Posted January 01, 2023 by RENZ
Hello world! Hello Frenz.
If you’re here for the tips, tools and resources I’ve used for UI designing you, can skip over to Tips, Tools and Resources for UI Design using the table of contents.
For those interested in the devlog, welcome! I’ve been working on a beta for my financial literacy game called Rainy Day and feel ready to make it happen in my next devlog!
Before I get into it, I just want to quickly say that I’ve been trying to get this game released before the year ends but its just not possible. The thought of it all just keeps delaying me in updating everyone with what’s going on. There are a lot more to work on and they just keep coming as I go.
So, here’s where Rainy Day is at. I have been working on making the game look better and provide better user experience.
Personalization
Right after the language selection prompt is another prompt for the player to input their username. This is information that I can use not only on the leaderboard but somewhere else in the game to give that feeling of connection like when someone says your name in real life. It’s another feature that I can think of for the next devlog.
Tutorial Mode
Once everything is set up, the player then goes through the tutorial in which they learn the simple game mechanics of movement, how the deposit mechanic works and such. The wording in the tutorial for sure needs a little more work but as of now I think it already does a good job in preparing players for all the round of gameplay (hours) they may play.
Visual Changes and Game Feedback
Some of the visual changes made so far to improve the overall experience:
Matching the Mechanics with a Theme
And aside from everything else listed above, the game now has a sense of theme that supports the game mechanics and vice versa. The buttons on most screen are organized in a stacking pattern and have the different colors as well as sizes of the falling money seen in the actual gameplay.
With these buttons, I try to prioritize one over the other based on the actual value of their colors: first being the honey yellow, second being the sheer green, and last being the grullo color. The stacked look also naturally allows me to design the highest object in the stack to be the button I want most attention on.
This use of color and natural prioritization is now all over the game. Objectives (referred to as bonuses in the game) are colored based on the value of their reward, the player is highlighted on the leaderboard with the highest value associated for color which again is honey yellow, and much more.
The countdown before the start of every hour also has a stoplight design style now that perfectly fits the theme of the game! As a nice little touch, I’ve also added a quick preview of current bonuses during the countdown.
New Upgrades!
I’ve also added more content for the game that is aligned with providing subtle financial literacy or awareness for players:
Tips, Tools, and Resources for UI Design
Fonts have expression and communicates a lot to users about designs more than we realize so having access to a whole bunch of them to choose from for your design is great. And to go with the fonts are the icons as well to really nail down what your are trying to communicate.
Support My Work and Have Your Name in the Game!
Rainy Day should be done soon and as usual, subscribe on here or on your preferred media in my LinkTree to stay updated! And if you are ever interested in having your name forever embedded in the startup screen of the game, or be named after a stock, consider doing a top donation subcription tier on my website! Anything helps so even a free subscription on there is huge and you will be emailed a link to beta test Rainy Day once it’s available.
December Donators
Thank you for listening and special thank you shoutout to my website supporters who donated in December!