RLTM3 & RUTM3 UI Design

I was part of the three man team creating the third and latest instalments of the RLTM/RUTM titles at Alternative Software. Having responsibility for creating all the UI Designs, 2D Art, UI Animations, UI Programming and Game Design. The entire project (including both games) took around 12 months. This was done part-time whilst studying at University. My main focus included doing all the UI dev/design work, creating components in engine, building the scenes for the entire menu structure from scratch, from Front End to in-game menus and HUDs, re-design a lot of the games underlying structure to help make things more engaging and real for the player and improve the general user flow. Being such a small team meant that we had to make some difficult decisions with regards to what could be done in the short time frame. Not to mention how many iterations we could afford to have. There are definitely many aspects of the game that can be improved upon, both mechanically and with regards to visual design. But we did the best we could with the time we had. The resulting game managed to excite the community by giving bringing the franchise more in line with current/expected design trends. My main goal during the initial stages of the project was to give more life to the interactions. Allowing animations and better screen layouts to give new players and returning veterans a more pleasurable and approachable experience. The project allowed me to develop a deeper understanding for the importance of UI/UX within games and the development process as a whole. It was the first released project that I had been involved with from start to finish. Being such a heavy project given the timeframe and my limited availability whilst studying has allowed me to be efficient and fast with my work. This makes it much easier for me to iterate quickly and find the best solution to a problem without wasting too much development time.