UI, Materials and More

Last week we worked on the UI and on polishing a list of small details that have been piling up for some time. The UI is pretty much done unless we find opportunities for improvement in the future. As for the list of improvements it was composed of things like the creation of materials for the background, improving the water shader and fixing visual details in the tilemaps. During the weekend we tested with some friends and got some feedback to work on during this week.

Regarding the UI, my partner made most of it, from the main menu and all of its submenus to the in-game UI elements used during gameplay. I only worked on making the icons for all the HP pickups. We are very happy how it all turned-up and don’t plan on changing it any time soon.

Now, talking about the other visual changes, I worked making a new material for the background that fit the ambience we want to create but that isn’t distracting. Because the levels are composed as dioramas we needed to place something to fill in the void outside them. First we used a black background but it felt like something was missing and was a bit distracting. Next I made a material that moved a set of simple shapes and icons related to the theme of the game across the background. Sadly, no matter what shapes, sizes, colors or movements patterns I used, it all felt too distracting until I chose to simplify it as much as possible by only leaving some color dots like neon stars and it worked. This helped to create that retro-dreamy vibe that we want while not being distracting.

Working on the water was another challenge, this time more related to the complexity of creating a good material shader. Though in the end I managed to create something we are happy with, I remain with the objective of improving my knowledge of materials in UE5.

Lastly, the rest of the changes on the map are too small and specific to count them all here. In general these were details that initially went under my radar due to the large amount of details in the maps. Things like a single decorative tile using old colors or the HP pIckups not using the modern color palette.

For this week we are going to work on improving the player experience based on the feedback we got from our friends and keep adding the details necessary for the demo like music on the main menu.