Gameworld Interfaces

Designing so-called “invisible” interfaces that are integrated into the gameworld is a trend in modern game user interface design, and debates about the superiority of such interfaces frequently appear in game developer discourse. At the same time certain genres do not seem to pay this trend any attention and continue to use a lot of screen space on heavy overlays. While proponents of “invisible” interfaces believe that this approach provides the greatest sense of involvement for the player because the fiction appears unmediated, defenders of the second approach believe that clear information is necessary for overview and control and therefore a support for involvement. In this presentation I will discuss the main points in my monograph Gameworld Interfaces (MIT Press 2013). At the core of my argument is the idea that regardless of how the user interface is presented in games, it is a necessity to be able to present gameplay relevant system information to the player. For this reason, the conflict is not about whether or not to have an interface at all, but how to present system information in a way that is clear and communicative at the same time as it is elegant and takes up as little screen space as possible considering the information needs of the specific game.

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