Off with their Huds (video game huds that is)
February 15, 2006 | Video Games
An interesting article about in game interfaces and how they’re slowly dieing out.
First, it’s important to answer the question, “What is a HUD?†A HUD is simply a collection of persistent on screen elements whose purpose is to indicate player status. HUD elements can be used to show, among many other things, how much health the player has, in which direction the player is heading, or where the player ranks in a race. This makes the HUD an invaluable method of conveying information to the player during a game. It is an accepted shorthand, a direct pipeline from the developer to the end-user. So what would make console developers suddenly rethink the necessity of such a seemingly essential and time-honored technique as the HUD?
I’m a massive advocate of keeping in games interfaces, generally referred to as hud’s (heads up display), to a minimum. Even removing them if possible. I think they get in the way of the gameplay - anything that reduces your field of view is bad - and integrating traditional hud information (ammunition and health) into the game can be fairly simple, so why not do it?
The best, most recent, example is King Kong. That game totally removed all interface elements from the actual gameplay, giving you other visual and auditory clues as to your situation. If you want to check your ammunition you press a key and the player will look at the gun and then tell you “you have enough ammo”, or “you’re down to your last two rounds”. For me this increases the immersion improving the believability of the situation.
My Games
In Rocket Boards I tried to keep the hud to a minimum, but racing games almost require you to have some sort of method for showing in game information. Maybe it would have been cool if, instead of having something visual telling you what lap you were on, you had a member of your pit crew telling you your position, and what the other racers are doing. The problem with purely audio messaging is that it doesn’t work for people who don’t have/ don’t use speakers, and is even worse for people who are deaf.
The other games (Bubble Blitz, Seths Puzzle Boxes, and Bubble Bomb) don’t really count. Score based games require at least a small amount of interface display, and since they’re not trying to represent any sort of reality the immersion is unnecessary.
The future
With my next game, like Rocket Boards before, the hud will be kept to a minimum. I haven’t spent much time thinking about it, but it’s likely there will just be a gun indicator, a health bar, and on certain game modes, a score. Thinking about it now though I wonder whether I can add the gun indicator and health into the actual game…
In commercial games I am thinking that, at least for the more realistic games, the huds will continue to get smaller - or even disappear entirely.
ExGen
Bubble Bomb
Gun Wing
Bubble Blitz
Comments »
February 16, 2006
At times the HUD can get in the way or even be distracting, but on a whole I like the fact that it is there and I am able to see ammo, health and even navigation status. I haven’t played King Kong so I guess I can’t really say how I feel about not having the HUD at all.
I’d definitely be interested in seeing how you deal with the HUD in your new game.
February 16, 2006
It seems reasonable not to have a HUD, but of course, you couldn’t get away with something this big without having tons of complaints.
February 16, 2006
Yannick - In King Kong, you do have the option to turn the Hud on if you want it, but I found it more atmospheric without.
ICO is another game that doesn’t have any interface. The only statistic you need to take notice of is health, and I think (but don’t actually remember) that if you get hurt a health bar flashes up. Basically the hud is only there when it’s needed.
Steven - If the game is designed well I don’t see why there should be any complaints at all. It’s certainly not an easy thing to do, and there will always be games that require a proper interface but I think they should always be kept to a minimum.
February 17, 2006
Ben: Oh okay cool. The health bar flashing up sounds like it would work pretty well.
February 25, 2006
By the way, you need to update your footer (still says 2000 to 2005). Just by the way.
I think the lack of HUD’s in games makes it more realistic. If you were, say, in an FPS, you wouldn’t know the exact ammo count in your gun while you’re in the middle of a firefight.
February 25, 2006
I have updated the copyrite before - I changed somethings the other day and guess I must have uploaded over the old one. Thanks for pointing it out.
February 28, 2006
I know this is slightly irrelevant, but this is is… GORGEOUS. Especially these textboxes I like. Well done Benmaestro.
February 28, 2006
Why thank you Niclas. That’s very nice of you to say
August 10, 2006
there is no doubt but is better to set free of a 2d interface where the task is to interact with 3d virtual environment elements, be characters or things in the scenario, simulating and improving the easy instinctive interaction of the real world.
the ideal to attend all the users is to have a control input that hide/show the HUD. If you need, you show it. If not, just let it hidden. When you already know the streets of a virtual city (san andreas) for example the map can be useless for some moments. Advanced users may not need the HUD too.
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