Any video game’s main menu is crucial. It is always possible for the player to get a sense of the game by simply gazing at a simple interface. The primary menu must tell a story in and of itself. I looked at the concepts that I and the team had for our main menu, and after we decided on the 1920s detective game, I began looking at simulator games and other forms of media for inspiration. LA Noire was the main source of inspiration for me. The main menu gives the user a sense of the game’s tone and uses the landscape to assist tell the story. By projecting shadows on the wall, the menu has a distinct ui aesthetic and is simply laid out with the options readily apparent.
The main menu of Batman: Arkham Asylum inspired me as well. The dark gothic design of the menu and the ui looking like ripped apart pieces of paper inspired me.
Concet art:
When creating the main menu, I came up with various ideas for what I might use for the main menu, such as having the figure surrounded by darkness with the buttons to the side of him. We also investigated many ideas for the main menu, such as the main character being on a boat.
I opted to focus on making the core functionality of the menu and the background basic for the development stage, allowing me to later build more in time depending on how much time we have for development. If I had more time to make a menu, I would have constructed a scene that allows me to show more of the environment and give the game a greater feel.
Prototyping:
I constructed a basic block out scene in Unreal for the main menu that I could modify with objects provided by the 3D modellers. Then, by adding default ui elements, I was able to create several menus into which I could incorporate various features for adding more options to the game and allowing the player to choose graphical settings to help it run on their own computer.
To create the options menu, I had to call different buttons to perform different functions within Unreal. For example, for each option I wanted to offer, I needed four separate buttons. I then told the button to do a certain function using blueprints, allowing that button to determine the graphical quality of the game.
I implemented some basic ideas for buttons I could utilise into the game’s main menu and the various sub menus I made off of that. I wanted the buttoins I created to seem like ripped and torn pieces of scrap paper. I was able to make the buttons that I first created look more realistic after further development.
To add more elements to the main menu, I proposed adding a character model viewer that would allow us to select a character and observe that figure in an idle stance. Another team member and I created a button in the extras menu that allows the camera to move between the extras menu camera and the character viewer camera. It was merely a matter of modifying the shown model after building that button, which was accomplished by adding a sim blueprint to the button, which updated the mesh on a preplaced model that was already in that environment.
Initially, when you pressed the character you wanted to select for the first time, you would see a transition when the engine was generating the characters textures, which didn’t look well and wouldn’t look professional for the end output. I countered this by creating a separate platform with all of the characters on it, so that the engin could already have the textures built.
To make the game load faster, we added all of the models created into the main menu, allowing them to all load from the beginning, allowing you to load into the game right away with maybe only a short loading period. People had some feedback on the menu’s user interface after some play testing. Some users thought the UI was nice, although there were some inconsistencies between the text fonts and colours on some of the buttons. I made the decision to alter this to make it more uniform. I also made the start button fade in and out to load you into the game. This was done to make it more professional and to transition into the introductory cutscene. I later added various partical systems to the environment to make it feel less dull and to provide life to it.
Final menu:
references:
Anon, (2012). I would stay on the main menu for long periods of time, just listening to the kick ass jazz. (L.A. Noire). [online] Available at: https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/145gha/i_would_stay_on_the_main_menu_for_long_periods_of/ [Accessed 14/2/2023].
www.youtube.com. (n.d.). 1 Hour of Late Night Driving Doomer Jazz. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4ygVwbOyJU&ab_channel=VlaspattaKaramazov [Accessed 15/2/2023].
sketchfab.com. (n.d.). Cigar – Download Free 3D model by Escoly. [online] Available at: https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/cigar-63a0cc2192284d9c8cfdec0ed630ba03 [Accessed 16 May 2023].