Menu Planning

Menu Planning:

For the planning of the menu, I first wanted to plan every feature that the menu will need. The menu will need many features so the player can get to every part of the game but the menu also needs to be simple so as not to confuse the player. During the second week, I made a survey going over a bunch of questions about what players expect to see on a menu and what a good menu looks like. I will use the results to help with the planning of the menu. In the survey, I asked seven questions all to find out what a menu needs to look and feel good and the main takeaways to me are four things. 

first, keeping the menu simple out of the seven questions multiple ended up concluding that a simple menu is better for a general audience. Second, make sure the menu is not too overly saturated and colourful and make sure the colours fit the feel. Thirdly make sure the menu had all of the needed options for the player to access including options/settings, credits, play, quit, and an about page. Lastly, the menu needs to have personality so the player can recognise the menu and so it's fun to look at.

Using all of the above to inspire me I went onto the web to get examples of good and bad manus and put them into PureRef. In PureRef I will keep track of common tropes that these manus have and what makes them fit the requirements. Using this I will then plan the menu writing down what I need in a list format.

here is the menu analysis from the PureRef sheet:

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And here are the things found in common:  

Survey:

In the survey images, they had a tendency to put one object or character into the front to be the focus of the scene this draws the player's eye and adds an element of memorability. The UI had a tendency to contain square boxes for the options which adds a unique style and method of selecting which makes the game feel fresh. Another big element is an environment in the background which is usually the map of the game. A lot of these menus have a feature that makes them feel new and unique. a lot of these menus are well balanced keeping lots of options but not feeling over-saturated with choice.

Good:

These menus all have a very consistent and clear idea of the style they are going for so visuals that may not look amazing for one game's menu works on that game's menu. One of the common elements is that there is a scenic environment in the background. A lot of these menus have a strong atmosphere that makes the player feel drawn into the world of the game. a lot of these menus keep the look simple just focusing on the visuals so as not to distract the player from the game.

Bad:

Most of these menus have way too many options this is intended to give the player lots of choice and customization but usually ends up being distracting or overcomplicating for the player. Having lots of options ends up covering the visuals of the menu stopping the player from having a fun time looking at the menu and making it boring and tedious to use. A good majority of these menus have bland colours like blue or grey which is unappealing and common.

Conflicts:

In the survey, one of the questions I asked was if they preferred muted or bright colours for menus and most people stated that they preferred muted colours well when looking at examples of menus none of the good menus or survey menus had muted colours which is the opposite of what the answers said.

I decided to trust the images as not only are all the good menus colourfully so are all the menus listed by the server participants. this to me shows that the menu should at least have an element of colour.

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The list:

A play button that moves to the level selects screen.

A scrollable level selects which shows the map that you are going to select.

A car in the main menu to get the player's focus.

Volume settings.

FPS settings.

Fullscreen settings.

Quit button.

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Here are the concepts of the menu I have tried to include as many of the good features in as possible and I will explain the reasons for the ideas. 

To start we have the main menu concept it has a car in the front which will be where the player can change their vehicle. This is good because not only does it make the menu have a focal point to draw the eye but it also has function and intractability. I also added some features of a garage in the background to add atmosphere and to make the scene make sense. The selection is also boxed out to ad polish and to stick with the square UI. 

Here is the menu concept for the level select menu I've added the boxy UI for the race options including showing that there will be unlocked levels. For this menu when you select the race it shows an overview of the map which adds a unique flare to the menu.  There will also be a title that appears making sure to give the player any necessary information.

Finally here is the concept for the settings menu holding all of the settings the player can change. Using the information I have gathered I have made sure to keep the options simple not adding too much for the player to look at. For the settings menu, I have the idea for it to zoom into the currently selected car or at least have a car in the background. This is to give the player a bit more to look at which makes the menu less boring.   

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Reflection:

Overall I think I managed to find the features of a good menu which was the main goal of this planning I also managed to make concepts of many with features that fit with the menu. I was glad about all the work I have done from finding and assessing games manus to making the concepts. I am happy that I used the feedback from my research to help inform my decisions. I think I could have made the concepts better but with my skills at art being near to none I don't think they came out terribly and they convey the ideas I was going for.

The biggest problem I had with this was deciding which features had to stay out like the landscapes. I didn't know which to use as they all felt prevalent so when I was deciding I had to use the ones I thought fit our game the most. Another problem is knowing what to add before you have gotten around to adding them as you can't always foresee the problems that come. so some of the features may change when it comes to making the menu.

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Final menus