Tutorial and UI Flow

At this point in the design process we have our game mechanics pretty much figured out and everything is falling into place. The next step is figuring out what goes on outside of the main game, by which I mean we need to plan out the menu system the players will interact with. Having an amazing game is one thing, but if the player struggles to get into it then the experience of the game will be damaged.

Upon starting the game, the player will be shown the splash screen and then taken to the main menu screen. Here they’ll have 3 buttons they can press: play game, options and quit game. Clicking play game will first play the optional tutorial video, then take the players into the game. Upon finishing, the win screen is displayed and players can choose whether or not to go again. If they press yes the game restarts else, if no, both players are returned to the main menu.

The options menu gives players a choice of another 3 buttons: audio, video and controls. The audio option allows players to adjust the overall volume and the SFX volume. Video lets players adjust the brightness and resolution to suit their needs. Finally, controls can be configured to meet the players needs/preferences.

Quit game brings up a yes or no option. Clicking yes exits the application, no returns them to the main menu. 

UI flow diagram

Something I was debating about whether to add to the menu or not was a tutorial. I was considering a small section where players could read up about what to do and how everything plays out, but felt something visual was more interesting. My new plan was to play a small ‘cut scene’ at the beginning of the game for players to watch and learn from. Both players can opt to skip it if they already know what they’re doing because being forced to watch a tutorial you already know is very boring.

It starts off with the main camera panning around the town then zooming in on targets and explaining the controls and to shoot as many targets as possible in the time remaining. The camera then pans over to the power ups and briefly explains each one before cutting the screen to black and starting the game.