A Look Through 14 Beautiful Video Game HUD Designs

A Look Through 14 Beautiful Video Game HUD Designs

by Nathan Noom

In video gaming, the HUD (head-up display) is the method by which information is visually relayed to the player as part of a game's user interface. It takes its name from the head-up displays used in modern aircrafts.

As years have gone by, consoles have come and gone, games have gotten more advanced and so have the HUD designs. Designers have learned a lot about how to simultaneously display several pieces of information including the character's health, items, and an indication of game progression (such as score or level) in better and much simpler ways. Presented here are several examples of games that have gotten it right.
Join the discussion. Do you have a favorite video game HUD? Leave a comment and let us know!

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Dead Space

The Dead Space HUD follows your character, never getting in the way and never causing you to pause the action. Everything is displayed through it, maps, tutorials, inventory, etc. Health and “Air” are displayed directly on your outfit.

Official Site: http://deadspace.ea.com
Publisher: EA Games
System(s): All Next-Gen, PC

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

This has to be by far one of the best HUD designs around at the moment. Thin monocromatic lines outlining everything you need for maximum kill streaks. Simply perfect!

Official Site: http://modernwarfare2.infinityward.com
Publisher: Infinity Ward
System(s): All Next-Gen, PC

Metroid Prime Series

Seeing as the suit that Samus wears is all one unit, gun and all, logic would tell you that there would be one centralized location for all of your statuses. Thus they implemented everything into the helmet.

Official Site: http://www.metroid.com
Publisher: Nintendo
System(s): Nintendo Wii

God of War

A very simple HUD. Basically, it remains hidden during normal play and only comes up when necessary (i.e. When you take damage/Boss fights)

Official Site: http://www.godofwar.com
Publisher: Sony CEA
System(s): Playstation 2 & 3

Fallout 3

On Fallout 3 you have two different HUD’s. Your main HUD comes in the form of your P.I.P. Boy wrist device. Your stats, items and detailed status information are all displayed there. The other HUD is what comes up when you are in combat, shooting from the hip, or using VATS. It displays the different body part options for you to shoot, along with your % chance of hitting that part, as well as the enemies health, your AP (amount of moves) and your health.

Official Site: http://fallout.bethsoft.com
Publisher: Bethesda
System(s): All Next-Gen, PC

Star Wars: Republic Commando

Much like Metroid Prime, Star Wars: Republic Commando puts you directly within the helmet of a Storm Trooper, Clone Trooper or all sorts of other “Troopers.” Ammunition and clips are displayed directly on the gun as well as your current grenade, health, items, etc. are shown directly on the helmet. Genius!

Official Site: http://www.lucasarts.com
Publisher: Lucasarts
System(s): Xbox, PC

Grand Theft Auto IV

When you’re running around NYC causing mass chaos, you need to be able to quickly and easily know everything about your character. The map is easy to read and in my opinion one of the best I’ve seen. Again, keep it simple. Your health and armor bars are wrapped around the map as a sort of border to save space. Ammo and wanted level are displayed small but clearly in the top right corner.

Official Site: http://www.rockstargames.com/grandtheftauto
Publisher: Rockstar Games
System(s): All Next-Gen, PC

Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

Just because it’s an epic game with a lot going on, doesn’t mean you have to tell us every single little detail. Bethesda understands this, very well. They kept it plain and simple with no fancy graphics getting in the way. They want you to really absorb this epic landscape. 3 status bars stacked on top of each other in the corner. Health, magic and fatigue. Followed by your weapon (pretty much weapon type) and a small colored dot to indicate which effect is currently on it. Next comes your selected spell. As simple as that. Last but not least, a small compass with small icon indicators to show you if you’re headed in the direction of anything specific. Simply great.

Official Site: http://www.elderscrolls.com
Publisher: Bethesda
System(s): All Next-Gen, PC

The Sims 3

Maxis has always done a good job with HUD designs and The Sims 3 is no exception (although EA bought them out…). Basically it is 3 content panes you can pop open or closed by clicking the small arrows that join them. You can choose to build, remodel or play your sim from the far left panel, view your aspirations in the next, status effects in the next, and everything else in the final panel which is tabbed at the top. There’s so much you need to know to raise your little “human” and Maxis has arranged it all perfectly.

Official Site: http://www.thesims3.com/
Publisher: EA Games
System(s): PC

Resident Evil (Series)

What’s the best part about the Resident Evil HUD? There isn’t one. Or, at least there wasn’t until part 5… Instead, your character himself will show you how much health remains. Once caution is reached your character will begin to slightly limp, reach danger and your character is practically dragging himself across the screen.
Resident Evil 5 was a two-person game (one or two players) and they decided to add your ammo information to the bottom right. Sure, of course that’s helpful. Nobody really enjoys having to pause to see the ammo, but it did have more of a “Survival Horror” feel when you didn’t always have that information readily available. To each his own.

Official Site: http://www.residentevil.com
Publisher: Capcom
System(s): All Consoles, PC

Halo (Series)

Everything you need faded nicely.
The pieces of the Halo HUD:
1. Weapon Information
2. Shield Bar
3. Grenades
4. Motion Tracker
5. Scoreboard and Voice Chat Mode
6. Aiming Reticule
7. Ally Indicators
8. Objective Indicators
9. Other, Minor Indicators

Official Site: http://www.bungie.net
Publisher: Bungie
System(s): Xbox, Xbox 360, PC

Assassin’s Creed

Again, taking advantage of the corners. Health on the top left, available actions on the top right, map on the bottom right and weapons on the bottom left. Very lightly shaded as to not distract you from the game play but easily seen at the same time. What more could you ask for?

Official Site: http://assassinscreed.us.ubi.com
Publisher: Ubisoft
System(s): All Next-Gen, PC

Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfare

This is by far one of the smoothest, best games I have ever played. All the basic info of course, but the best part here is the team control. From the top left you have your command options and a small camera showing what your teammates are seeing (only need one because they stay grouped.) You can direct them with a simple up or down and watch what they’re coming up on as to plan accordingly.

Official Site: http://ghostrecon.us.ubi.com
Publisher: Ubisoft
System(s): All Next-Gen, PC

World of Warcraft

When it comes to creating such a huge world with such robust characters there’s only one way to give the player everything they need at once, let them do it themselves. You begin with one displayed action bar in the bottom left and as you learn new skills you add them to it in the order you wish. Pretty soon as your skills begin to add up you’ll start setting it to display more action bars on-screen (up to 5.) This is the type of game and HUD setup that would only work on a PC.

Player-Avatar Symbiosis

Player-Avatar Symbiosis

Link:http://frictionalgames.blogspot.co.uk/2010/12/player-avator-symbiosis.html

In a recently released paper, Jeroen D. Stout (creator of Dinner Date) proposes an interesting theory on the relashionship between player and avatar. It is related to the things that have been discussed previous post about immersion, so I felt it was relevant to bring it up. The full paper can be gotten from here. I will summarize the ideas a bit below, but I still suggest all to read the actual paper for more info!

Most modern theorists of the mind agree that it is not single thing, but a collection of processes working in unison. What this means is that there is no exact place where everything comes together, but instead the interaction between many sub-systems give rise to what we call consciousness. The most clear evidence of this is in split brain patients, where the two brain-halves pretty much form two different personalities when unable to communicate.

This image of a self is a not fixed thing though and it is possible to change. When using a tool for a while it often begins to feel like an extension of ourself, thus changing ones body image. We go from being "just me" to be being "me with hammer". When the hammer is put down, we return to the old previous body image of just being "me". I have described an even clearer example of this in a previous post, where a subject perceives a sense of touch as located at a rubber hand. Research have shown that this sort of connection can get quite strong. If one threatens to drop a heavy weight or similar on the artificial body part (eg the rubber hand), then the body reacts just like it would to any actual body part.

What this means for games is that it is theoretically possible for the player form a very strong bond with the avatar, and in a sense become the avatar. I discuss something similar in this blog post. What Jeroen now purposes is that one can go one step further and make the avatar autonomously behave in a way that the players will interpret has their own will. This is what he calls symbiosis. Instead of just extending the body-image, it is the extension of the mind. Quite literally, a high level of symbiosis means that part of your mind will reside in the avatar.

A simple example would be that if player pushes a button, making the avatar jump, players feel as if they did the jumping themselves. I believe that this sort of symbiosis already happens in some games, especially noticeable when the avatar does not directly jump but has some kind of animation first. When the player-avatar symbiosis is strong this sort of animation does not feel like some kind of cut scene, but as a willed action. Symbiosis does not have to be just about simple actions like jumping though, but can be more complex actions, eg. assembling something, and actions that are not even initiated by the player, eg. picking up an object as the player pass by it. If symbiosis is strong then the player should feel that "I did that" and not "the avatar did that" in the previous examples. The big question is now how far we can go with this, and Jeroen suggests some directions on how to research this further.

Having more knowledge on symbiosis would be very useful to make the player feel immersed in games. It can also help solving the problem of inaccurate input. Instead of doing it the Trespasser way and add fine-control for every needed body joint, focus can lie on increasing the symbiosis and thus allowing simply (or even no!) input be seen by players as their own actions. This would make players feel as part of a virtual world without resorting to full-body exo-skeletons or similar for input. Another interesting aspect of exploring this further is that it can perhaps tell us something about our own mind. Using games to dig deeper into subjects like free will and consciousness is something I feel is incredibly exciting.

The Personality of Immersion in Video Games and Virtual Worlds

Link:http://neoacademic.com/2010/06/29/the-personality-of-immersion-in-video-games-and-virtual-worlds/


A recent study by Weibel, Wissmath and Mast (2010)^[1] examines the Big Five personality correlates of immersion in virtual environments, finding that high Openness to Experience, Neuroticism, and Extraversion are positively related to the tendency to be immersed.
Immersion is not very clearly defined in the article, so we’ll have to assume they’re using the layman’s definition – that feeling you get where the outside world fades away and your entire attention is on the game/virtual environment.  This seems related to the concepts of engagement in business research and flow in psychology, although this paper makes no attempt to pull in either.
The results here are somewhat atheoretical, as there was no a priori attempt to link personality traits to specific characteristics related to immersion.  There’s certainly nothing wrong with a brute force empirical approach, but it does change the sorts of conclusions that can be made.  This work found that all three personality traits were related to emotional involvement (one dimension of immersion) while only Openness was related to absorption (the other dimension).  Neuroticsm was also the most strongly related to emotional involvement of the three.  But the specific reasons for these variables to correlate in this way (i.e. Why are neurotic people more likely to be immersed?”) are unclear.
There are certainly limitations.  The research was conducted entirely via survey with a 21% response rate.  Immersion is studied here as immersive tendency, a personality trait with items like, “How frequently do you find yourself closely identifying with the characters in a story line?”  While the authors make a claim that this is related to immersion in “mediated environments,” it’s not clear if such general immersive tendencies would translate into actual differences in behavior, and furthermore if  immersive tendencies in technology-mediated environments could be measured with items like the example given above.  The low response rate also raises some concern about missingness, although the severity of this problem depends on why people were missing.
Still, the implications are interesting.  If these three personality traits are related to tendencies toward immersion, and if this generalized to immersion in virtual environments, it opens up the possibility we can predict engagement level in technology-mediated training programs from personality, which would potentially affect how much trainees learned from those environments, holding all other features constant.  For example, I might hypothesize from this that people high in Openness would be more engaged in a training program held in Second Life rather than in person, and would as a result experience better learning outcomes from the Second Life training program.

Immersion Through Video Games 3

Link:http://illumin.usc.edu/107/immersion-through-video-games/3/

Dynamic Systems

Games have always tried to move beyond the linearity of movies and novels. Techniques such as content randomization and writing stories with many paths and endings were the first attempts, and a third, potentially revolutionary method has recently arisen. Based on games like Dungeons & Dragons and Warhammer that play out in dynamic, storyteller-driven worlds, real time strategy and role-playing games began to develop. The real-time strategy genre relies on scripted, movie-like sequences to tell its story, whereas role-playing games often make use of complicated conversation systems. Both, however, tread on untested ground in terms of gameplay. In either genre, the player is dropped into the world and told to make of it what he will. There is always a goal to achieve--a warlord to defeat or an artifact to find-- but the means of achieving that goal are left open to the player.

This results in a tremendously complicated design and programming process, but can give rise to an unparalleled range of freedom in terms of gameplay. The player can choose from an infinite number of strategies, because their imagination is the only limit to how they can proceed. As in life, we are given a set of abilities, skills, and procedures, and we are free to use them as we will. Thus, a giant leap is made towards immersion.

The Next Step: Emergence

The steps that were taken by these two genres to bring their gameplay into existence are the very steps that are now being researched as a way of removing the narrative restrictions on all kinds of video games. The technique is called emergence, and is one of the new frontiers in game artificial intelligence. In his book Professional Game Design, Troy Dunniway describes emergence as an efficiency tool:

“ The designer . . . can code in every possibility with a simple if/then type of structure, or a programmer can come up with a general system for these problems. . . One of the interesting aspects to designing a game based on systems is that, even when you've tested the game to death, someone still comes up with a new and innovative solution. As long as this new solution doesn't break the game, it can be a lot of fun [3]. ”

Efficient game implementation is certainly a welcome side effect to emergence, but the observation that it is impossible to test exhaustively implies that the technique has far broader implications.

Emergent Systems Design

Emergence is unpredictable behavior from the computer through systemic level design, which is the process of designing a high concept of what the game should be like, and inventing rules that, when combined, result in the intended "system." The system adds consistency that would be a painful process to implement through traditional scripting. For example, if the player is hit by a fireball in a system that understands the relationship between fire and flammability, then they will be burned, and maybe even catch fire. From this, the player will determine that fire causes damage, and that objects can be set on

 fire [4]. Later when the player sees a group of powerful monsters hiding in the forest, a fireball thrown at the trees may be an obvious solution. The system knows that trees light on fire, and moments later they do. Pretty soon, the whole forest is ablaze, and the monsters are burnt marshmallows.

Immersion Through Video Games 4

LinkLhttp://illumin.usc.edu/107/immersion-through-video-games/4/

Emergent systems are more intuitive, so the player feels more 'in control," and their plans fail or succeed in reasonable ways. As a rule, emergent systems work towards the immersion of the player, rather than against it. For players, this means that future games may be more than just photo-realistic graphics and lifelike sounds. There are boundless opportunities for emergent systems to model interactions, and when these models become sophisticated enough, a person's choice to suspend disbelief may be all that is necessary.

Emergence of Unpredictable Behaviors

Before getting carried away with a dream, however, we should look at how emergence is being utilized today. For example, emergence augments gameplay especially well in the game Black and White, which bases much of its action on a deeply integrated artificial intelligence model of the human learning process. Your ten-story-tall pet implements this model in discovering its environment and you, its master. By rewarding your pet for certain actions and chastising it for others, you can sculpt your pet's actions until they are nearly an autonomous extension of your own gameplay style. Unexpected outcomes of this model abound:

“ When I was in level 1, I got the healing spell. So I thought, it would be pretty neat to teach my little ape this spell. Since [he] wants to be always kind and generous to the people, he ran to the village to try his new spell. He looked around and I guess there was no one to heal. He got pretty upset about that. So he just picked up a guy and threw him as hard as he could against a mountain. The man . . . survived. He was hurt pretty bad[ly], though, screamed like hell, and was trying to get back to his house as quick[ly] as possible. My ape of course saw that, and healed him. After that he looked at me, all happy and smiling [2]. ”

Hundreds of these examples exist, all stemming from a very simple learning model. It is easy to conclude that even the dramatic elements that were once thought to be possible only through the rigid control of narration and scripting can now be produced randomly, if the system has an appropriate way of expressing itself.

With a method of dynamically generating events, the missing piece that keeps us from creating an infinite novel or movie is a method that makes stories more meaningful by using a single emergent model that intertwines the player, the characters, and the world. The possibilities are as frightening as they are exciting; for, if a system can conjure up behaviors that mimic real life, has it finally passed Turing's Test [2]? The world will be a very different place when it does, not just in our methods of entertainment, but also in the very definition of reality.

Conclusion: PCs Can Do Improv

Even in the short term, emergent systems like these help us to better understand the way that we interact with one another and our environment; they may even help us better understand our own thought process. If they follow the computer science model, these crude systems, like binary computer language, might give rise to more readily accessible procedures. Given a sufficiently complex system, is there any interaction that is impossible to model? As on Star Trek, we once again find ourselves gazing at a possibility that seems only barely beyond reach [5].

References

• • [1] Encyclopedia Britannica 2003. "Turing, Alan M." Internet: http://www.britannic​a.com/eb/article?eu=​75769, March 13, 2003.
  • [2] S. Johnson. "Wild Things." Wired March, pp. 78-83, 2002.
  • [3] T. Dunniway,. [1]Professional Game Design[/i]. New Riders, 2001.
  • [4] H. Smith. "Systemic Level Design for Emergent Gameplay." Game Developer's Conference Web Lecture. June 6, 2002. <http://www.gamasutr​a.com/features/slide​s/smith/index.htm>.
  • [5] "Encounter at Farpoint." Star Trek: The Next Generation. Paramount Pictures: October 11, 1987. 

Immersion Through Video Games 2

Link:http://illumin.usc.edu/107/immersion-through-video-games/2/

The Perfect Medium

But the Turing Test does not necessarily apply to video games, because they operate within a much more restrictive system than that of natural language. A computer-driven character in a game can concern itself entirely with running, jumping, and bouncing off walls; if a person were to assume control of that character, the limitations of the control would confine an intelligent being to very mechanical-looking procedures. In video games, these artificially intelligent creatures are called agents, or bots, and some of the most impressive examples can be seen in the Unreal Tournament series of games. It is often said in developer discussions and game reviews that the bots in Unreal are indistinguishable from actual twelve-year-olds in their ability to maraud the other team [2].

Due to the simplicity demanded by real-time systems, video games are probably not an appropriate medium for developing candidates for the Turing Test. This expectation of simplicity, however, means that video games are perfect for creating an immersive environment because the player's suspension of disbelief is already primed. The process becomes even easier when the game does something unexpected that exceeds the player's expectations. The best video games attract people in the same way that great novels or movies do, through emotional stories, color theory, and the ebb and flow of action. Unlike novels and movies, these games take immersion one step further by specifically casting you in the leading role.

Immersion in Games

This feature comes at a price, however, because the player becomes a random element in an otherwise tightly controlled system. Whereas movies and novels can stick to a script, video games are by nature less rigid. This makes the job of a game designer tremendously difficult, since the techniques for character development and story progression that work to aid suspension of disbelief in other media are generally too restrictive for application in games. Many successfully immersive video games lead the player toward completion of pre-planned goals, just like novels and movies. Ideally, when those goals are accomplished and the player is rewarded for those specific successes, the player should feel as though it could not have been accomplished without his skill [3].

Unfortunately, this method presents a dichotomy for the player, because the elements of story and gameplay are naturally separate. Thus, when the two are intertwined in a game, the player often feels that either the story is an unwanted distraction from the gameplay or that the gameplay is a tedious drawing-out of the story. However, the evolution of video games has resulted in a new technique for integrating story and gameplay more intricately than in the past.

Immersion Through Video Games

Link:http://illumin.usc.edu/107/immersion-through-video-games/

Immersion is the process by which a media element entices a person to suspend their disbelief and accept what they are viewing on a screen or page as actual reality. Through non-linear dramatic elements and interaction between the player and the computer, a video game achieves a level of reality that demands very little suspension of disbelief and is therefore a more compelling experience. Further advances in artificial intelligence and new ways of modeling interactive environments serve to make the environment more immersive, until suspension of disbelief is no longer necessary. It is only a matter of time before the dream of a perfectly immersive environment is a reality.

Introduction: Art Imitating Life?

The past decade has witnessed amazing improvements in the field of video game production. Graphics processors can produce effects that mimic real life to an unprecedented level of detail, sound systems can enhance three-dimensional effects with startling accuracy, and modern physical interaction models are leaps and bounds beyond the scampering of the original Mario Bros. With realistic digital movies and real-time technology quickly approaching the fabled "lifelike" quality, a person's acceptance of a virtual object as real becomes an easier, if not automatic, response. Emboldened by the ability to immerse a player in a virtual environment (see Fig. 1), game developers are turning back to the first questions that were asked at the conception of virtual reality: if the player reaches a significant level of immersion, is the environment real?

What is Immersion?

Davepape/Wikimedia Commons

Figure 1: Cave Automatic Virtual Environment, an example of immersive virtual reality.

Suspension of disbelief is the literary term for a reader's decision to accept what is presented in a story as a real event. It is the first step in the formation of people's emotional attachment to fictional characters in novels, movies, and video games. Immersion is a technique of lowering a person's need to suspend their disbelief by removing the text, the seat, or the keyboard, placing a person into the scene itself. Immersion is the removal of the barriers between people and their entertainment, until it is as real to us as everyday life.

Star Trek: The Next Generation made history in its very first episode when it introduced what has become a beautiful dream of the entertainment industry: the Holodeck. The Holodeck is a computer simulation of any situation that a person can imagine. With only a bit of programming, a world can be generated that resembles any thing or place, and mimics anyone, all in an empty 30-foot cube. Although the Holodeck, an invention that creates a perfect sense of immersion, was made through narration and film, many people could not help but think that its creation would someday be inevitable. Indeed, one of Star Trek's most compelling characteristics is that it made an unreal world seem nearly within reach. And so an entire generation of video game designers and engineers came of age with the desire to create a perfectly immersive environment-- one in which a person would not be able to distinguish virtual reality from reality. Luckily, the crucial yardstick to test the success of such a venture has existed for almost 50 years. This metric is called the Turing Test.

Bilby/Wikimedia Commons

Figure 2: In Turing's Test, Player C has to determine which of the other two players is the computer and which is a human.

Invented in 1950 by the British mathematician and computer scientist Alan Turing, Turing's Test is a challenge. As shown in Figure 2, the test involves a person sitting at a computer and asking questions of two individuals sitting at computers in different rooms: one is another person, the other is a computer. If at the end of a period of time, say five minutes, the investigator can not determine which respondent is human and which is machine, then the computer can be said to be intelligent [1]. This test applies to more than just automated chat programs, however. Any medium's ability to immerse the player through intelligent reactions, visuals, or sound is subjected to the same standards. How real is it? How immersive?