Major Project - Main Menu

The main menu has went through a lot of iteration, transitioning from a 3D to 2D widget.

I originally created the prototype with the concept of the audience being 3D members of the world, holding up signs that represent the menu options available.

Putting this into practise, however, was difficult. This was due to the lack of a style guide, where I decided to be experimental - using a variety of punk-aligned fonts that users reported struggled with readability.

This was done by, through hovering each option, set the text on stage - to which it would then zoom in the camera if pressed, the screen being representative of a display screen found in many contemporary shows.

However, the clash of many different fonts proved disorienting for players, though the idea itself was praised - with the fonts being suggested by multiple parties to reduce to simply one.

I then made a version of the menu, this time with buttons that had the game font to match stylistically. However, with this, I found still that the environment itself contrasted against the menu, and what I wanted it to be. This was due to it lacking its colour scheme. Additionally, there were strange issues that came with the 3D Widget, such as text disappearing - something that asking others and researching into proved nothing. I decided to give it one final try, this time with a unlit menu fully matching it's colour scheme. However, this still had the issues of the 3D Menu, and testers noted it's excessive colour usage, as well as the over-outlined text leaving it hard to read.

With this, I decided that I would instead move on to an exclusively 2D menu, using regular buttons over 3D ones, to which both the stylistic issues and issues exclusive to the 3D plane such as the disappearing text were saved. This would bring the idea of characters holding the signs into the interface itself. This led for me to make artwork of the characters, and then give them images for holding the sign, a fairly extensive design process.

Finally, I bound it to an animation if hovered, and got the following.

Then, to add a dynamic background, I brought a checkerboard into After Effects.

I added a turbulent displacer, which warped the image.

And added a repeater, meaning it would move in a loop.

Then, I made this a material through Media Player, converted it to User Interface, and made it the BG of the menu - with ensuring it's opened through source.

And with that, we have the Main Menu - after much iteration!

The main menu has different subsections, such as the Pause Menu, that is able to have files created through - all by checking if one exists, and if not, ticking a boolean in an array to make one.

Another is the options, that which can change the SFX, Opacity and FPS.

As well as the credits and exit screen.