I love Mass Effect 2. Story wise it’s great, and the UI is much improved over the last game. However the interface is not perfect, it seems while it looks great on an HDTV when it comes to SD televisions the onscreen text shrinks and is unreadable. I wish I could say this shocks me, but having played both Mass Effect and Dragon Age, I can’t say I’m surprised by a BioWare title once again having problems with it’s interface. When it comes to UI their titles constantly been plagued with poor design decisions. Mass Effect 2 was a nice step in the right direction for them, but this SDTV issues have caused a pretty big reaction within the community. It’s a shame that such an amazing title is now shadowed with what really is an easily avoidable problem.

It’s simple, UI designers need to constantly be mindful that not everyone is playing a game on a top-of-the-line system, half of gamers still have standard definition TVs. Half. That’s a big enough percentage that we need to keep the lowest common denominator in mind. Ignoring them is abandoning half your audience. The mobile market is one of the few time where we can guarantee players are going to be experiencing a game the same way as everyone else. When it comes to consoles or PC gaming variables are introduced. Screens change in size, resolutions fluctuate, it should be common place to design around that.

A successful interface, be it menus or the HUD, needs to do two things: 1.) display relevant information, and 2.) do so in a way that the player isn’t pulled out of their experience. An “enhanced” UI can look great on a HDTV but if it doesn’t scale properly, causing information displayed to be unreadable then you haven’t done your job as a UI designer. That’s the truth. No amount of “design choice” can change it.

My friend Kevin Mangan likes to compare to Street Fighter IV to chess. With strategy happening in seconds opposed to drawing out over the length of your average chess game. He’s right, and for those of you gifted to have the hyperactive twitch skills to play this form of super-chess, Street Fighter is probably a game you love.

It’s also beautiful. Kotaku posted a gallery featuring these screens of Capcom‘s upcoming Super Street Fighter IV, all prominently featuring the onscreen UI. (Hard to avoid with that style of fighting game.) There’s some beautiful stuff going on here. I know I am fairly vocal about constantly moving towards a HUD-less experience, but when it comes to a game like Street Fighter the UI really just enhances the gameplay. All that information is needed, this allows a player to risk an attack or choose to play more defensively as well as adapt their strategy to whatever the situation requires.

I really like how characters models, and effects move in front and behind the UI as a whole. To me that sort of  integration feels a lot like the lines a network will project onto a football field while watching a NFL game. The action revolves around what you’re seeing, and the HUD/UI doesn’t block the action or interfere with gameplay. It’s quality work. I look forward to seeing it in action in the game.

I want to change tone however. There’s more out there than the shooter or the driving simulator. In a few discussions with some of my industry friends patterns emerged as we discussed not what wouldn’t work, but what would, and there are three clear game genres that will thrive on the iPad. I’d like to take a moment and review them now:

Casual Games

This genre is really the hallmark of the current crop of iPhone games. Easy to pick up, easier to put down, it allows the iPhone to remain a mobile device first and a entertainment platform second. Current casual games don’t force a player to beat a level, hit a checkpoint or fight a boss before they can finish a level or put the game aside.
PopCap has done a great job embracing this already (Peggle, Bejeweled 2, and the newly released Plants Vs. Zombies), there’s also the other additional hits like Pocket God and Flight Control that do a great job showing that people are willing to jump into games that work around their time. The iPad really brings just more to the table. Bigger screen, faster processor, I am sure we’ll see iPad game developers improve on whats already a booming genre.

The Real Time Strategy (RTS) Genre

There’s been a few forays into the RTS genre already on the iPhone, Spiffcode‘s Warfare Incorporated and EA’s Command and Conquer Red Alert were both ported to the iPhone and both work really well.
The RTS genre is prefect for the iPad, traditionally they are controlled via a single point interface. In the past all the user had was a mouse, contact with the keyboard was minimal. Single point interfaces allow a RTS games to translates really well onto the iPad with with multi-touch screen. After all you just need to touch a button, drag to highlight multiple units and tap to direct them to gather resources, build structures, or attack an enemy.

The big negative, the screen real-estate, that plagues RTS games on the iPhone is removed with the iPad. The screen gets much larger. I think we’ll see a lot of really solid RTS entries for Apples latest mobile device. I for one welcome them, of all the genres that would thrive I think RTS has the most legs. Old titles like Warcraft and Command and Conquer to newer forays like Empire Earth and Sins of a Solar Empire could all find their place on the iPad, and it’s not limited to them, there’s a lot of IPs on the market that could easily swoop in.

The Adventure Genre

Once considered the dead genre. Adventure games were once the top selling games in the PC market. They lost their luster during the boom of the 3D Shooter and the advent of the first real time strategy games. There has been a resurgence however, Sam and Max as well as Monkey Island have both found new life in episodic downloadable adventure formats.
There’s even been some movement into bring back old Adventure games to the IPhone, Beneath a Steel Sky was recently released. While a good foray back into Adventure games, I found the screen too small to really get full enjoyment from the classic, the iPad would significantly change this.

Adventure games, like RTS, normally work off a single point interface, the iPad is prefect for this allowing touch to replace the traditional mouse cursor. In addition, the iPad’s handling of multi-touch could really add some depth to adventure game’s traditional puzzles.

Apple has made it easy for Adventure games to introduce episodic content into an app. Game’s like Ramp Champ already allow for additional paid in game upgrades. I could see a similar system adapted for episodic adventure games. No new icons for each episode, one app for multiple episodes, makes a clean experience for the user.

Conclusion

The more I read about the iPad the fonder I grow of the platform. What it’s focuses on doing, it does very well. When it comes to gaming, a lot of what has made the iPhone successful in the casual market applies to it’s design as well. As with the iPhone a strong single point interface work the best, adding motion and replicating traditional controls temporarily solve problems, but they do them at a cost. In the end it’s annoying, uncomfortable, and ultimately a gimmick the game ceases to be immersive and the focus is on the interaction, not the action. To get people invested and wanting to spend time with a game a developers needs to choose to move past the gimmick and into the space where the player can get immersed, involved and ultimately devoted to the game. Playing a game should never be a chore. As long as developers make the choice to build games for the players that enhances the platforms strength I think we’ll see the iPad have a long and successful life attached to  gaming.

People are confused by symbols if they have too many or too few details. They will recognize UI elements which are somewhere in the middle.

I like this especially when we narrow our focus on game UI design. Games have a tendency to error in the direction of being too realistic. Look at those muddy icons in MMO hot bars. While Mathis points aren’t exactly ground breaking it’s a good solid reminder for us UI designers everywhere.  Read it, understand it, and apply it.

…also he channels Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics which is a must read for anyone and everyone involved in any level of artistic pursuits.

I tend to get obsessive when it comes to games. For better or for worse I suppose, when a game hooks me, it hooks me. Gearbox’s Borderland is a game that does just that. Ever since I heard about it’s blending of role-playing elements and shooter game play my interest was peaked. Then after seeing Borderlands at PAX I would say I was enamored. So when a friend asked me if I had tried split screen, admitted I hadn’t. After all most of my experience with the game thus far have been me and three other buddies playing from the comforts of each of our couches in each of our own individual homes.

It seems clear this physically solitary gaming is what Gearbox intended. After all why would something as unacceptable as these interfaces even be allowed with a modern game? Theses screens attached are some iPhone photos of the split screen game play. Really. As you can see, it’s quite frankly, unplayable. Menus don’t fit, it’s hard to see what your looking it, it doesn’t scale it’s hard to read. It seems like split screen was a last ditch afterthought. Why else would a something this half-assed even be allowed to ship? Why would you expose this to the public? They could have shipped the game without split screen, there be minor grumbles but in the end players would have focused on the solitary co-op game play. If they simple had to have it, at the very least they could have allowed the UI to scale.

It sad to see such a great game tarnished by one major mistake. If you played it single player or co-op over the network of your choice you’d never have noticed this faux pas. Gearbox seems to miss the fact that gaming is getting more and more social. People like get together and like sitting next to each other as they play games. That’s why the Wii has had such a great success. Nintendo encouraged players to get together and game. Maybe all the markets focus on social gaming is why it seems so odd for Gearbox to quite frankly ignore something as simple as split screen.

Hopefully there will be a patch to fix this. Until then, I wouldn’t be able to recommend playing Borderlands via split screen. I’d have to encourage us all to remain solitary and sit on our individual couches and hunt for the Vault via voice communication only, it’s too bad really.