Project V

(2023)

Designed the HUD and other UI elements for a beat ‘em up indie game made in Unity, where a trio of vampires go on an action-packed roadtrip across America. This included wireframes, initial style + material mockups, custom name tags for dialogue sections, and motion graphics for HUD assets, all created using Photoshop and/or After Effects:

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The HUD had four key elements, each positioned in a different corner of the screen. This included three sets of Health Bars for each of the playable characters, a Score Multiplier with a letter grade to indicate the player’s score bonus, a special Power-Move Meter comprised of multiple stickers layered on one another, and a Currency Counter for showing how much money the player gains and loses thoughout their playthrough. Each of these assets would have fully animated reactions based on the player’s input and interactions.

The Health Bars are comprised of three revolving profile capsules to represent each of the playable characters’ health in and out of combat. The following animations were two mockups to showcase how motion would be presented when quickly switching between the characters as part of the main gameplay.

Obtaining a high score at the end of each level requires consistently racking up lots of points, as represented through the “Style Meter”, or Score Multiplier. Each letter scales up in a grading system starting from D to A, and then further expanding into special bonus grades going from S to V. This animation portrays the transition from grade A to S, which would not only reset the meter, but also trigger a unique animation for each state (in this case, flames emerging from the skull’s eye sockets).

Expanding upon the look of the other animations, an animated style test was implemented for the Currency Counter, making it appear like a sticker with thick white outlines and halftone textures. The idea behind the animation involved having a very “reactive” look and feel for whenever money would be added or removed from the piggy bank, complete with two different facial expressions, added effects, along with size changes to add extra emphasis. As for the text itself, a strip of opaque white tape was added over the sticker in order to keep it readable for the player.

A set of spice level stickers would represent the current level for the player’s Power-Move Meter, which would allow for special moves and combos to be used in combat. Whenever a segment of the meter would fill up, a sticker would be added over that segment of the bar. Whenever the player would activate the move, the sticker would immediately be torn off, resetting the build up.

Finally for dialogue sections, a set of unique Name Tags were designed for each character as to represent their unique personalities. The “Hello my name is” name tag in particular acted as a standard placeholder to represent generic characters, while still allowing for different names to be written on it in varying handwriting styles.