Good Design, Bad Design Vol. 5 - The Best and Worst of Video Game Graphic Design ~ Design Doc

[@bagandtag4391]

ASMR roleplay: You're trying to sleep but your brother is playing Ehrgeiz and he can't decide on what minigame he should pick.

[@seandouglass9824]

A man of culture I see with that profile pic

[@haydenthegamerking7984]

oh god no

[@monchete9934]

You forgot "it's rainy at 2 am and..."

[@Sanodi21]

But I thought you always spam the 'WAAUUNNG' noise for 10 seconds when you have friends over?

[@LieseFury]

BWAEEEEONNNN

[@NicoTheCinderace]

t i n y b a d d e s i g n

[@qilinit]

Nicodapeek2 i died when he said that

[@appelofdoom8211]

I think every episode of this needs one ridiculously bad design one like Ehrgeiz or Gugnir just to give us something to laugh at.

[@Stephen-Fox]

Or Mario Party 8. The original comedy bad entry which was so bad it took two slots.

[@ShirakawaWynn]

What was bad at Gugnir?

[@malcovich_games]

@@ShirakawaWynn Everything about the UI. I mean look at it! A shame, because it was a decent-to-good SRPG.

[@ShirakawaWynn]

Ah. Maybe I didn't feel it when I was playing it as a kid and enjoyed the game system. Looking at screenshots now, it is pretty cluttered for the psp screen.

[@ArkRiley]

@@ShirakawaWynn How about text in no less than 10 different font/size combinations (some even vertical!) on one screen, sometimes overlapping each other. UI element priority is all janked up - with over a dozen pieces of information being presented on the attack target interface, why are HP and potential damage not the most important elements? Instead things like the unit's faction and your own character's equipped item are larger and easier to read. Then there's elements common to other Sting games, like the dark information bar at the top of the screen which always displays useless information like "the DATE and TIME" [sic]. All this would be a problem on a TV screen, but then these elements are competing for the tiny real estate of the PSP screen. It's a mess. All the Sting games have these problems, but instead of getting better with time, Gungnir is somehow far worse than their GBA games. And, let's be real, it's actually slightly better in English since the Japanese release makes all the mistakes of myriad typefaces and alignments but does it across four character sets.

[@Phychologik]

Nintendo: Hey, can I copy your homework? Persona: Yeah but make sure you change some of it. Nintendo: Puts joker in smash Persona: ...

[@kawaiidere1023]

Still waiting for that patch

[@KilogramHours]

how about TOMORROW

[@magic_cfw]

EVERYONE IS HERE

[@Gabo2oo]

They even directly copied the UI for Joker's victory screen and the DLC Spirit Board menu

[@acbonbe7059]

Uses same victory screen but replaces blood for stars

[@DokuDoki]

Okay, that last game's sound effect made me laugh out loud. Not only you have great editing, but also pinpoint comedic timing :D

[@Regulus_Tera]

You need to make one on Monster Hunter World. No chickening out.

[@DesignDoc]

Gotta power through those toxins

[@Zades145]

Please do! I actually love MHW but man... those equipment menus stress me out.

[@Ace-qy8ce]

I'm also interested in see that video

[@iaxacs3801]

Just because you have a countdown to take your rewards or lose them doesn't mean it's bad...wait.

[@akesan2374]

Im personally more curious about Hyrule Warriors Definitive Edition.

[@donbionicle]

Hey, the UI of Monster Hunter World is great! ...until you press Start or need to do something in town, anyway. Hooooo boy.

[@illegallyrested8868]

TBH I didn't ever notice anything wrong with most of MHW's UI, the most I can think during active gameplay of is the active status effects not being properly detailed and cycling through instead of all being present at once (seems like a no-brainer to fix). There's even a load of good design, like the in-world Scoutflies and all the preset item/armor loadouts to speed up build optimizations. I do get the feeling that there's a lot of stuff that I didn't notice as obtuse since I've been playing the games for years, though. That said, I'm repeatedly frustrated by the awful Investigations menus. An absolute chore to maintain.

[@Storbsie]

MHW is amazing but that game's UI is ridiculous. Why can't I see how much it costs to upgrade weapons / armor in the "Forge Equipment" screen, and vice versa? Why can't I access my item pouch from within the "Manage Items" screen at my Item Box? Why can't I reorder all of the items in the Item Bar at once? Why don't I have the option to save a universal Item Bar or Radial Menu (if you create item subloadouts from one primary loadout, then change your primary loadout's Item Bar or Radial Menu, you need to go through all your subloadouts and change them one by one)? And this isn't even going into how the game doesn't have any in-game tutorials for many of the more intricate mechanics (Elderseal, elemental resistance thresholds for resisting blights, HZVs, elemental modifiers per attack...). ARGHHHH thinking about this drives me crazy. Personally would've loved to see some perspective about this in the video. Monster Hunter is a beloved franchise and it's truly an incredible series, especially with the changes in World, but it's crazy how much the UI alone can be an obstacle for a user's enjoyment, or at worst, outright turn them away (which happened to me when I tried MHFU for the first time).

[@lowenevvan8619]

IMO I understand why he stayed away, there's just too many design problems due to the UI simply not conveying things well. Want an example? Widerange overrides similar effects, even if the person had a stronger version of the effect. If you Drink a Mega Demondrug and then a Widerange 1 Ally drinks a Demondrug, I hope you enjoy going from a Mega Demondrug to 1/3rd of a Normal Demondrug.

[@donbionicle]

@@lowenevvan8619 Why would a lesser buff override a better one? That's a more fundamental design problem than just communication. The UI could certainly help, anyway.

[@jpedro1800]

@@lowenevvan8619 think the effects stack, no?

[@cinnamonpanda6040]

Bad design- Not putting the music used on description

[@PlebNC]

Bad Design - Using "on" in place of using "in".

[@Juniverse0]

PlebNC He's right though. Not enough channels do that.

[@PlebNC]

@SilverRainbow100 - I agree. Doesn't excuse incorrect basic grammar though.

[@cinnamonpanda6040]

@@PlebNC Im sowwy, me not is english speaking hahaha...no, really, english is my second lenguaje and Im still learning some of the basic rules, that aside, I spelled something wrong whats the point of that?

[@nerdiguy2]

10:02 "There's no new marker" There is! It's the glowing on the left side of the nameplate of the item that indicates that it's new. I know it's been 5 years but no one else has pointed it out. I'm currently working on a game project, myself, so your channel has not only been entertaining, but actively helpful for my development. Most of what I watch from you is a sort of "research" effort.

[@TainoMoya]

VOLUME 5 IS HERE?! YESSSSS! This is my favorite series of yours, been binging your videos. I really want to get better at designs. It's tough on the brain, but I'm willing.

[@victikirby15]

>notices Eyes of Heaven “Jowo what’s this?”

[@canine8284]

yeah does he think it's good or bad?? hmm? we want to know, guys

[@monchete9934]

More like "Nyo-howo, what's this?"

[@revolvingworld2676]

@@canine8284 Personally I thought it was fine, but im not a graphic designer.

[@thealliedpowers]

One UI design that I really like is from Valkyria Chronicles. The 4th installment in particular does it particularly well. Navigation is centered around a journal that was gifted the protagonist. Cutscenes are accessed through photos that were taped into the journal and missions are played through torn maps also pasted into the pages of the journal. In each chapter, the empty space on the page is filled with rough looking sketches of things related to the immediate story and scratchy writing. Also there are other details like a flower pressed into the pages in a chapter that takes place in a flowery plain, or water damage on the paper in a chapter that mostly took place during rain. And in gameplay, Valkyria has a unique quirk of having comic book style onomatopoeiae, such as a brightly colored, "Ka-Boom!" when an explosion happens or "Ratta Tatta Tatta" when a machine gun fires. It's fun and unique while not distracting from gameplay. There's also effects when a character receives a change in status. Such as if someone is hit by a mortar while moving, it will slow their movement speed. This is represented by vertical, dark purple streaks appearing around the character momentarily and well as vision becoming blurred and sounds, including the music, being drowned out. Another, simpler example would be when you perform a surprise attack by shooting an enemy from behind, if you don't kill them, they'll turn around and swear droplets will appear around their head.

[@huytungnguyen119]

Ergerhz or sumethin' ...its design is masterclass...it full fill its purpose: gave player headache when they're in the menu.

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

Right, they shouldn't be there, they should be out fighting!

[@harrylane4]

Best UI design: smash Bros Worst ui design: also Smash Bros

[@GamingReinvented]

Nice video! Yeah, Super Smash Bros Ultimate's main menu UI is certainly a step up from the last game, and with a few exceptions, generally works pretty well. Also agree 100% on how well Pikmin simplified the standard RTS UI for a console audience and how easy it is to pick up and play for new players. As for some examples you may want to think about for future? Well, Smash Bros Ultimate's spirit mode could probably be a good example of both good design and bad design in of itself, since the mode has so many fantastic design decisions... and perhaps an equally high number of terrible ones. It's got a very creative map system, with a design that can also be incredibly confusing to navigate. It's got a whole bunch of things you can do with spirits, that are poorly organised and sorted in a series of menus that feels entirely detached from the rest of the game. And even the way you unlock some of the random spirits seems confusing, like how all the alternate costumes are random shop only deals, how the challenges system, world of light, spirit board, main shop and four world of light shops all have random exclusive spirits, etc. There's probably enough there for a whole video. It'd also be interesting to see what you think of games that deliberately make the UX worse to up the difficulty at various points. Mario & Luigi Dream Team did that with hard mode, where one of their more annoying changes was removing the continue button when you lose and just kicking you straight back to the title screen every time. Definitely bad design in many ways, but it does raise the question of whether bad design is any better or worse if you're deliberately trying to screw over the player rather than it being a mistake.

[@Fjuron]

some very interesting information, thank you. - The importance of homogenity and effeciency in UI - How consoles are inherrently more suitable for character control - How ping systems can work great as a friendly multiplayer communication tool - etc.

[@Pop-gj9iv]

You made me remember that I really like Skyrim's UI. One bad thing that I have to say about it is that the letters are small and considering that the game takes place on a snowy climate makes it kinda hard to read small white letters even with a black transparent background. But, overall, the menus are very consistent and one big plus about it is the sense of urgency. What I mean is that you mostly are fighting and the menus are quick enough to access to not lose the mood of the moment. For example, if you're in a battle with low health and you level up, you can just (and Skyrim players know about this one): press X (or whatever menu button you have), Up, A, Down down, and you are back to the battle with full health. It just becomes muscle memory. And the Favorite option is also very good... if only it wasnt so small.

[@MoiMagnus1er]

Skyrim's UI is quite good for a console game. However, it didn't do a pretty good job of adapting to PC, and the inventory is quite crappy for PC standards (when your inventory is more efficiently used with arrows than with the mouse, you have a problem).

[@vashido1866]

I hope you cover Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2 someday. Still some of the most stylish and clear UI I've seen in any fighting game. Being able to clearly show info in a game super action packed its impressive. And GG Xrd visuals should always get praised

[@OmegaMetroid93]

Agreed. I'd love to see that.

[@RicochetForce]

Yeah, props to Arc Sys for that. Despite moving at a thousand miles an hour with a million mechanics at play it's always clear what was just done, to whom, and when. The Ui is very direct, the notifactions in battle are up long enough to read but not long enough to clutter the screen, the colors they use stand out well against the chaos. All while still retaining that GG look.

[@ConfusionPlus2]

5:05 Pretty sure the terrible UI is actually part of the experience. Still, belongs on the list of what not to do.

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

The entire game is an experience. It's basically one of these so-bad-it's-good games that you have to play to truely grasp.

[@Liggliluff]

Having a menu option labelled "games & more" in the main menu of a video game is truly the most stupid thing ever. Or close to it.

[@stanconnorstan4266]

Still waiting for Pikmin for the Switch...

[@reibcat]

Aren’t we all.

[@lofikirbstar623]

well...

[@TheRealFolkBlues]

As a huge MH fan, I'd actually be interested to see what you have to say about MHW's bad design. There's a lot of stuff changed over from the old games that had me scratching my head to figure out on day 1.

[@MaakaSakuranbo]

I don't think that necessarily means bad design. Making a game more accessible can mean that it might be a bit confusing for people who've played it for a long time and have to get used to the new things first. What do you mean specifically though?

[@ozmaozmaozmaozma]

could also be referring about how returning to the multiplayer hub is handled and deters players from returning to it or how you have to run about the massive village to check up on your farm, upgrade weapons, and eat.

[@TheRealFolkBlues]

@@MaakaSakuranbo The way information is given to the player through hunts in MHW isn't immediately clear. Aspects of the environment that you could gather resources at in older MH titles intentionally stuck out from the environment, whereas they blend in with the scenery in MHW. It isn't immediately clear what can and cannot be interacted with in MHW, which feels strange considering how the game is supposed to be more accessible in the first place, hence the introduction of scoutflies. Like ozma also said, the multiplayer hub really isn't handled all that well. Prior MHs had a means to quickly check in on farms, supplies and shops without having to sit through a few lengthy load screens and meander through a large hub area to get what they want. The process of doing all that now is more bloated and spread out than it used to be. There are also just some elements which are never told to the player, such as how they can completely rearrange and customize the item bar however they see fit. A handy feature that's squirreled away behind the item box. I do enjoy MHW quite a bit still, but sometimes it either hands out too much information at once or doesn't highlight very basic stuff.

[@MaakaSakuranbo]

@@ozmaozmaozmaozma Hm, I dont see the village part as bad. I like it, it isn't super big and oyu even have teleportation to get around quicker. No clue on the multiplayer hub though

[@thexinventor47]

One thing I would add about SSBU is the screens showing enemy spirits in World of Light and the Spirit Board. It's purpose, besides showing the spirit itself, is to give an idea of what battling the spirit will be like. However, a few things make this difficult. The designers limit the conditions menu to three items, which can sometimes lead to them hiding aspects of the battle. This seems to have been done to leave room for the rules section above it - which, from a player's perspective, is pretty much identical in purpose. The worst problem would be how tiny the indicators for non-primary fighters are, especially compared to the primary fighter's full portrait. There were plenty of times I prepared to fight a single foe, only to realise in the loading screen it had two or three allies. If I were to redesign it, I would make the conditions section much bigger, capable of holding eight or even ten lines, and put absolutely everything about the battle under it. I'd also put the portraits of all enemy fighters on the screen, either in full or in cutouts similar to Classic Mode's enemy fighter screen. For fights with the condition "Defeat the primary spirit to win", I'd change it to "1st", "2nd", etc to make it clear who it refers to. I've never studied graphic design or had a job involving it, so I can't say I'm an authority on the subject. These are all just my thoughts as a regular player, but hopefully they're interesting.

[@lunathegodkiller]

1:50 I never even noticed it was actually using the negative space; that's really cool! 3:55 I just went through the two DLC stages so far and cranked them all up to make it even, a few mains I changed, and the rest I left alone.

[@UnknownFlyingPancake]

As a MH fan I was curious if it would show up here pointing out some of the bad design. Honestly it would be really interesting if you did a video focusing on the series as a whole (Or even just World), highlighting both the good and the bad.

[@TheShadowscale]

As much as I enjoy MHW, I feel like it has less personality than its predecessors. The series has always (to my knowledge) had a pretty great stylish look to all of it's elements (UI, Menus, etc) but it felt kind of lost in World. And on a more mechanical note, MH has always had issues presenting information to the player. There is a *lot* of math going on behind the scenes and it could definitely stand to tell the player more info than it does. Most of the veterans know the difference between Demon Drink and Demon Pill, but the games do not, in any way, tell the player how much or for how long the item affects the character. How hard would it be just put in the item description "increases attack by 25 for 20 seconds"?

[@lionoaksimba2154]

could you please do a more character focused Good Design, Bad Design ???

[@Mezurashii5]

Mass Effect's graphics still aren't bad looking at all. They're very clean. For comparison, look at Call of Duty 4 - it's browny-greeny aesthetic combined with unnecessary (and not well managed) amounts of detail don't make it a pleasure to look at. It's only ME's animations that are a bit of a sore to the eyes.

[@PlebNC]

*Commander Shepard starts dancing* Bad Design.

[@Connore540]

I like the idea of finding a counterpart of the good and bad designs like with Smash Ultimate, I think you should do them more often in future videos

[@Elfos64]

What you were saying about the Ping system in Apex Legends reminds me of the Right Click in Warcraft 2. The game was made in the mid 90's, right around the time Macintosh mouses started having Right Clicks at all. Right Click was absurdly useful, it was like 6 hotkeys in 1 because it had context sensitivity programmed in. If you had a Peasant/Peon selected, right click could tell them to chop wood, mine gold, repair a damaged structure, move to a different spot on the map, attack an enemy unit/structure (though why you'd assign a Peasant/Peon to do that is beyond me), stick to/follow another unit, go inside a transport ship, etc. All things you would only ever want to do on purpose, none of its functions are things you wouldn't want to do on accident. Even if you did somehow input an accidental command, it would take half a second to input a new command to override the old command. It makes the alternative perfectly serviceable individual hotkey command feel almost cumbersome by comparison.

[@TheDiscussor]

I’m glad I’m not the only one who wanted stage hazard as a thing like omega and battlefield

[@BigYabai]

I think Melee had one of the best smash bros menus. It was simplistic but oozed that grungy feeling of the rest of the game.

[@uknownada]

17:06 That fighting HUD looks almost identical to Tekken 3's. Maybe that's why it looks fine. They just lifted it from something else.

[@Liggliluff]

(3:40) Really needs an instant min, max and default. Say have it be L for off, R for on, and X for default or something. At least that'll speed it up a bit. Maybe also have an all on and all off for each stage so you then can tweak it further.

[@Jirujan]

this feels like whole new knowledge, but NOT BORING

[@N12015]

2:33 That dynamic zoom is somewhat inaccurate because it doesn't consider the opponent changing the launch angle and speed... Which makes things even spicier on tournaments because you KNOW he barely survived and if someone dies earlier it's due to a mistake on that directional and launch speed influence (DI and LSI in short)

[@prorambler8605]

you can press L/R on the smash music slider to increase/decrease in chunks

[@AbsurdAsparagus]

deadly premonition is hard to criticize in the way you did, as its entirely posible that the strangeness was intentional. not to say its good, only that it may have been the way it is to achieve the goal of unsettling the player, and a discussion of good and bad should be looked at from that perspective.

[@DavisGSee]

I'm surprised you didn't mention the most annoying element of Smash's menu design. When you're choosing characters for a match, the READY TO FIGHT banner goes across the screen when all fighter tokens are placed. And it looks great, like you said, but it goes right across the characters, so if you want to change something, best case scenario the character you want might be hard to find under that banner, and worst case scenario you accidentally start the match before you're ready.

[@DesignDoc]

Yeah, that's not great either but it's really only a problem if you're trying to play against specific CPU characters. You can just call back your token with B.

[@TheJoeJoe323]

Yay, Pikmin’s UI finally gets some love!

[@mrmarioscatman]

Good to know I'm not the only one who thought the new custom ruleset system was clunky.

[@mrmarioscatman]

@@dickurkel6910 Why are you replying to my comment when that's not at all what I was talking about?

[@ArcadeStriker]

Surprised how you didn't note that you couldn't exit from Ehrgeiz's RPG mode without having to reset the console.

[@MrJechgo]

16:00 For a moment, I thought you were going to talk about the Playstation Mini menu :P Come to think of it... GOOD Design: NES and SNES Classics BAD Design: Playstation Classics

[@M4984LUV]

i love how the tiny bad design is in comic sans

[@LieseFury]

apex's ping system also is a huge accessibility tool for nonverbal and mute people

[@netherdark]

Awesome! This came just as I was rewatching your earlier videos to direct my design decisions. Hope to see more soon.

[@quazilasagna36]

"The 1st Mass Effect is amazing." As a person whos played through the Mass Effect series multiple times that phrase is definitely a first.

[@shinigamimiroku3723]

To be honest I actually prefer ME1 over 2 and 3 (in most aspects, as 2 did fix a couple of issues I had with 1).

[@lemonboy5498]

I 100% feel you on the smash ultimate music settings. I gave up on setting my music frequency except on a couple specific stages, like Mementos and Umbra Clock Tower

[@Smaft]

You just articulated exactly why I couldn't break through the first Mass Effect's barrier of entry (even though I didn't know why I couldn't get into it at the time). All I ever hear about it is how great of a game series it is, but I will never feel compelled to experience it myself. So tedious.......

[@ZeroSpawn47]

4:35 Everything you listed off is what makes Deadly Premonition charming and fun.

[@meredith382]

You ought to talk about the Splatoon 2 menu. Especially the Octo Expansion menus, they’re very aesthetically pleasing and clean.

[@JolanXBL]

For bad design, you should showcase Space Engineers, where every item in a system is in a generic list, no color, and no sorting

[@zodayn]

There is one choice I deeply hate in Smash Ultimate. When you play in Spirit mode and go to change your character, the screen is covered up in a huge FIGHT! button that covers the selection grid while your previous character is selected. Needless to say I went to that screen because I want to change my character, instead of a giant confirm button I should be brought to the grid, preferably with a hovering cursor as I am about to select someone else.

[@Liggliluff]

(3:10) And the whole "Special Smash" mode should have just been moved into rules. Want to change character scale? Have that as a percentage; and you can apply it to any game mode where you can set the rules. - That gives flexibility.

[@Arutnevv]

Your channel inspires me as a Graphic Artist. Thank you Doc.

[@apagan0075]

Squad Strike has this KOF style to it when selecting a character, selecting order and the HP heal between fights in Elimination

[@PlaugeofRomano]

The Pings in Apex reminds me of Meadow's communication system. The game is a relaxing online experience but it has no chat function at all. No vc, chat box or even phrases. Instead it relies on a series of symbols so people can communicate different things like showing a player a neat area they've found or getting them to help crack open a monolith for collectables. I remember when I was betatesting it there was no symbol for "I'm switching animals"; in order to switch species you had to exit the server and it simply looked like you were leaving. This lead to me returning to find my whole group had gone on without me. I suggested the idea for the symbol and it was added which was great. I probably wasn't the only person who suggested it, but it's nice that Might n Delight obviously listen to their testers.

[@rasenganpimp]

hey so I love Hyrule Warriors but I have always felt like it felt really bad in some regards.; I know you skipped over it but I would seriously love if you went over this one

[@Kirbman]

I'd argue that there is a point to the order set-up for Squad Strike. It's so you can set the order of your fighters without your opponent knowing. If you could see each other's order, then you could easily pick characters that you know can beat theirs easily. It's a bit more fair this way.

[@Mentis_Umbra]

There is only one game I can think of that chased me away to it's menu and it was the redesign for For Honor. Went from having Icons and names to just Icons. Really didn't feel like learning them. The character select I don't really have a problem with, but now has more wasted space. Used to be columns, then it was groups based on faction. Within a week or two of changes I deleted the game. It's a pretty fun game, was just getting into using optimal armor pieces. Also was one of the games I actually could feel the input lag from being wireless. After I noticed I was no longer able to play it without a wired connection.

[@Liggliluff]

Skyrim has an interesting bad design... In earlier versions on PC; it was defined that on an Xbox controller; A is confirm and B is back, inside menus. Perfectly fine, so even as I redefined the controls (A for _activate_ is changed to X, and B for _character menu_ is changed to Back/View/Select button), I could still use A and B for menu navigation. But then in an update, they decided to make it so whatever was the default control for A and B would now be the new confirm and back buttons for menu navigation ... horrible decision. Menu navigation is now a mess. X for confirm and Back/View/Select for going back - Luckily there's an .ini-file containing these values. So before it said something like "Menu back = B", and was updated to "Menu back = Character menu", so I just returned that to B, and the old method was back. - But they should of course allow you to define the confirm and back, and all menu buttons, in game.

[@BlueLightningSky]

It's understated how good the ping system is in Apex. But MOBAs have been doing similar things. You can ping the CD of your skills, how long till someone respawns, who is missing, where you're going, who to focus. But to see it in an FPS that works on consoles is amazing. I wish Overwatch had this. The tab screen in that game gives no useful information. As Zarya I always wish I could ping the CD of my shield. It's such a great feature because not only does it communicate that it is ready, depending on the context it could mean I am suggesting that we go in.

[@bryantmagdaleno8423]

At 0:35 did you just imply Brutal Legend was a bad game, I will fight you on that remark. Yeah the combat and RTS elements were not the greatest but the story, world building, comedy, and overall uniqueness as a love letter to fans of metal music made it a great game in my eyes. Also what other game could can you say you have a electric guitar as a spell book and Ozzy Osbourne as your upgrade merchant.

[@DesignDoc]

As far as the game part goes, yes. I LOVE everything in Brutal Legend that isn't the core RTS gameplay. The characters and world are great. Exploring is great. The menu UI is GREAT. The stage battles........nope.

[@bryantmagdaleno8423]

@@DesignDoc Oh on that your definitely right. It brings down what is overall a great game in my eyes. Wish they sticked to and improved the hack and slash gameplay. The stage battles definitely makes it hard to recommend to alot of friends because they have to suffer through them to get the the great world that surrounds the rest of medicore element. Glad to have you mention it through anyway, dont see it mentioned often enough, good game with some pretty big flaws but i still love it anyway, wish more knew about it.

[@LordEpos]

Lmao at using Smash Ultimate, the game where the bar on the right side of the main menu also appears on all submenus, but can't be accessed on all of them, as an example of good UI design. Literally in spirits mode there's a movement tutorial on the main map's hud that you can't remove, but no indicator of your level-up orbs, and then when you open the menu, the skill tree menu option, instead of showing your number of orbs, shows an "!" icon if you can get even the cheapest available skill, which is useless 90% of the time, and you need to scroll down to it and open the menu and do a load screen just to find out you're five orbs short.

[@LordEpos]

Oh, and if that's not enough, you can't exchange out your spirits for other spirits in the 'manage spirits' menu, you have to go to the 'party' menu, or how when you're loading into a match, changing your character and pressing "+" will return you to the selection screen, while pressing "+" when in the spirits menu will start the match. How about spirits mode's world map's run button being "B" but you also hold "B" to exit spirits mode? Even the thing people complained about most in smash 4's menu, having the phrase "& more" on a menu icon is back in this game! I'm sorry, but in my eyes at least, your channel lost a good chunk of credibility with this video, smash ultimate is a disaster :(

[@andrew9k424]

Did you even watch past the first minute? He said himself there was still a lot of things wrong with it in parts, it's just that it's a massive improvement over smash 4

[@LordEpos]

@@andrew9k424 I did. The thing is, though I guess it's more opinion-based than I would've assumed, I think it's far worse than smash 4, and I did not cover any of the same issues that he did. Limiting the segment to as short as it was implied that this was all he thought was wrong with the game's UIs.

[@scienceteam9254]

it might just be me, but i've just realized that ff6's 2nd half was weird. new characters just when the game's about to end feels sad because someone in the dev team probably wanted the character in the roster early on but got thrown at the part where not everyone would care to go to. also there's the problem some rpgs face where... oh i dunno... TOO MANY PLAYABLE CHARACTERS??? i like how some rpgs only focus on the max number of playable characters but the others...*cough octopath and persona cough* i mean most of the time the only role of the party members is to either kill or heal so if you have 7-8 characters who specializes in damage (including protagonist), then why should I use the other members? then they stay under leveled and get more and more useless as the game progresses. of course there's darkest dungeon and FTL: faster than light where stacking characters with the same skill set and skill level is beneficial because of the inevitable death of any of the characters throughout the playthrough leading to the point where all the heroes need to be maxed out in order to avoid grinding for too long in case you fail in the main quest. that's just me and my rant though. also great video.

[@Blurns]

Just say Chrono Cross. We both know you're talking about Chrono Cross.

[@scienceteam9254]

@@Blurns ironically i haven't played that game...

[@Blurns]

@@scienceteam9254 Oh. Well it's an RPG like FF6 and there are 45 total party members.

[@scienceteam9254]

@@Blurns oh god why?

[@niyazrahman2058]

the ping design is taken straight from DOTA2.

[@crisiscore341]

Hello there, Design Doc! I happened to stumble over your videos and they're really fun to watch! As a suggestion for one of your next videos, try looking at Blue Reflection for the UI design. I think it's really good and simplistic, even if the game is mediocre at best. As a not so ace example, I'd recommend looking at The Last Remnant. I had a blast with this game, but the screen feels a bit overstuffed with information (not half as bad as Gungnir, but eh, close enough).

[@Dave-vy9yo]

Ya know, everything you said about Mass Effect's UI reminded me exactly of Final Fantasy Tactics Advance's UI, too, it's simply too much of a mess. There is literally no way to compare weapons when you want to equip them, so you'd have to go from the equipment screen to the stats screen each time you wanted to compare old equipment. Rinse and repeat if what you equipped is actually worse! It uses simply too many menus for what easily could be turned into a single one: you had to press select, then go down a few options to select System, then go down a few options again to select saving the game, then have to confirm you do want to save the game, then mash the B button to go back all those annoying menu screens. And also just how annoying and confusing it was to select each character. And then after selecting the character was another prime example of too many menus in the game: good luck sorting through stats, equipment, abilities, and classes! This problem could have been solved using 'hotkeys' like in Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town, a game that, while also sins of having too many menu screens, at least you can memorize button combinations to be able to skip those annoying menus. Kudos to Final Fantasy Tactics A2 for fixing literally every issue with menus the first game had: shame on it for making everything far more worse to the point the menu fixes weren't even worth it.

[@eloujtimereaver4504]

An undersung ping system is the one in Warframe. It is not quite as robust as the one in Apex legends, but it serves almost all of the same purposes pretty much as well. Unfortunately a lot of players are not even aware of its existence, you pretty much have to look in the key rebinding window to find out how to do it.

[@DenSporetrix]

Yeah, sorting the songs in Smash Ultimate is a nightmare... Yet i went and did it anyway. I wasted a lot of time, is what i'm saying.

[@HaydenTheEeeeeeeeevilEukaryote]

That last example really surprised me. Like I kept thinking for previous ones, “how did this get past the common sense test?” Well that last example took it several levels deeper. Like why the fuck does that exist?

[@cross6781]

I find it a bit "maybe you have a problem with it, maybe you don't" on the smash bros menu, because I barely have problems with my friends, since we pick our own themes when we want to, since now you can choose pointedly the music you want.

[@comradewukong4342]

The video opening with Electric Toothbrush playing in tbe background made me very happy 💚

[@luissimoes4277]

Really interesting and funny video! I'm not only learning new aspects of Video Game design but you're also introducing me to games I've never played before! Thank you so much! Is there any chance you'll analyze a Kingdom Hearts/Disgaea game in the future?

[@DesignDoc]

We do have a video on Kingdom Hearts 1's tech point system here. kzbin.info/www/bejne/sJS8hJWcp7Roq9E

[@luissimoes4277]

@@DesignDoc Oh sorry, I didn't notice! Thank you for commenting!

[@MrMarinus18]

13:00 Another strength of pc is quick buttons. Since the keyboard has a practically infinite amount of buttons. On a gamepad the button number is more limited.

[@ZacMio]

YES I love this series

[@HaitaniMasayuki]

I spent well over an hour on the stage music options... and I actually enjoyed it! Giving certain Metroid stages mostly Ripley themes, etc. I just WISH that other people would disable the "Gamer" and "25m" track, or at least set it low, so it won't pop up all the time playing online!

[@RicochetForce]

Holy fuck that noise in the Ehrgheiz menu was something else. Wow.

[@Sackboy612]

The one critique of Smash' main menu is that the cursor isn't fully controllable, it would have made more sense to be able to spin the wheel.

[@skynet091287]

You keep mentioning that camera work is a big deal in designing a game, so i think you should mention how it can destroy a game if done wrong, as we haven't really seen a lot of bad camera work in these videos, at least not with any acknowledgement from you. A big contender for the worst camera work is either Dragon Ball Z Sagas or Castlevania on the N64... Dragon Balls camera struggles to keep up with the player, and for a close combat focused game with some platforming and adventure features, the camera seems to have been switched between what you need and what you get! The more open parts of the game where enemies shoot at you, the camera is too close, making it nearly impossible to see some enemies, while in stages where you do a lot of fighting against melee enemies, the camera is pulled so far back that it's almost impossible to see what your pixelated character is doing! Castlevania struggles with a camera that gets stuck on obstacles, leaving you to run around blindly in order to dislodge it from whatever it's stuck on, often leading you to taking damage or getting killed...

[@Sanodi21]

So if SSBU got inspired by P5, then which direction does it go when Joker arrives?

[@traeghniwwingyl8167]

What's Design Doc saying at 16:48ish? While focused on the weird memory card menu thing? I can't tell what what one word is, it sounds like "newmorphic"?

[@Henskelion]

Thinking back to the fact that I beat the entirety of Command & Conquer on the N64 with that goddamned controller makes me both proud and ashamed.

[@StarryKnightPinkle]

It’s like deadly premonition took one look at the logo for donkey kong country tropical freeze’s logo and said “That’s not enough fonts” and decided to give literally every Ui element a different font. 😂

[@baconicon13]

You need more views, man. Your videos are damn good.

[@cloud99337]

I think the image chat (forgot what it is really called) from phantasy star online episode 1 and 2 and phantasy star online 2 do i great job of communicating info and the ui to make them isn't hard but free for a lot of expression also you can save ones you have seen

[@etinarcadiaego7424]

In multiplayer games, I'm that guy who refuses to use a mic. I don't want to hear other people's voices and I don't want you them to hear mine.

[@WillowEpp]

Goddammit, I was really happy when you made like you might do Monster Hunter! As much as I love those games, Capcom has never, _not once,_ brought their UX A-game to the series and it's utterly baffling.

[@Gamesaucer]

Personally, when I played Oxenfree, I found its graphical design very immersive, fun, and easy to handle. With just one exception... the, uh, what are they? Tape players? I think it'd be cool if you talked about Oxenfree and your thoughts on it in a future instalment of this series.

[@SKsuprakirby]

As a League of Legends Player, the ? ping is most often used to BM your mates. ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? *You have to wait before issuing more pings*

[@EtceteraDude]

This has become one of my favorite series on KZbin. Makes me want to make a pretty videogame!

[@Epzilon12]

I love the Erghiez menu sound. It makes me laugh every time

[@azuarc]

lol at not even bothering to analyze Ehrgeiz. Just "here it is, yup this is awful, and this is bad, and oh hey a normal fighting hud, and...yup. Simply magnifique."

[@Johnnyb3g00d]

I'll be honest, the design of pikmin was so good that I didn't even realize it was an RTS. I assumed it was a completely unique game as a kid, despite Warcraft 3 being my most played game. Just goes to show how much effort they put in to reworking the genre from the ground up.

[@sininenblue9161]

Speaking of pings in apex legends promoting sportsmanship *Proceeds to question mark ping someone repeatedly in LoL

[@kelico8407]

Going forward maybe you could show how you would redesign bad UIs. Just a thought😊

[@EndertheDragon0922]

Wait, they put *Sepheroth* in their fighting game? Actually wait, SSB managed to pull off having Palutena, a literal goddess, in their games, so I shouldn’t be surprised.

[@AngelicDirt]

The thing about Deadly Premonition is that... it's so full of weird and gonk, you could very well surmise that all of the graphical and interface errors are York's sanity caving in. Would you be right? Probably not. But does it add something? Sure AF does. Grasshopper Manufacture, I love you... :P

[@JediMB]

It always bothered me that BioWare's response to criticism of their inventory/equipment management screens in Mass Effect was to just completely strip inventory out of the sequels. That seemed to be their solution to a lot of issues, instead of iterating on and improving what they had.

[@lnsflare1]

Had any RTS ever tried implementing touchscreen functionality? I would think that would be a great replacement for the mouse, but I don't recall seeing one using them on the DS/3DS/WiiU/Vita/Smartphone.

[@parsashirali8957]

“Talks about anything respawn related “ Ah yes good food