SomaSim
SomaSim is a small indie studio focused on making simulation games. Project Highrise tasked players with creating buildings of mixed used and of different shapes and sizes to fulfill different business objectives. Initially released on PC, and eventually console, we also did a mobile port for tablets. One of the games that inspired this title was SimTower.
Project Highrise
Below is the release trailer for the game, on PC, that includes some shots of the UI and gameplay.
Below is the trailer for the mobile app.
A video showing game play of the mobile tablet version of the game.
On this project I worked on designing the UI and collaborated on the UX for the PC version of the game. I also did all of the character animations for the male and female characters as well. Additionally I redesigned the UI and UX of the PC game to work for tablets.
Below is the trailer for the mobile app.
A video showing game play of the mobile tablet version of the game.
On this project I worked on designing the UI and collaborated on the UX for the PC version of the game. I also did all of the character animations for the male and female characters as well. Additionally I redesigned the UI and UX of the PC game to work for tablets.
Roles and Responsibilities:
- Design game UI and UX
- Present and discuss designs and layouts
- High and low fidelity mocks of different game elements and flows
- Character animations for all the games characters
- Redesigned the UI / UX of PC version of the game to work on mobile / tablet devices
- Synthesize feedback into actionable items and iterate on designs
- Coordinate and meet milestones while working with fully remote team
UI / UX
Below are samples of visual exploration I created for Project Highrise.
Early UI Mocks
This was an early mock of what the games visuals could look like. The background art was provided and I mocked up the UI visuals over top. This direction was leaning into the architectural nature of the games theme. This mock tries to include as many different on screen dialogs as possible to give a feel of placement and volume of information that might be available to a player at any given time.
Even at this early stage I am looking to assign certain UI elements to certain areas of the screen to allow players to easily create a mental map of the UI. For instance the bottom left corner in this mock has all of the functionality associated with the game space: build / destroy / zone.
Early Visual Explorations
Early exploration on nobs and number counters.
Early exploration on date and clock.