Immersion. Lots of developers are after it and from time to time one come and announce that to have a really immersive game you have to remove the interface of the game. To have an immersive book, do you remove the page number in your book or do you just write a good story?
I illustrate this post with screenshots from two games without HUDs, one do it right, the other wrong.
The getaway try to hide the information in the game world; there is no map but the turn signal of your car show you were to turn, no health bar but bloody clothes. The producer probably didn’t explain how immerive is it to have a character that regenerate himself by not walking during 10 seconds.
No one will be surprise that ICO do it right; there is no health bar because there is no health, no map because you don’t need it and no ammo counter because .. well you get it. If a developer want a game without HUD, it should simply do a game that don’t need these information. Trying to merge too much the information into the world is simply creating unreadable and unreliable information.
There is nothing wrong to not have a HUD, but it shouldn’t be a goal at all cost. A HUD is useful, it brings clear and readable information to the player; information that he probably needs.
Nic Magnier. Previously game developer on several unreleased video games. Ironically I work now at Nintendo of Europe to help developers to release their own titles.
April 28th, 2008 at 7:50 pm
hum…
well, i must say it’s an interesting point.
I guess Assassin’s creed is the right way for me to do it. Havin an UI for everyone to learn, with the possibility in the menus to remove what you want from your screen.
I played with no UI at all the all game, i loved it.
April 29th, 2008 at 9:15 am
Well in fact I wish more game could remove the UI but it’s quite a challenge.
Discussing about HUD can be quite long if you go in details. The post is simplified on purpose.
Basicaly HUD just give feedback to the player on the game status. If you want to put the information into the game you need to give the same feedback even more efficiently.
For Assissin’s Creed I don’t think I could be shipped without HUD but the game give some feedback for crucial information (screen deformation when the health is low for example) so it’s still possible to play with comfort.
One game I want to test on this subject is King Kong, I just bought it to see how Ubi Montpellier handle this problem.
April 29th, 2008 at 5:04 pm
you should also try the demo of siren on ps3. The only informations you have are vibrations on the controller that indicates a danger or challenge, audio clues, and a change of the color tone.