Frankie's Bungie Updates - Search results for Candland
Friday, July 23, 2004
David Candland
Our User Interface maestro is getting seriously down and dirty with icons, iconography and iconification.
"This was the week of icons, icons, and more icons. First off, I updated the Xbox Live icons in the friends, clan, and players menus. We needed a special icon to represent a specific team member. Max suggested adding a large sombrero or foam cowboy hat to the friend icon. Although I laughed initially nothing better popped into my head. Fine, sombrero it is...for now.
Next, another throwback to the Myth days. Our player level system is getting icons based on the Covenant caste structure. You will soon be able to see how good a player is just by looking at his rank icon.
Lastly, I'm working on refining some of the custom player emblems that don't read well at small sizes. Sorry, but I'm afraid the shrunken head has got to go. Event horizon is borderline. Flaming Ninja has won the battle of emotional attachment over legibility. He's in.
Sunday, May 09, 2004
Candyland
David Candland, our User Interface maestro has been doing what he refers to as "boring stuff." Which includes getting stuff fine tuned for E3 and attending meetings planning really cool things that dare not be uttered yet - Which again he alleges makes his comments boring. On a personal side, his Dev Kit contracted a serious terminal ailment, so David had Harold take it out back and shoot it. That Development Kit was responsible for about 90% of the Halo imagery on Bungie.net. Now it's headed to the glue factory.
As for what he's looking forward to at E3, David reads a big list: "Of course, everyone's looking forward to Doom 3, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and Half Life 2 -myself included. What I want to see are some unexpected surprises: Duke Nukem Forever in retail boxes; the announcement trailer for Wizard of Wor 2004; seeing games based on movie licenses like Sky Captain, Casshern, or I Robot -and them not sucking; seeing someone announce a good side-scroller on the Xbox; I love getting surprised. Last year I was yawning."
Friday, April 30, 2004
David's Bells and Whistles
David Candland, User Interface master and all around superhuman, says, "This past week or so was devoted to experimenting with new elements into the Heads-Up Display. Right now in the HUD, there are new bits mixed alongside old bits. We're trying something different with the look of the health and shield system people knew in Halo 1, so eventually that is the biggest difference people will notice. We're also toying with an icon system instead of text to warn you about low ammo, reloads and no grenades. Cuban has been huge in getting these working slick. We're also bringing back a favorite feature that has been missing in Bungie games since the Myth series.
In UI land, we've been getting all the half-built, work in progress menus to look un-broken. And- as Frank knows, I've been going back and forth with Parsons (I'm winning) about what we should reveal about our secret Xbox Live plans that will change the way people play online forever. Not only have we got a system that fixes the bad things about playing on Live, but one that makes the experience even more fun. We're shooting to make playing on Live as close to the amount of fun as playing at a friend's LAN party. This plan will put an end to war and poverty. It will align the planets and bring them into universal harmony, allowing meaningful contact with all forms of life." From extra terrestrials to common household pets... OK maybe not. But it will be cool. You saw it first here, kids."
Friday, March 26, 2004
Sweet Crimeny Jeebus!
David Candland sent around a "virtual" version of the user interface for testing and feedback. It's actually a little PC app that lets you play around in the Halo 2 interface without actually playing the game. You can scroll through the various options (you can change your control setup in mid-game now! Woo-hoo!) and best of all, check out all the Live options.
Scrolling through the various Live functions ? regular old Live functions - but in the Halo environment, was weirdly thrilling. I was almost literally dumbstruck just seeing a game invite icon and a Friends List in the Halo interface. The visual look and feel has been hugely overhauled, and everything is tight and together, but it still seems like Halo, straight off the bat.
It's going to be one of those days when the game ships ? do I play through Campaign right away? Or do I dive right into a new multiplayer map for some rocket action? I honestly don't know which one I most want to play.
The interface is being tightened up so that it?s always easy to get where you want, from anywhere in the game. Sketch was saying this morning that it's nice we're thinking of the user interface as a part of the game, rather than an afterthought ? navigating to a game choice or an option shouldn't be more annoying than playing through the Library with a depleted energy pistol.
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