Deckweaver: Descent Into Chaos
Overview
My role: Iterate on existing UI functionality to improve UX including a diegetic deck system, HUD elements, vendor system UI, gameplay tutorialization
Duration: 5 months (Development will be complete in July, making for a total of 7 months)
Team: 17 people, agile development environment
Tools: Figma, Unreal Engine 5.1 UMG & Blueprints, Perforce, Jira, Adobe XD
Description: First-person deck-builder/shooter roguelike in which the player uses different abilities in the form of cards to defeat enemies
STILL IN DEVELOPMENT
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STILL IN DEVELOPMENT 〰️
Warning: You’re about to see work that may be imperfect, incomplete, or buggy. This is a work-in-progress, so please check back for updates!
The Ask, Goals, & Constraints
When I joined the team on Deckweaver, they wanted to shift their deck UI into more of a diegetic format and limit any gameplay-related information in the pause menu to avoid interrupting gameplay to maintain player flow. Initially, I pushed back on a diegetic deck system because it would occupy a significant amount of screen real estate, which is important to preserve as much as possible in a fast-paced game. Additional goals included finding a way to increase card visibility and display information about the card’s use on the card face that would be readable and accessible at a second’s glance.
Getting Up to Speed: Inheriting a UI HUD System
What’s Next?
Refine the feel and movement of the cards in hand to feel less “parented” and rigid
First pass on a vendor system for trading, acquiring, and removing cards
Create and implement tutorialization systems
Reorganization of HUD widgets to include in-game notifications and status indicators
First pass on a Deckronomicon which serves as a way for the player to see which cards they’ve encountered and read more about their usage between runs