Lead UI Designer
UI Design, Art and Engineering
Red Faction Guerrilla was the first Red Faction game to be a third person shooter. Even though the game is in the future on Mars, sci-fi technology was not a focus. For the UI design we decided to play up the destruction aspect of the game and we delivered an abstract, rough and used looking interface. We used construction orange and silhouettes of dirt and debris to create most of the UI. Along with building and managing the UI I was also in charge of creating the logo for the game and working with marketing.
The full screen map was a real challenge because of the very tight memory constraints that were in place for destruction for the entire game. We generated a final map of all the zones and then did a final paint over in Photoshop once all the zones were locked down.
We wanted the single player HUD in Guerrilla to be as streamlined as possible. The mini map and the reticule with ammo count were the only persistent HUD elements. Everything else was loaded as needed, like the weapon swapping widget shown to the right. Every weapon has it’s own reticule that uses shape and size to show the faction of the weapon and the firing pattern. We also went with a more graphic approach to the weapon icon design so the player could get a quick read for what the weapon did.
The Upgrade table was the only “store” interface we needed to design. Every upgrade table could use the same UI and the only custom area was the blueprint designs we did for each upgrade. Designing the blueprints for each upgrade was a nice change of pace and we were able to experiment with different styles and designs while still complementing the established UI design.
Production wanted the Guerrilla Handbook to have a scrapbook feel. That direction would have been really foreign from the established style guide, but I was able to introduce several elements like the high resolution weapon images and the piece of blueprint paper to give these screens a pieced together look.
I created all the logos for the different factions in the game. The EDF used hexagonal shapes in their architecture and uniforms, so the logo also incorporated that key shape. We also decided to make an EDF barcode that could be placed on things throughout the game to help enforce the sense of ownership the EDF had in each sector. I worked closely with Art Direction and Environment artists on the overall branding or factions in world.
I created all the achievement icons for Guerrilla. I chose a container shape that would complement the UI and a color scheme for Activities, Single Player Missions, General Gameplay, Multiplayer, Diversions and Wrecking Crew.
I worked with the environment art team to create signage and livery to be placed throughout the world.
I really enjoy paper craft, so I created these paper craft models for two of the main characters in Guerrilla. My hope was that people around the studio could build them to have at their desks, but they were so popular we also put them up on the community site so that fans of the game could build them at home.