Chimera Squad
5 Months
Credited Roles
Additional Support
Responsibilities
I was assigned as the pre-production trailblazer on this project. Initially, the scope was quite small, and it was considered that I might be able to own this entire project’s UI by myself. I formulated a roadmap and man-hour projections to show that this would not be possible. During the five months, my time was split between engineering and design. I had never used ActionScript2 or UnrealScript, so I quickly ramped up and began to establish core tech and practices. I was also establishing the look and feel of the game (full style guide, HUD composition) and working with designers to wireframe their core mechanic.
I left the project when I gave birth to my baby girl, and when I returned I was reassigned to a larger project.
Style Guide
For the style guide, the original art direction was to attempt to take the original XCom styling and imagine it evolved into a future-government police state - Removing any embellishments and creating something for pure function. This led to a very flat, simple, and muted overall look.
Tactical HUD
For the HUD, we explored various ways to present the data before landing on our final approach. The look and feel was already beginning to evolve at this point, since the art direction was pushing toward the neon, more fun place where it ultimately came to rest.
Breach
This is a quick comp I did for showing a possible user experience for the Breach mechanic. For this design, different positions around the door indicated possible actions that unit could take once inside. Before any of the other positions could be assigned, the primary breaching unit would have to be chosen to enter. Then that unit could plan future movement and actions (indicated by yellow).
Overwatch
This is a comp to show how movement UI would respond as a unit moves into an area that was being watched by another unit. After a movement location is chosen, the player can then choose an area for that unit to watch.
Note
As you can see from the gameplay trailer, much of this work was not used in the final product. I believe the initial style guide and early UX explorations were helpful, however the team ultimately found their own path in a very demanding development environment.