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Jerry Nacier

Level Designer

Dark Shot VR


​Project Overview

Role: Level, UI, UX Design

Engine: Unreal


Duration: Jan 2017 – Feb 2017 (2 months)
In Dark Shot VR, the player assumes the role of an archer in a simulated target range. Aggressive holograms march toward the player from projected buildings, and the player, using the two HTC Vive controllers, must nock arrows and fire them toward the waves of enemies.
Awards & Honors

Student Game Team Spotlight
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​Contributions
  • Built the foundation for tutorial and main menu level
  • Created detailed documentation for the tutorial and main menu level
  • Prototyped the diegetic UI
Design Process
My first task was to create the game's tutorial:
teaching_gameplay_in_a_vr_game_research_design_and_iteration.pdf
File Size: 314 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

User Interface
After giving the art team the first pass design of the nine ability icons, I turned my attention to overhauling the design of the placeholder UI. In the player's right hand, the health and abilities needed to be displayed. 

​Main Tenets of Design:
1. Clearly displayed data- The game can become frantic very quickly; players need information readily available to be able to react within a reasonable time frame.
2. Dynamic animation polish- Animations should reinforce feedback whenever possible.
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Iteration 1
Health Gauge - Circular. Loss of health is granular.
Abilities- Four indiscriminately colored squares.
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Iteration 2
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Health Gauge- Loss of health is now sectioned due to health point calculation restriction.
​Abilities- Each ability is now a fourth of the circle for aesthetic consistency. The top ability is the strongest ability and is largest to denote its importance. Its color is also now red to reinforce that. Pink's saturation has been toned down as it was previously too strong.
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Iteration 3
​Abilities- Selected abilities are animated to enhance feedback. When unselected, abilities are mostly transparent, but once selected, they flicker while highlighted for half a second, then remain highlighted.
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Post-Mortem
Skills Exercised
  • UI design and implementation in a twice-unfamiliar situation (first Unreal 4 project, first dedicated UI design position).
  • Teaching the player through diegetic gameplay elements.

What I Would Have Changed
  • Add more polish to the tutorial after we re-scoped the project.

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