Graphical User Interface Expanded

Expanding from the three examples I gave I'll critic them on their good points and bad points. Each one were designed specifically for their genres and it seems all have defined their GUI look for their genres. I'll analysis them in the same order starting with Bethesda's The Elders Scrolls V: Skyrim GUI.

Bethesda have designed this GUI to compliment their game experience; Bethesda has always designed their games to have high levels of immersion (Even though most of their games have bugs that can destroy immersion). Skyrim's GUI is about intuitive design, an easy interface that allows users to pick up and play with issues of misunderstanding. Health, magicka and stamina, weapon energy slots (from souls) and enemy health all have their own GUI bars that appear when players either; take damage, cause damage, use magic, perform player character animations (running, jumping, blocking, etc.) , use or draw weapons and fight opponents. However these interfaces down intrude game experiences, the opacity changes on the fly. Invisible when inactive and visible when active. The compass bar is constant but is placed at the top in the middle and doesn't intrude.

This GUI has one major flaw however, either due to the game engine limitations or game design. This flaw is the enemy health bar. When players versus multiple enemies, only one enemy health bar is visible on the screen and this is below the compass bar. This is an issue when players versus multiple enemies on harder difficulties, especially mage enemies. This may have been done for screen real estate reasons but it does affect the game experience when the player is fighting multiple opponents.

Here we have Grand Theft Auto IV and Rockstar's legendary GUI. It's no secret that most if not all open world sandbox games use GTA's GUI. Games like Just Cause 2, Saints Row series, True Crime series and even Rockstar's own Red Dead Redemption have copied (or known as cloned) Rockstar's game GUI design. The focal feature is the mini-map, almost everything is conveyed using the mini-map. Users will have streets highlighted, pick ups shown (health, armour, weapons), health / armour bars, compass, altitude (if flying or sky diving) and police notifications appear on their mini-map. Other features like; Weapon selection, police wanted rating is shown in the top right of this image. Rockstar's new addition with GTA IV was the mobile phone GUI. This included several new features the GTA franchises didn't have before this generation due to limitations. Features like phoning NPC characters, signing on to online networks (GFLW, Xbox Live and PSN) and the use of the phone camera for specific missions in the game. Once again, others have copied Rockstar's formulae of the GUI interface with the phone addition, notably Saints Row: The Third. 

It's hard to critic Rockstar's GUI as it's been so influential in the industry, everyone has copied it. It's kept it's basic look since 2001 and doesn't seem to be changing any time soon. The next likely change to this type of interface will happen when Rockstar decides it needs to be changed, and the most likely outcome will be the others copying once again.

Finally is Naughty Dog's Uncharted GUI. Similar in a sense to Skyrim's, i.e. the GUI tries not to intrude during gameplay but appears when prompts are required. Most of Uncharted GUI features appear in the top left. Weapons are featured in this position so players can see the equipment they have during chapters. On screen prompts appear at the middle-bottom of the screen during gameplay and quick time events (QTEs) appear in specific locations when prompted. Uncharted's GUI is much more basic to the other two examples since it's an action / adventure Hollywood blockbuster experience. Everything is about the characters and set pieces in environments so the GUI is really irrelevant useless needed.

The main criticism I have with the Uncharted GUI is how every prompt (unless QTEs) is allocated to the triangle button on the PlayStation controller. This is a major issue that still exists today within the franchise (minus the PS Vita game that uses touch screen controls). The issue is that healing an ally uses triangle, picking up ammo (not in Uncharted 3) uses triangle, switching weapons uses triangle and collecting objectives or treasures uses triangle. This annoys users as the GUI moves between each triangle command. This could be down to control input limitations though (Not enough buttons).

Although Naughty Dog's interface isn't influential, Naughty Dog's vision is, and that's why I chose it as an option to be considered for our game GUI.