Possible menu designs (21/2/2014)

Asked to come up with what the menu may look like, you can see my process below, despite knowing that it may not make it into the game...

Text:

Using my research on Tower Defence Games, I first worked out what options to include on a menu screen and where they would take the player. For example...

• Play Game (plays the game)
• How to Play (shows pages listing all the crucial details of the game and what they mean)
• Next... (goes to the next page)
• Back...(goes back a page)
• Menu (returns the player to the menu)
• Trophy Cabinet (shows all the trophies unlocked by the player)
• Next...
• Back...
• Menu
• High Scores (shows the top 10 scores - whether that be regional or just the developers)
• Next...
• Back...
• Menu
• Credits (shows a page listing all the names of those who worked on the project)
• Menu
  

Layout:

My team leader wanted me to take inspiration from the menu as seen in 'Risk of Rain' and adapt it for our own layout.

With the above in mind I then worked on possible layouts seen below, making the backdrop deliberately simple so that the art department would have an idea of how to edit it.

• Option one includes lights on the side of each menu choice, so that when players put their cursors over one the lights switch on.

• Option two is simpler with the menu choices being on a bill board of some sort. The background would take up more space so as to include animation in the form of doors opening or hats moving. Lights are now on top of the menu choices so as to make the game seem more urgent / exciting.

• Finally, with the last option I decided to keep the animated background, but adapt it so that when the player's cursor moves over an menu choice it glows a certain colour. Despite trying to copy another method I have seen before, I think this design is the weakest of the three.

Harvard Referencing:

• Unknown (2009) Department News - City of Gatesville. [Online Image] Available at: http://www.ci.gatesville.tx.us/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC={32F0EEB7-CA4C-431E-B53E-6DF245E8AB12} (Accessed: 21/2/2014).
• Unknown (Unknown) City of Atlanta Fire Department. [Online Image] Available at: http://www.slgreshamcompany.com/?_escaped_fragment_=city-of-atlanta-fire-department/zoom/mainPage/image21wn (Accessed: 21/2/2014).
• Unknown (Unknown) Risk of Rain Beta. [Online Image] Available at: http://riskofraingame.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/beta_first.jpg (Accessed: 21/2/2014).