game design 2 (2013): lecture 8 - layering and separation for game communication
DESCRIPTION
We look at how to layer information and separate it through techniques like weight and colour.TRANSCRIPT
Notes...
• Coursework online!
• Tutorial feedback
• Read Tufte’s book chapters! I have a copy that I can bring to tuts -& there are copies in library.
Reading
• Tufte pages 53 - 66
• http://bit.ly/l4dlight (Left 4 Dead use of light)
• http://bit.ly/worldofgootour (video)
Flatland
• Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions
• 1884 Novel by Edwin A. Abbott
• Contemplates how world would look to lesser and greater dimensions
Triangle in 2D
Triangle in 1D
Sphere in 1D
3D represented in 2D
Data Visualisation
• Life is navigated in 3D
• Mathematics can portray xD
• All(most all) of our displays are 2D
• How do we map data to 2D?
• One technique is layering and separation
“Escaping this flatland is the essential task of envisioning information”
Tufte, Envisioning Information, Page 13
Information
• simple or complicated
• detailed or sparse
• analogue or digital
• NEVER confusing or cluttered
Design
• understandable or confusing
• clear or cluttered
• the point of design is to reveal detail and complexity
• the data is never at fault
• the user is never at fault
What are the layers here?
Colour defines the relationship
! "An undifferentiated, unlayered surface results jumbled up, blurry, incorherent, chaotic with unintentional optical art. What we have here is a failure to communicate” - Tufte p58
Negative Space
1 + 1 = 3
Harmonising Elements• Careful layout diminishes 1 + 1 = 3 clutter
• Avoid ‘active negative space’
• Words have fewer descenders than ascenders (so safer to put above a line)
• Curved text is hard to read
Box Plots
Subtle Differences
• All differences mean something
Games Examples
• Games use layering & separation to communicate with player.
• HUD is layered on top of game world
• Games like Half Life 2 & Shadow of the Colossus foreshadow future events through use of background layers (even though we don’t use the phrase “layers” in this way often)
Madden 10
Championship Manager
Left 4 Dead
World of Goo