Kingmaker - The Art of UI

The latest update for Pathfinder: Kingmaker takes us through Owlcats UI design process.

The art of UI design

Dear Pathfinders,

In today's update, we would like to share with you our approach to User Interface (UI) development.

Interfaces are a huge part of any CRPG game. There are a lot of entities like characters, skills, abilities and spells, all of which are striving to attract the player's attention. An important factor here is that everything needs to be represented with a high level of detail and our task is to make all these sheets, formulas and endless columns of text easier to read and understand. We constantly balance between informativeness, aesthetics, and user-friendliness. Therefore, while designing every single UI element we are focused on two main principles: convenience and immersion. It should be stressed that from the very beginning, we decided to give preference to immersion.

With our focus on immersion in mind, we always start designing a new UI element by searching for real historical items, which fit the setting of Pathfinder: Kingmaker for visual reference. These can be old books, scrolls, chests, cabinets, writing utensils and chairs, maps and travel notebooks. Their visual appearance, materials and decor elements are a good starting point to inspire a UI designer's creativity.

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More information.

Fantastic read for anyone who is interested in UI design. Bookmarked.

A positive comment from Luj! Bookmarked.

In my opinion, this kickstarter is hitting all the right notes. These updates show that the devs are pretty passionate in creating a good game system, first and foremost. I really appreciate the transparency behind their approach to design, in this case the UI.

Originally Posted by Wisdom
A positive comment from Luj! Bookmarked.

I lol'd

Of course now that you called him out on it, he's going to go find a few PoE threads to verbally diarrhea all over to make up for it. Gotta maintain that edgy reputation….

You should see what I post on Codex regarding PoE. Nuclear war right now

Originally Posted by Nephologist
I lol'd

Of course now that you called him out on it, he's going to go find a few PoE threads to verbally diarrhea all over to make up for it. Gotta maintain that edgy reputation….

In my company we would refer to Luj as "a pessemistic challenger". My goal is to make sure I have one on every team. They are the ones to point out the flaws. They are quick to identify the bs factor. They don't live in fairytale land. They can crush or dominate a conversation or room so they need to be held in check by opposing personalities. Not content with the status quo and are not forced into just being "agreeable". They add a great deal of value but have to be taken with salt.

Doesn't mean they are always right, but really who is?

Originally Posted by Wisdom
In my company we would refer to Luj as "a pessemistic challenger". My goal is to make sure I have one on every team. They are the ones to point out the flaws. They are quick to identify the bs factor. They don't live in fairytale land. They can crush or dominate a conversation or room so they need to be held in check by opposing personalities. Not content with the status quo and are not forced into just being "agreeable". They add a great deal of value but have to be taken with salt.

Doesn't mean they are always right, but really who is?

You're in the toxic waste processing business?

In all fairness, although they are dicing with over-exposure at this point, many of these updates do seem to showcase elements that have real consideration and merit behind them.

Originally Posted by Ripper
In all fairness, although they are dicing with over-exposure at this point, many of these updates do seem to showcase elements that have real consideration and merit behind them.

I would say over-exposure only in certain parts of the internet. Looking at funding I'd say most people have never heard of this.

So far every update makes me want this game more. Only downside is RTwP and not turn-based. Though, I will make sure to check out this auto-pause after every round feature they have.

Originally Posted by Wisdom
A positive comment from Luj! Bookmarked.

That's easy. Just mention any old crappy RPG with obtuse mechanics and low resolution.

As a bonus, you will get positive remarks from most of the Watch at the same time

I wonder if Owlcat are really that keen on adding more goals and growing the scope of the game? Perhaps they had a vision right from the start for everything they wanted in the game, and would have been content to just get their baseline funding. Now they have had to spend more time thinking of stretch goals (some of which I like, mind you). May sound like an odd thing to say, but I "sense" a kind of bemused "oh well we'd better add some more stuff" from their campaign. Or maybe that's just the understated Russian way… (although the few Russians I know are quite loud and opinionated ;-) Just musing our loud…(as I avoid starting another batch of work…)

I'm a sucker for a good looking UI and this clicks all the buttons for me. I'm glad they are going for a medieval/tabletop look instead of the modern bullshit (I'm looking at you, Skyrim). I only skimmed through the article, but I'll be sure to read it all when I get back home from work.