Secrets & Lies

Secrets & Lies is a menu design for a hypothetical game. The game is a gritty cyberpunk noir with a focus on story. This is the main menu, including game settings, chapter select, and credits. It was made using Unity.

This was an academic project in 2021. I was the sole designer.

Spatial Menu

The menu was designed with the intent that it was present in the world, a sort of AR interface that the characters interact with in a similar way to the player.

Menu elements were ALWAYS presented at an angle, to sell the idea that these aren't something you are only seeing on your screen, but that they exist in the game world.

Color Scheme

Bright neon colors were chosen to match the cyberpunk feel of the game.

Play testers were presented with several combinations of colors for title and highlighted buttons.

This research led to the decision of yellow for the title and pink for the highlight.

Dynamic Camera

Sub menus were placed in different locations, with a quick camera movement to focus on the new menu.

This was a visually interesting way to give the user feedback that their button press was successful and they were now in a new menu.

Placing the menus around one central character (rather than next to entirely new characters or props) allowed me to save on costly art assets.

Fonts

Three fonts were needed for the menu: one for titles, one for buttons, and one for non-intractable text.

The title font (Airstream NF) was chosen because it looks similar to old school neon light signs.

The button font (Aldrich) was chosen because of it's boxy, computerized look.

The text font (Roboto Condensed) was also chosen because it was thinner than Aldrich, indicating to players that it was different from buttons.

Button Variety

Several types of buttons were created for the options menu, including a dropdown menu, a toggle, and a slider.

Music and SFX sliders change volume in real time. The SFX slider plays a noise so the player can hear the volume level right away.