Welcome to another State of the Game! This will likely be a shorter update this week, as I have mainly been spending my time rethinking the whole menu system.

Why, you might ask?

I did some blind testing on the game [recording someone that has never played and seeing what they do] and I got some very interesting results. It became very apparent that the menu system really only makes sense to people that have been closely following the game or have the patience to stumble through it excessively. This lead to a lot of people leaving the game before they ever got to experience a lot of the content, either because they could’t find what they wanted to do or just didn’t even know what was possible. This also presented a great opportunity to build in controller support to the menus and address some of the garage usability issues as well.

I present my totally work in progress menu concept for the main menu. This is NOT FINAL in any way. This was a functionality test for the general concept and layout.

The idea is to embrace the hexagon in the menu system, not only because its an iconic shape for M.A.V. and Chromehounds fans, but also because it makes for a really nice wheel menu, which works great with controllers. This design also allows me to add a lot of nice polish with animations, menu transformations, and general ‘this feels professional and complete’ type items.

I have also reworked the entire menu flow so that you are not just plopped straight into the garage after selecting an option. I am taking into consideration the ‘flow’ for both new players and people with 100’s of hours with the game, as well as the addition game modes that are coming in the future. I am starting to feel good about the design and will begin creating it and polishing it out with final art over the next few weeks.

Well that is all for this week! See you next time!