UI Designer
UI Design and Art

GOALS:

  • Add new features to the game while complementing the art style already established.
  • Follow the user flows already established so that any new features worked well with what players already knew.
  • Polish and optimize screens and expensive art assets/components.

XCOM: Enemy Within is an expansion for XCOM: Enemy Unknown that adds several new features.

One of the largest features we added was the MEC class of soldiers to the game. This involved adding a multistep process of preparing a soldier to use a MEC and building and upgrading a MEC for a
soldier to use.

I created several flows that matched similar gameplay loops like training Psionic soldiers and building weapons and armor.

The MECs were one of the most celebrated additions, added another way to engage in combat and spend resources to upgrade and customize.

Genemod soldiers were another new addition. Instead of a technological upgrade, these soldiers were genetically modified. We made these screens very similar to the soldier promotion flow for base soldiers. We added the medical scan/xray panel and a material on the soldier to expose the part of the body that would be modified to create a more scientific feel to the process.

Covert Ops was a new feature for the strategy layer of the game. This feature plugged in to the existing strategy gameplay so everything had to compliment what was already there. We were able to reuse what made sense and design similar screens to fill in the gameplay gaps.

The Exalt were a new group of enemies added in EW. I was able to create a new set of strategy alerts that blended well with the existing style and supported the new requirements of the expansion.

Each new class of soldier for EW needed a new symbol to represent their division in the XCOM organization. I created the Genemod and MEC seals based off the original XCOM seal. We wanted them to share some aspects of the original seal while being unique and representing the style of that division. We used the skull explosion from the original XCOM UFO Defense for inspiration on the MEC seal.