Why does a game’s UI and UX matter to the player?

For the dev diary today, it’s time to do a quick dive into UI and UX, how they matter and inform the game experience.

A game’s UI (User Interface) is intrinsically linked to the UX (User Experience). While UI focuses on the visual and interactive elements that players directly interact with, UX encompasses the broader, holistic experience of playing a game. A well-crafted UI contributes significantly to a positive UX by ensuring that players can easily understand and engage with the game's mechanics, controls, and information.

It minimizes frustration, streamlines gameplay, and empowers players to immerse themselves in the game world without friction. A harmonious UI/UX synergy not only ensures players can navigate the game effortlessly but also enhances their emotional connection to the game, ultimately determining whether they find the experience enjoyable or frustrating.

Bad UI and UX can be a game-breaking experience. For example, imagine you load up a shooter game, with no tutorial or keyboard signs, and after trying WASD to no effect for ages, you realize you’re supposed to move with HBNM, and hold 5 to shoot. In this case, the game failed to communicate basic controls to the player, and betrayed expectations of what experienced players would usually expect. Lack of readability and clarity for what to do generates confusion, and ultimately lack of enjoyment for a player.

On the opposite end, sometimes the UI and UX not only work, but can also be brilliantly woven into a game’s narrative world setting as well. For example, in Nier: Automata (PurpleSnow can rave about this game all day), the settings UI directly ties to the character. As you are playing as a humanoid robot, devs cheekily added configurations in settings that allow you to remove parts of functionality, including color, messages, and even a self-destruct option–which, well, destroys you and ends the game. Here, the UI and UX not only exist, are clear, but also helps elevate the game experience.

UI serves as the bridge between the gamer and the virtual world. When done well, UI offers a seamless and intuitive way to interact with the game's mechanics and content. A well-designed UI can enhance immersion, guide players through complex gameplay, and even contribute to the overall aesthetics of the game. For us, that is also what we ultimately want to enable for Smolville. A seamless experience easy to interact and access, and feeds into progression while fitting with the rest of the world.

Here are a couple Smol examples!

Sneak-peek WIP 1: World navigation

In this view, we’re exploring, well, how to explore. Top left placeholder elements act as easy to access icons denoting various status effects, while the map overlay gives some very clear messaging: current location, surrounding accessible destinations, and future areas covered by clouds. This also ties neatly into the narrative of traveling on a flying whale, with entire skies and worlds to discover out there.

Note: work in progress and not representative of final quality and art