🟡Benjamin’s Heuristics Evaluation Research¶
Introduction¶
For this project we have been told to create a Bullet Hell/Shoot’m up(SHMUP) for casual gamers with a small to moderate amount of time.
In order to create the best game we can, the question has to be asked; “What makes good UI for Bullet Hell games?”
Among our group we named a couple of games that we think falls under the Bullet Hell umbrella and assigned two or three games to ourselves. For my research I looked at classic arcade title Gradius as well as the more modern Synthetik in order to get a feeling of what was the best of both worlds in terms of new and old.
In order to properly grasp what UI aspects are important, I’ll apply Jakob Nielsen’s Heuristics priciples as a guideline to the selected games.
Gradius¶
Applicable heuristics Gradius¶
- Visibility of system status
- Consistency and standards
- Aesthetic and minimalist design
Visibility of system status¶
Gradius handles this heuristic by giving the player feedback of what is happening with lives, powerups and scores. When hit, the player can see one of their lives (visible in the top left under “1P”) disappear and their ship will be flashing. When grabbing a powerup (the spiky ball with a flashing light in it in the photo above), the powerup track at the bottom will flash and progress by one slot. When defeating an enemy, the player will recieve an indication in the way of the score increasing. There will also be a chance to drop a powerup on an enemy’s death.
Consistency and standards¶
Gradius follows industry standards bij using words like:
- Speedup
- Bombs
- Laser
- Missle
- Shield
These words describe their effects clearly in their names. This is why these are standard in a lot of other games as well.
Aesthetic and minimalist design¶
Gradius has simple and minimalist UI design, likely done to make sure the player is not distracted by UI elements and can instead focus on the action in the game.
The game only uses letters, numbers and icons to display all the necessary information at the top of the image. Below is a simple seven block row of powerups written down in easy to read letters.
Synthetik¶
Applicable heuristics Synthetik¶
- Visibility of system status
- Aesthetic and minimalist design
Visibility of system status¶
Synthetik aims to avoid cluttering the screen by only having UI elements on the bottom of the screen. Since the game boasts a lot of sudden action from far ranges, this choice allows players more visibility on what is happening around them. The game features items you can use by pressing the associated button above them. If the player needs a reminder of what the item does, the player can hover their cursor over the item to see a small window pop up to describe the item’s uses and stats. In the lower middle side of the screen you can see the player’s health, shield and current ammo count. On the lower right is an overview of guns the player has collected and the amount of ammo the gun has indicated by the number next to the gun icon/name.
Aesthetic and minimalist design¶
Synthetik‘s UI is extremely minimalistic, sporting simple colors, small images and a lot of open space. All important details for guns and items are hidden behind a small popup window that can easily be revealed by hovering over the item you want to see. The currency that you use in runs to get items is displayed on the bottom left in small text, highlighted by the yellow text.
Conclusion¶
Gradius is an arcade classic that has interesting ideas that I would like to implement and improve on for this project. It is minimal and to the point UI allows players to grasp important information at a quick glance and helps with making fast decisions while in combat. The terms used in the UI only strengthen this by using self-explanitory words that are universally used in games.
Synthetik is a bit of an oddball in the Bullet Hell/SHMUP genre that has an interesting take on the genre’s characteristics. The much more open and clean UI allows players to be more immersed in the action and stay wary of the surroundings. The simple colors used in the UI let players quickly see where their health, shields and currency is at.
Synthetik is influence over our project will be lesser, but the information I’ve gained from it will be implemented.
Sources¶
- Synthetik the game | Bron
- Gradius @ Nintendo | Bron
- Gradius Wiki | Bron
- Heuristics Principles by Jakob Nielsen | Bron