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优秀游戏UI设计师必备技能详解!
优秀游戏UI设计师必备技能详解!
分类：行业资讯 阅读：6888 发布者：安静的橘子
游戏ui师的身价近几年水涨船高，很多人都为此蠢蠢欲动，不过在此之前，还是先了解下这个行业的相关情况吧！这样才有备无患哦！
文/橘子 图/采集自网络
游戏UI是什么？游戏UI设计师需要练吗，听说这和美工差不多？再说了，即使练成了，还不是为他人做嫁衣裳，哪有画游戏场景、角色来得重要和引人注目啊。(;?_?)额……骚年，其实事情是酱紫的，容小编我快快道来——
问题一：游戏UI是什么鬼？
UI，即用户界面设计，游戏UI，自然是和游戏相关的界面设计。过去你玩游戏时，也许关注更多的是唯美的场景、个性的人设或者炫酷的玩法、剧情等等，现在不如再次打开你之前玩的游戏，从进入游戏的登录界面、到操作时的界面、按钮、技能标志，甚至一些游戏道具，其实都属于游戏UI的范畴。可以说，你在玩游戏时的大部分时间都在和UI打交道。它就像你进入虚拟世界的引导者，让你顺利地在里面打小怪兽；反之，如果这个引导者“方向感极差”、性能不佳，那你就别想在游戏里好好玩耍啦！（游戏UI君嘚瑟时间：知道我有多重要了吧，嗯哼！）
问题二：游戏UI的行业情况如何？
而且，你造吗？由于近几年手游行业的迅猛增长，游戏UI师的身价可谓水涨船高，成为了设计圈的高薪新贵、UI设计中的顶级吸金职业。据可靠薪酬数据显示，UI设计工作的年薪为10W~15W，有经验者达20W，资深者更高，而游戏UI设计师又为其中最稀缺资源。
让人感到遗憾的是，虽然当前游戏行业的发展如火如荼，但因为游戏UI在国内起步较晚，人才的成长速度和质量远远不能满足需求。一些企业为了不让到嘴的肉飞了，同质化和抄袭现象也就不可避免了。
不过，这并不意味着你在这个行业可以滥竽充数，在行业的不断洗牌下，下一个阶段的市场必然会对游戏设计者提出更高的要求。所以，尽早修炼这门技能未来才能更好地帮助你在群雄四起的江湖立于不败之地。（游戏UI君：很多技能的精进其实是时间问题，你比别人早一年，只要这期间你不断努力，就始终要比后面的人拉开一年的距离。）
问题三：游戏UI的发展前景如何？
有些童鞋会心存顾虑的是——现在热门的职业，说不定什么时候就成冷门了呢，这样的例子之前也不是没有。等我辛辛苦苦学好，最后却找不到工作，怎么办？
其实，游戏UI是一个多元化发展的职位，主要为管理型和专家型。因为游戏UI师需要了解整个游戏的运转，从初期的策划到中间界面的设计，再到后期的程序实现，都要参与其中。这也为其成为一个公司的管理人员，比如游戏主美，提供了一个很好的前提条件。即便以后你离开了开发一线，也可以当一个老师，将自己的毕生所学传承下去。所以说，游戏UI设计师是一个值得你终身为之奋斗的事业！欧耶~
做了一大推铺垫，终于可以进入正题了——
如何成为一个优秀的游戏UI设计师？
（一）了解游戏及用户需求
前面已经提到过，游戏UI的关键作用就是为了让玩家玩游戏时可以顺畅自如（即良好的用户体验），所以游戏界面的易用性和可用性永远是摆第一位的，设计中的一切都要站在玩家的角度考虑。
但如何才能知道自己设计的界面好不好用、可不可用呢？也许你会说，这个可以通过专业培训啊。这没错，但理论知识和亲身体验总是有差别的。最好的办法是，你自己去玩游戏。只有自己对游戏的整个流程有所体验和感悟，才能更确切地知道用户关注的点在哪里。而且，要尽可能体验各种风格的游戏，了解不同的用户群体，这样能让你将来应对各种游戏的设计时更游刃有余。
蓝铅笔UI课程优势
（二）扎实的设计能力和审美素养
在游戏UI设计中，用户体验好即功能的易用性，无疑是一个被反复强调的关键问题。在这一点的基础上，我们还要考虑游戏设计的审美性，也就是好不好看的问题。因为玩家在玩游戏时，还希望从游戏中获得感官上的享受，因此对视觉和创意的要求就比一般软件用户更挑剔。
蓝铅笔UI课程优势
这些都对游戏UI设计师的设计和美术功底提出了较高的要求。因此，如果你不想被老板烧鱿鱼，就需要具备必要的平面设计能力和手绘能力。其中，平面设计能力包括软件操作能力（如PS、Illustrator、Indesign等软件）、字体设计、色彩运用技能。
这里以色彩运用能力为例。
有设计基础的童鞋都知道，人们对一个设计作品的第一印象往往是通过色彩获得的，色彩与人们的生理及心理反应密切相关。可以说，色彩传达在视觉传达所包含的元素（文字、图形、色彩）中的重要性是占首要位置的。
比如在一些棋牌游戏中，我们一般会以蓝色系或绿色系作为主色调，因为这两种色彩不易引起视觉疲劳。接着我们要确定辅色调和补色调，使画面趋于变化。
在主色调上增加色彩明度和饱和度的变化会增加界面的丰富性和层次感；而补色调则通常运用于一些需要提醒玩家注意的素材上。色彩的运用，可以很好地划分游戏区、控件操作区和游戏信息区，让玩家一目了然。
平面设计能力容易理解，那为什么游戏UI还要具备手绘能力呢？UI不就是画点图标什么的吗？而且那些小玩意分分钟就搞定了。如果你这样想，只能说明你too young too na?ve。下面就听听来自前线游戏UI设计师的真实心声吧——
【案例一】
论游戏UI要画多少东东，请看图：
各种界面是不用说的……
各种图标也是少不了的……
一些玩家也许会一眼扫过的小细节，UI却要为此死掉N个脑细胞，改N版……
【案例二】
“看见人脚下面的那几条裂缝了吗？
那几条你知道吗?那几条裂痕我改了一下午
什么?!你说why?!
因为公司一会要求这边石头多凸出一小块,这边裂痕减少一条.那边裂痕增加一条……
类似这样的要求，在图上不过几像素的东西，我改了一下午……”
请允许小编默默心疼游戏UI设计师两秒钟……看到这里，我想大家一定明白了游戏UI设计师为啥么需要具备扎实的平面设计能力和手绘能力了吧。当然，心理承受能力也得够强大，不然真是受不了这种虐啊。这里也给一些童鞋提个醒：别看一个职业高薪就往里扎，得想清楚自己是否真的热爱这个职业，是否受得了各种虐。
（三）良好的沟通协调能力
大家都知道，一个游戏的制作完成往往需要一个团队的通力配合，这样各个岗位之间就少不了沟通协调。
这里，我们需要先了解下游戏UI的设计流程：
从上图我们可以知道，游戏UI的主要对接人是游戏策划和程序员。如何确定界面的主题？当然不是把自己关在小黑屋里，拍拍脑袋就画出来的。你需要跑到策划那里，弄清楚他设计的游戏究竟是玩什么、给谁玩、怎么玩等一系列问题。由此，你才能确定游戏的风格主题和色彩方案。可别小看这一步，这绝对是决定你之后设计是事半功倍or事倍功半的重要问题。
当你设计好界面后，就是和程序沟通交流的时候了。这期间，你要和他们不断地沟通，按照程序员的要求切图，并且力求使软件内图片的容量达到最小。请相信，和他们保持良好的关系，一定能让你少受几次虐！
达到上面三点要求，就能成为一个优秀的游戏UI设计师了吗？答案当然是：NO！这里只是点明了一个优秀游戏UI师的必备素质，而且做到和做好是有本质区别的，任何技能的精进都需要漫长时间的积累和总结。
祝愿你能成为一个有着匠心的游戏UI设计师！看好你哦，骚年！?(?????)?
《神曲》《极光世界》《中超风云》资深游戏UI设计师坐镇，让你的梦想成为现实！
（点击下图，查看详情）
授课老师：王如花
蓝铅笔高级游戏UI设计主讲；资深游戏UI设计师。
现任互爱互动科技有限公司的游戏UI设计师，具有丰富的工作经验，在游戏UI、原画、美术、模型等领域都有涉足，熟悉游戏UI整个行业的工作流程体系，在教学上能提供最全面的知识体系教育和最贴近实战工作的指导。
实战经验：
曾参与页游《神曲》、端游《极光世界》、《Sushi》消除游戏、三维足球游戏《中超风云》、手游《英灵战记》、三国题材手游SLG等游戏的UI制作，负责《wrath of Olympus》、《英灵战记》、《Coin Blast:Monster Bash》等游戏主美。
老师作品：
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设计绘画类学习阐述游戏UI设计师的定义及职业要求
发布时间： 08:25:58
作者：Caryn Vainio
游戏开发者或许常会遇到他人向你询问如何进入游戏行业的情况，例如“我怎么才能成为游戏设计师？”或者“我有许多游戏想法，我该怎么找到可以让这些理念获得认可的工作？”这些问题都没有明确指向一些特定职位，比如程序员或美术人员。多数人认为像我这样在游戏行业工作的人都没有什么定义明确的头衔，在他们看来，我的工作内容大概就是“成天玩游戏”。
但偶尔也会有一些熟人问到与我的游戏用户界面设计师这一职位、资质和入行渠道相关的情况，并询问“我怎样才能成为游戏UI设计师？”我想是时候解答一下这个问题了。
game UI(from zacharyknoles)
游戏用户界面（以下简称UI）设计并不是那么光鲜的工作，它只不过是游戏制作机器中的一个不那么显眼的齿轮，这和程序员、美术人员和游戏设计师并不一样——这也正是为何我会惊讶于有人特意向我请教这一问题的原因。但我很乐见这一情况，因为越多合格的求职者进入游戏UI领域，就意味着我们今后将看到越出色的游戏界面。至于UI设计师的市场需求，我可以明白告诉你，每隔两个月都有一些大型公司向我伸出橄榄枝，或者请我帮忙推荐合适的人选。我自己暂时还没有求职的打算，因为我很满意在Uber Entertainment的工作情况，但如果你有意进入这一行，倒可以留意下本系列文章，我将在此探讨成为游戏UI设计师的相关话题：
*游戏UI设计包括哪些内容？
*进入游戏UI设计领域的要求和条件
*工作类型：UI设计师、UI美术人员，以及混合型设计师
*与游戏设计相关的学校和课程
*“前辈传授的经验”
UI设计师的工作就是让玩家的输入行为与游戏世界中的操作保持一致，也可以是玩家从游戏中获取反馈的方式之一。人们最常见的游戏界面就是HUD，这是玩家在多数游戏中所看到的信息覆盖层，它会频繁显示健康值、武器弹药、玩家当前使用的武器等信息。
游戏UI还包括前端菜单，例如选择屏幕、服务器浏览器，以及除真正玩法之外的相关屏幕。
有多个路径可以让你进入游戏UI设计领域，以下只选择其中较为典型的几项进行讨论：
*网页/应用UI开发者：这类人已经拥有UI其他领域的设计背景。毕竟优秀UI设计的原理都是相通的，无论你是针对哪类产品设计UI。网页或应用UI开发者需要将自己的之前掌握的设计技能转化并运用到游戏领域。设计游戏UI与网页开发或应用UI设计运用的是同一套技能和原理：即让UI通俗易懂并且易用。网页和应用设计师所需掌握的额外技能则是，在一个持续变化的环境中传达游戏设计信息，并以容易理解，便于传递信息，无障碍的方式呈现通常很复杂的游戏设计机制。
*拥有平面设计学历的人：目前还没有什么学校提供游戏UI设计学位，但已有不少学校推出了平面设计学位。如果你是刚毕业并且有意进入游戏行业的新人，那么这可能就是最合适的学位之一。许多UI设计都有平面设计技能要求，所以如果你主修的是这门课程，那么你更有望在此站稳脚跟。如果你属于这类人才，你的下一步就是将平面设计技能运用于游戏UI设计，并自学相关的技能和工具。
*自学者：如果你即非网站开发者，应用UI设计师，也没有平面设计学位呢？你还是有可能成为游戏UI设计师，这一点我可以证明。但你得比其他人更用功。你可能自己做一此设计工作，有许多职业平面设计师都是自学成才的。你得积累足够的设计案例，向雇主证明你拥有可靠的设计经验。
每家游戏开发公司都有自己一套UI制作流程，因此这里并不存在成为游戏UI设计师的固定模版。有些公司拥有一整个处理UI的团队——例如BioWare游戏《Mass Effect》的职员列表中就有好几个UI设计师的名字。而有些公司的UI设计几乎不需要任何一名全职UI设计师，而是直接将UI工作外包给其他人，或者是让一名美术人员和程序员搭伙组成一个UI团队。也有其他公司的UI设计师可能身兼数职，可能要为公司所有游戏而非特定项目设计UI，并且还可能要负责公司营销宣传材料的平面设计和用户体验设计。
但多数公司都需要一些全职的UI设计师或美术人员，以下讨论的是三种主要的游戏UI开发者类型：
*UI美术人员：这是负责UI视觉效果和美术风格的开发者。他们可能不会参与更广泛层面的UI设计（游戏邦注：例如，总体流程、用户体验，以及UI与游戏设计理念的结合方式）。UI美术人员通常都有很强的美术或平面设计水技能，一般也不需要拥有编程技能。一家公司拥有一名UI美术人员时，关于UI的技术性问题则通常由程序员或者技术美术人员来处理，而游戏设计师则多半负责跟进UI流程及其与游戏设计兼容性的问题。在某些团队中，UI美术人员常与UI设计师做搭档，前者制作UI美术内容，后者负责创建地图和IU流程。在RPG这类对美术要求甚高的游戏中，UI美术人员的美术功底至关重要。
UI设计师：这通常是游戏UI设计中的高级角色，他们并非单纯地制作美术模型和UI美术资产，而是绘制标注UI流程及其与核心游戏设计相关的示意图。UI设计师很可能制作初步可行的UI屏幕和转场模型，但最终的美术设计工作还是会交给UI美术设计师。在某些团队中，游戏设计师要扮演UI设计师的角色。有些公司则会让用户体验（UX）设计师兼任UI设计师。根据项目技术框架的情况，UI设计师可能不需要掌握真正的编程技能，而是制作流程图，交由编程团队将其转变为可行的UI。而略懂编程的UI设计师，甚至能够制作出可投入测试的UI粗略模型。
混合型设计师：正如你所猜测，这就是美术师和设计师的混合体。混合型设计师应同时扮演两种角色，首先他们得会自己创建草图，流程图，制作大规模的UI地图和流程原型。然后他们还得创建可用于测试的UI屏幕（因为有些游戏理念需要UI元素才能实现功能，即使这些元素还只是个草拟样本）。最后，混合型UI设计师还得与美术主管合作敲定最终的UI美术风格，创建粗略的美术资产，让UI外观和风格成型。在多数情况下，混合型设计师需要兼具美术和技术能力，但并不需要同时是这两个方面的专家，只需要能够让多数UI内容成型，并让美术人员和程序员完成最终版本的UI内容，并为其润色即可。
这些角色描述还只是多数游戏公司UI职位的大概内容，具体要视不同公司及项目的情况而定。假如XYZ公司的首款游戏是一个极简单的射击游戏，第二款游戏却是个大型MMORPG，那么他们这两个项目对UI人员的要求也会截然不同。总体来说，混合型UI设计师拥有最多变的技能，并且更能够在不同项目的UI需求之间游刃有余。
创建游戏UI有多种不同工具可供选择，而掌握这些工具又是成为游戏UI设计师的关键。现在让我们列举一些UI设计新人需要熟悉的工具：
*Adobe Photoshop,Illustrator以及Flash/Actionscript：UI设计师可以使用Adobe Creative Suite所能实现的任何应用程序，但这些是多数UI设计工作最常用的工具。Photoshop可用于创建从完整的UI模块到用于UI屏幕的个体资产等一切UI内容。Illustrator是一项运用较不普遍的游戏UI开发工具，但我个人认为用它制作明晰的流程图以及图标（我喜欢用基于矢量的工具制作图标集合，然后导入Photoshop创建运用到游戏中所需的实际纹理）。
Flash的实用性表现在两个方面。首先，设计师可快速创建初步可行的UI流程和交互原型，而无需创建实际可运行的UI内容（在某些团队中这需要程序员的帮助）。如果你有大量含有复杂交互系统的UI，并且不确定它们是否满足设计师的需求时，你就可以用Flash快速模拟出完整的交互流程，让团队中的成员进行测试并提供反馈。Actionscript是Flash的脚本组件，通常也是实现复杂交互性的必要元素。
autodesk_scaleform(from uraldev.ru)
其次，Flash和Actionscript结合起来就是Scaleform（游戏邦注：这是在游戏中运用越来越普遍的UI系统）的开发环境。用Flash为使用Scaleform开发的游戏制作UI，便于直接将完善的Flash模型运用于游戏，这更节省时间。
纸和笔：画出你的UI流程和屏幕概念是最快捷的UI迭代方法。可能有许多人会问你使用什么工具画流程图，并且抛出了好多种答案，我的看法就是如果你还想学习相关绘图工具，并且认为这可以让你开发UI的时候更为省事，那你就去学吧。只是我认为用纸和笔才是最快呈现想法并进行迭代的途径。优秀的UI设计师通常能够在讨论过程中直接在白板上画出思路清晰的草图。
用iPad等平板电脑绘制UI草图则是另一种可行方法，可以使用Sketchbook Pro、Paper等绘图程序实现。这些应用通常与Dropbox、Evernote或分享服务等工具结合使用，可让你快速便捷地向团队成员发送UI理念。
游戏SDK：如果你的游戏项目并未使用Scaleform等工具，而是采用专属的UI系统，那你至少得掌握这个系统的基本理念，以便保证UI在游戏中顺利运行。甚少游戏及科技公司会选择创建自己的UI系统，而是选择包括Scaleform在内的专用系统。但有些采用可下载SDK的小型游戏项目，却有可能采用自己的UI系统。这些SDK支持你深入挖掘包括UI在内的游戏实际框架，它会给予用户开发者所使用的相同内容及工具，允许你根据自己的意愿修改游戏。
有些游戏允许你调整UI，更换默认的UI皮肤。例如暴雪的《魔兽世界》就允许你使用Lua脚本系统实现这一做法。如果你正面向iPhone这类设备制作手机游戏，那就要熟悉掌握XCode这个面向iOS平台的可下载开发环境。
游戏邦注：原文发表于2012年4月，所涉事件及数据以当时为准。（本文为游戏邦/编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）
The Path to Game UI Design, Part 1: Character Sheets
When you’re a game developer and someone asks you how to get into the game industry — which happens about twice a week — they almost always mean, “How do I become a game designer?” or, “I have lots of ideas for games. How do I get a job where I can get paid for my game ideas?” (Hint: you can’t, but that’s another article for another time.) The question is almost never framed in the context of a specific position within the game industry, like a programmer or an artist. Most people tend to think of people like me who work in the game industry as having some kind of in their minds the job description on my business card reads, “plays games all day” .
But once in a while I get asked specifically about my job as a user interface designer for games, my qualifications, and how I got here. Every few months I’m asked the question, “how can I –” (or my friend, or my cousin) “– become a game UI designer?” And I realized recently that it’s time I laid out the answer in something I can pull up easily the next time the question comes up.
User interface design for games isn’t glorious — it’s one of the less visible cogs in the machinery of making games, unlike programmers, artists, and game designers — and this is one reason why I’m often surprised I get the question at all. But I’m always happy to get it, because the more qualified people there are going into game UI the better game interfaces will get over time. And if there’s any question about the demand for UI designers, I can tell you that every couple of months I’m asked by some of the bigger companies in the industry if I’m interested in a position with them or know someone who’s qualified. I’m not looking, since I’m happy where I am (Uber Entertainment, of course), but if the demand is still high by the time you’re reading this and you’re interested in this path into the game industry, it’s a good time to be you. We’ll spend the next few days talking about these topics in becoming a game UI designer:
- What Encompasses Game UI Design?
- Who is Qualified? A look at the different paths into game UI design
- Types of Jobs: The UI Designer, the UI Artist, and the Hybrid
- The Tools
- Getting Experience
- About Game Design Schools and Programs
- “How Did YOU Do It?”
- Further Resources
What Encompasses Game User Interface Design?
A user interface designer’s work is the glue that binds the player’s input to actio it can also be one of the ways that a player receives feedback from the game. The most common interface that people recognize in games is the Heads Up Display, or HUD. This is the overlay of information that a player sees in most games, and it frequently displays information such as health, ammo for weapons, what weapon is currently in use, and more.
Game UI also encompasses front end menus, such as options screens, server browsers, and other similar screens outside of the actual gameplay.
Who Is Qualified?
The path into game UI design can be approached from many angles. Let’s discuss a few of them, going from most experienced to least.
The Web/App UI Developer: This person already has a background in UI design in another field. Since the principles of good UI design are the same no matter what you’re designing UI for, such a developer is already halfway there. The web or application UI developer will need to translate his or her knowledge and skills into the world of games. Designing game UI uses the same set of skills and principles as web development and design or application UI design does: the UI needs to be communicative and easy to use. The additional skills the web or app developer will need to acquire are the ability to communicate game design information in an environment that is constantly changing and learning how to present what can frequently be complex game design mechanics in a way that is understandable, informative, and barrier-free. Later on we’ll cover ways to practice these skills.
The Graphic Design Degree Holder: There aren’t any colleges that offer a degree in game UI design, but there are plenty that offer degrees in graphic design. This is one of the most applicable degrees you can have if you’re fresh out of college and want to work in games. Much of UI design requires graphic design skills, so if your education was focused on this, you’ve already got a foot near the door. If you fall into this category, your next steps should be to work on applying your graphic design skills to game UI and to educate yourself on the tech and tools involved.
The Self-Starter: What if you’re not a web developer, app UI developer, or even someone with a degree in design? It’s still possible to become a game UI designer — I’m evidence of that. But you’ve got more work ahead of you than anyone else. You’re probably doing design work on the side (or you should be), and plenty of working graphic designers are self-taught. Making sure you have plenty of work under your belt to show that you’ve got design chops is going to be the biggest task on your list.
The Path to Game UI Design, Part II: The Roles
Yesterday we looked at what types of backgrounds might be applicable to game UI design. Today we’ll talk about the three main roles that the UI designer or artist might play in the game industry.
Types of Jobs: The UI Designer, the UI Artist, and the Hybrid
Every game development company has their own process for developing UI and there isn’t one specific template you can try to fit into to become a game UI designer. Some companies have entire teams to handle their UI — BioWare’s credits list several UI designers for Mass Effect, a game with obviously huge UI requirements. Other companies have such minimal UI that they may not even employ a full-time UI artist, instead choosing to contract their UI work out or to pull an artist and a programmer together to make a UI team. And other companies may have UI designers that serve as a kind of service provider for the whole company, providing UI design services for all the games the company is working on rather than being attached to one specific project, and possibly additional services such as graphic design and user experience design for marketing and promotional materials.
But most companies need some kind of full-time UI let’s take a look at the three main types of game UI developers.
The UI Artist: The UI Artist is someone whose focus is almost entirely on the look and art style of the UI. He or she may have little to no involvement in the bigger picture of the UI — the overall flow, the user experience, or how the UI integrates with the game’s design concepts. The UI Artist usually has very strong art or graphic design skills and is usually not expected to have any technical skills in scripting or coding. When a company has a UI artist on board, the more technical aspects of the UI are usually handled by a programmer or other technical artist, while a game designer tends to the flow of the UI and its integration with the game design. On some teams the UI Artist is paired with a UI Designer, who creates the map and flow of the UI while the artist creates the look and feel. The UI Artist with strong art skills is essential for art-heavy UI in games like RPGs.
The UI Designer: The UI Designer typically has a more top-level role in the design of a game’s UI. Rather than creating art mock ups and UI art assets, he or she usually creates sketches and wireframes that map out the flow of the UI and how it will integrate with the core game design. The UI Designer will likely produce rough working prototypes of UI screens and transitions, but he or she will probably leave the final aesthetic design up to the UI Artist or the art lead. On some teams the role of UI Designer is played by a game designer. Some game companies look for UX (User Experience) Designers to handle the role of both the UI designer and the user experience designer. Depending on the tech structure of the project, the UI Designer may not need to do any actual scripting or programming, and instead may create sketches and wireframes that a programming team will turn into working UI. A UI Designer that can do basic scripting or coding, however, is likely able to work without depending on others to get rough prototypes of UI into the game for testing.
The Hybrid: The Hybrid is, as you guessed, a combination of both The Artist and the Designer. The Hybrid UI Designer needs to function in both roles. First he or she will create rough sketches, wireframes, and working prototypes of large-scale UI maps and flow. Next he or she will create rough working UI screens in the game for testing and work purposes (since some game concepts require UI elements to fully function, even if those elements are roughed in). And finally, The Hybrid UI Designer will work with the art lead to determine the final aesthetic style of the UI and create the raw art assets needed to complete the UI’s look and feel. In most cases the Hybrid UI Designer will have both art skills and technical skills but may not be an expert in either area, instead being a switch-hitter who can take the UI most of the way to completion and then allow artists and programmers on the team to bring the UI to its final completion and polish.
These role descriptions are only a rough guideline on the types of UI positions most game companies might employ, and the specifics will vary from company to company and even from project to project within a company. If Company XYZ’s first game is a bare-bones shooter and their second game is a large MMO (massive multiplayer online) RPG, the type of UI person they’ll need is going to be very different between the two projects. In all cases, The Hybrid UI Designer has the most varied skill set and will likely be the most successful at being able to easily move from project to project despite widely changing UI needs.
The Path to Game UI Design, Part III: The Tools
Yesterday we talked about the different hats that UI designers and artists
today, let’s discuss the tools that they use.
There’s a wide variety of tools used in creating game UI, and experience with those tools is going to be critical to becoming a game UI designer. Let’s look at the tools that every budding UI designer should be familiar with.
Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and Flash/Actionscript: A UI designer can use any set of applications that do what the Adobe Creative Suite does, but this is the most common set of tools for the bulk of UI design tasks. Photoshop is used to create everything from full UI mock ups to the raw individual assets used within UI screens. Illustrator is less commonly used as a game UI development tool, but I personally find it useful for creating clean wireframes (more on that in a moment), and for icon work (I prefer creating suites of icons in a vector-based tool and then taking them into Photoshop to create the actual textures used in the game).
Flash is useful for two reasons. First, a designer can create quick and dirty working prototypes of UI flow and interaction without needing to create and run UI in the game (which, on some teams, might need the help of a programmer). If you have a chunk of UI that has a set of fairly complex interactions and you’re not sure if it meets the design needs of the game designer, you can mock up the full interaction in Flash very quickly and have anyone on the team test it and provide feedback. Actionscript is the scripting component of Flash and is often necessary for more complex interactions.
Secondly, Flash and Actionscript together are a development environment for Scaleform, the UI system that is becoming more and more common in games. Developing UI in Flash for games that use Scaleform will allow you to be able to take well-developed Flash mock ups directly into the game, saving time.
Pen and paper: Sketching out your UI flows and screen concepts with pen and paper is the quickest way to iterate on UI. While many people will ask you what wireframing tool you use — and you’ll hear a lot thrown around — I’ll editorialize a bit and say that if you want to learn to use a wireframing tool and it makes your UI development easier, by all means use it. But I’ve found pen and paper to be the absolute fastest way of getting ideas out and iterated on. Learn the various wireframing tools if you can work quickly and easily in them, but it’s a valuable UI designer who can do clear, informative sketches on a whiteboard during discussions.
Sketching UI with tablets like the iPad is another possibility, and can be done with sketch programs such as Sketchbook Pro, Paper, and more. These apps often integrate with tools such as Dropbox, Evernote, or sharing services, which let you quickly and easily send your UI concepts to team members without having to scan them.
Game SDKs: If your game project doesn’t use a tool like Scaleform and instead has a proprietary UI system, you’ll need to at least learn the basics of that system in order to get UI up and running in the game. Fewer game and tech companies are opting to build their own UI systems and are instead moving to include systems like Scaleform. Some smaller games with downloadable SDKs (Software Development Kit), however, may have their own UI systems. These SDKs allow you to dig into the actual construction of the game, and possibly its UI, by giving you all the same content and tools that the game creators used and letting you make whatever changes you’d like to make it your own. Some games allow you to play with just the UI, essentially reskinning the default UI — Blizzard’s World of Warcraft allows you to do this by using the Lua scripting system. And if you’re looking to work on mobile games for devices like the iPhone, you’ll want to get yourself familiar with XCode, the freely-downloadable development environment for iOS.（source：、、）
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