience with a mandatory firmware update on November 19th. Lots of pictures on gizmodo.com.

NXE comes with Microsoft Miis (internally they call them "Avatars" though) and especially the character creation looks really nice...

Little Big Planet

2008-10-23T23:54:00.000-07:00

The Pop-It menu is pure genius. Every player gets his own menu-system for changing clothes, applying stickers and building stuff, and the best thing is: they all work in parallel! It's multiplayer-menus! Did I mention that the entire Interface is insanely pretty and full of good ideas, just like the game itself?

How they created the new UI of Microsoft Office

2008-07-08T04:59:00.000-07:00

Not entirely game-related, but interesting none the less: Jensen Harris' talk at the MIX conference in Las Vegas. You can download the video from his blog: "The story of the Ribbon".

What's inside:

A nice overview of the Interface of Microsoft Word from version 1.0 to 2003 with screenshots of each version
Their design process
The creation of "the ribbon" ("The Ribbon" is the part of the new Office UI that runs along the top of the screen and replaces the long menus and toolbars of previous versions)
He shows lots and lots of prototypes, including some really fancy ideas

Diablo III

2008-06-29T06:38:00.000-07:00

Just wow. The interface of Diablo III is promising to become one of the best-looking (and as I know Blizzard also one of most useable) interfaces out there... I love how they kept the memorable pieces of the original interface (the 2 big glass-spheres filled with liquid), but updated everything to the pretty and polished look that World of Worcraft is known for. The subtle and simple minimap, the overhead healthbars, the dialogue-mode when 2 characters talk, the sounds when you move stuff around in the inventory... I'm telling you, that this is going to be good. But see for yourself: Gameplay Trailer

John Nack writes about future photoshop UI changes

2008-06-06T12:25:00.000-07:00

Check it out on John Nack's blog - there's a video there too...

I for one never liked floating panels and was extremely happy about the new UI in CS3 and think that they're continuing to head down the right road... And it's a funny story how they got on that road:
Macromedia copied Adobe's interface -> Adobe sued Macromedia -> Macromedia developed its own, better interface -> Adobe bought Macromedia and took on the new UI...

Normal vs Widescreen

2008-05-01T10:32:00.000-07:00

The Widescreen Gaming Forum has a nice website where you can compare normal and widescreen screenshots. - Great stuff!
Their FAQ is also a good read, giving a nice overview of how differently games handle normal and widescreen resolutions.

Early Sins of a Solar Empire Interface screens

2008-04-29T16:31:00.000-07:00

In Gamasutra's Postmortem: Ironclad/Stardock's Sins of a Solar Empire, they show a couple of screenshots of early versions of the interface - quite interesting...

Age of Conan GUI Tutorial Video

2008-04-16T10:54:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Funcom released a video about the main interface of Age of Conan. While I didn't have anything to do with the making of the video, I was responsible for pretty much the entire interface that it explains.

Age of Conan GUI Tutorial Video at Gamespot

Unfortunately the graphics aren't 100% up to date as we've been polishing all over the place since it was recorded, but it gets all the basics right and I'm very glad it's out there. I never liked reading through long tutorials in any game, so I'm glad we have this video (and some other little things that I'm not allowed to talk about yet) to get all the players started as quickly as possible!

Tutorials are always hard to get right - there's always something that is being tweaked all the way up until launch. Just a few weeks ago Blair Fraser from Ironclad talked about the Sins of a Solar Empire tutorial on the Gamers with Jobs Podcast, saying it turned out a little short because they were constantly changing such large portions of the game that updating the tutorial became quite a pain...