Game Interface Design 001: Designing the UI for Flames Surround Me

I’m designing an user interface for the interactive drama / adventure game; Flames Surround Me. I have gone through some itterations now, but I still don’t feel the design is good enough. I have mostly worked on the front end (main menu), so let me explain what my thought process has been so far:

(I have not produced the background images used in these mock ups)
My initial thought was that I wanted something simple and minimalistic, so while playing around I settled with this look:

Flames Surround Me: the story

the story of Kenneth Burnett — the burnout:

Kenneth Burnett was born into a middle class family, but his father had started his own company which was doing well. They were going to leave an imprint in the world by innovating and manufacturing new engines for different kinds of machinery. Business was gaining traction, ever expanding and the future looked bright for the Burnett family. Kenneth dropped out of college to start working for his dad, learning the trade firsthand. But when his father died unexpectedly, he left the whole company in Kenneth’s hands.

At first, things were going great, until the financial counsellor was caught leeching money and producing fake financial documents. After this, Kenneth were unable to trust his coworkers. He had to oversee everything, and in the end he exhausted himself with too much work. His body just said stop. Ever since; Kenneth Burnett has been on a decline. Exhausted, cynical and incapable of accomplishing anything. He can’t even pick up a wrench without trembling by the thought of work. Unemployment has made everyday a struggle, and his life is out of control. Now he tries to find meaning in life and fill the hole left in his heart.

He lives with his sister and her husband, who has been kind enough to give him all the support he needs and a room to stay in. His sister is bitter over the fact that her big brother “lost” their father’s legacy and fortune. She is only supporting him because their mother asked her to before she died.

“Listen to your heart now, you will understand.”

the story of Glare the angry dog — the inflamed:

Glare is a dog that has a strong hatred towards humans. He has sworn to stay far away from those disgusting creatures and live a life in isolation as a lone wolf. He once lived with humans, but was let down big time by one of them when they took away his dignity and gave him the “Cone of Shame.” Others of his kind stay away from him, as they don’t like they way he smells. (Just wanted to be loved.)

the game begins:

Kenneth was driving home one evening when he lost control over his truck and rammed into a tree. It wasn’t a dramatic accident, but he couldn’t get the motor started again. He had to walk home to get some repair equipment, which was when he met the dog. From this point onward their lives will change. Ken gets an unexpected urge to command this dog to do as he says. In a way it might be his way of proving to himself that he still has the control that was taken from him. The dog naturaly snarl and barks at him. They both have lost faith in humanity, and because of that the man is somehow able to reach through to the dog. They have a really hard time trusting each other, but it seems like they can feel that they both need each other — something they would never admit of course.

How story and game mechanics are linked together in Flames Surround Me

Flames Surround Me is the new game project I’m working on. It will probably be my final year project at Teesside Uni, but we haven’t pitched our ideas yet, so I haven’t got the approval for it. Besides I’m just in the planning phase, so no real work has been done. But I can feel it – this is going to be amazing!

One challenge with this game is that the player will have to accept a few concepts before the game can be fully enjoyed. (Sad but true.) The concepts are not difficult to understand, but they are a bit different from the norm. First, the player must understand that the actions that is performed in the game can influence characters, which means their decisions will be based on your relationship and interaction with them. Second, this interaction is how you reach the goal in the game. And lastly, this goal can be something that is not physical, spatial or visual, it can actually be something dramatic.

If we take this abstraction and illustrate it with how it works in Flames Surround Me, my point might become clearer; the player plays as Kenneth Burnett, a man that is experiencing a hefty burnout. He meets Flames, a dog that has a tremendous hatred towards humans. Kenneth gets an unexpected urge to get controll over Flames, for him overcomming this obstacle proves that he still has some controll over things in his life.

The game mechanics in Flames Surround Me is centered around the interaction between Kenneth and Flames. Kenneth must behave and act in different ways to develop the relationship between Flames and him, he must get Flames to trust him. Flames acts based on that. The way the player can communicate is with something called the GameSpeak system (which I’ll talk more about later) but it is basicaly the interface used in the game.

Well I guess it is time to reveal my latest project; Flames Surround Me.

This will be my first attempt at making a game based on a story. It is something I have been thinking about for years, but now I finally feel ready to begin the work and share it openly. So far I have started developing a story and characters. I have a pretty clear picture about how it is going to be played, but let’s focus on the story for now.

Flames Surround Me is a game about rekindling the flame after having a burnout, but in a wider sense it is about “the meaning of life” (however frightening that might seem.) But fear not, this is not an artsy-fartsy game. I really love those games, still it is not what I’m trying to achieve here. My goal is to make the player experience heartfelt interactions, a straightforward game that makes you feel what the characters in the story are feeling.

Kenneth Burnett is the main character and the burnout in this game. He was once working for a very successful firm, but was betrayed by one of his fellows. After that, he became incapable of trusting anyone, which caused him to exhaust himself with work until the day his body just said stop. Ever since; he has been exhausted, cynical and incapable of accomplishing anything. Powerless, useless and out of control. Now he tries to find meaning in life and fill the hole left in his heart.

The story of Kenneth Burnett begins with him meeting a dog that has a strong hatred towards humans. The dog has sworn to stay far away from those disgusting creatures and live a life in the wild. He once lived with humans, but was let down big time by one of them when they took away his dignity and gave him the “Cone of Shame” (which he still wears after he ran away.) Others of his kind stay away from him, as they don’t like they way he smells.

This meeting is the start of a strange and unlikely friendship that will challenge their way of thinking.

I’m wondering about getting a Shadow of the Colossus tattoo.