Getting to work in Heat Signature

A love letter to Sader Fiasco

Over the past few years I’ve been excitedly following Heat Signature’s development, and with the game’s recent release I have not been disappointed. The mechanics are a blast, the art is gorgeous, the music sets a mood for mischief, and the procedural nature of the game has generated outlines for so many narratives that players have beautifully filled in with their own colors of story telling and shared.

Over the many many hours I’ve spent playing the game my mind as a UI / UX Designer has kicked in, mulling over certain rough patches in the experience and thinking about small changes that could make the UI flow more conducive to getting back into the real essence of the game.

Putting the pieces together

The game is built around a loop that quickly becomes familiar and rewarding (or devastating): choose your hero, review their items, browse and accept a mission, wreak havoc in space, repeat. It gets to a point where you can skim through missions and have a sense of what to pick at a glance based on color coding, keywords, and art. There are some strain points in the flow though that I feel could be eased with a little reconsideration of the game’s menus.