End of Days

Overview

I had played Left 4 Dead 2 for years by the time I was given this project in one of my classes. This project was focused on creating a compelling main menu. I thought to myself, what if the wall writing in Left 4 Dead 2 was a menu? With that thought, I was inspired to start concepting and planning. I decided to make a main menu that allowed me to explore making an interactive and dietetic menu for VR. Unfortunately, at the time I didn’t own a headset forcing me to create it for mouse and keyboard.

(Image credit: Valve)

(Image credit: Valve)

The main menu I created would embody the emptiness of the apocalypse but highlight the remnants of the survivors that came before.

Prototype

To get myself started with this project I went to Figma and developed a mockup to encapsulate the vision of the immersive main menu that lived in my head. To help understand how players might approach the menu and how I can guide them through it.

I utilized the rule of thirds while planning out the golden path through the menu. The goal was to make the main menu prominent but also supported by the environment. Hence the progression from title to buttons to props as seen from the gold line.

I made sure to align the menu so users would naturally read from left to right. Making the progression of interactive elements to visually pleasing in order of importance to the user.

Thoughts to Wireframe

Main Menu

Added a variety of graffiti to the Main Menu space to make it feel like a lived-in world before the apocalypse.
Let players use a flashlight in hand to uncover bits of environmental storytelling scattered throughout the area. Encourage players to interact in the environment with the flashlight in VR.

Options Menu

Put in red eyes semi-hidden in the background to tie to the graffiti of a monster drawn on the main menu wall to give context to the world.
An element for players to discover in VR and build the eerie atmosphere of the game this would have been made for.

Designed the Options Menu as a diegetic UI that players can interact with directly in the world.
Hooked the music volume slider to a radio, so adjusting it changes the audio.
In VR, players could even grab the radio and chuck it across the room if they felt like it.
Wanted to make sure the space was fun to mess around in before the player started the game.
Also used the menu space to help set the tone and atmosphere right from the jump.

I wanted to create a space and a menu when making the main menu. I created an interesting space around the Menus to give players things to look at and interact with. From my experience of playing many high-quality VR games, I knew that I needed to place objects around the space in the prototype to reflect interactable objects that would be in the VR version if it were ever created. With that in mind I created a unique space around the Main Menu, Options Menu, and Credits to lean into the interaction VR players are looking for.

Building an Experience for VR UI

Ending Notes

Learning Outcomes

Went through the process of building for VR and used UI design principles to create a diegetic menu integrated into the space, rather than relying on a traditional menu.
Learned how to implement functionality like having the camera follow the map.
Figured out how to make Unity’s canvas UI respond to lighting in the environment.
Used scene composition and menu design to build an immersive space for players to explore in VR.

Complications/Issues

Not having access to a VR kit meant I had to make UI decisions without being able to view them through a headset.
- I built in extra functionality using animations, which helped me visualize how things would work, though it meant spending less time fine-tuning the menus overall.
While the feedback was still useful, there’s a big difference between clicking through a menu with a mouse and physically moving around and interacting with it in VR.
If I had the chance, I’d absolutely port this into VR and continue testing it in that environment.