BioWare toying with Mass Effect 3 HUD

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 29 March, 2011

Senior designer loves Dead Space interface.

BioWare is thinking about how it can improve the heads up display for third-person science fiction shooter Mass Effect 3 – and Dead Space may provide some answers.

One of the signature visual effects of Visceral Games' superb action horror series is how information is integrated into the environment – from health bars to inventory to the map.

Mass Effect, which employs a cover system, utilises a more traditional HUD. But could that change for the hotly anticipated Mass Effect 3?

"We actually had the exact same thought during ME2 development and did a few prototypes of a health and shield indicator in world on Shepard's armour," senior designer Brenon Holmes wrote in a response to a fan post on the BioWare forum.

"The end result was not as great as we'd hoped...

"It was OK when Shepard was out of cover, like in the image you linked. The issues started to crop up once you popped into cover, with the way that the camera was positioned and with Shepard's orientation changing we had to do some fairly crazy stuff to get the health indicator to display in a reasonable position.

"Even then it ended up being rather confusing to reference when you were in the middle of a fight. I think if we'd simplified our health system so we only had one meter or bar it might have been easier to represent it on the armour (like on Isaac's back in DS).

"All that said, we're still really interested in trying to move information into the world. That's one of the things that I love about Dead Space; the interface... it feels really immersive. I just want to touch the hell out of those buttons.

"So we are still investigating ways of putting some of our HUD elements into the environment... we'll see what we end up with."

Little is known about Mass Effect 3, due out on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 simultaneously this Christmas.

The Mass Effect 3 teaser video, below, shows a war torn London ravaged by aliens. An English-accented voice over reveals Earth is under attack. A sniper shoots from inside Big Ben, and male Commander Shepard is seen viewing the destruction from space.

The official blurb reads: "Earth is burning. Striking from beyond known space, a race of terrifying machines have begun their destruction of the human race.

"As Commander Shepard, an Alliance Marine, your only hope for saving mankind is to rally the civilizations of the galaxy and launch one final mission to take back the Earth."

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (35) Latest comment 1 year ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • hypoBla5t #1 1 year ago

    Cool.

  • gjgjg #2 1 year ago

    copycats ;p

  • GamesProgrammer Verified Games Team Programmer, Eutechnyx Ltd. #3 1 year ago

    To be fair the only thing thats not top notch about the mass effect games is the interface, dont know if necessarily needs to be in the game world itself, but it good be alot prettier and alot more friendly.

  • Sodding_Gamer #4 1 year ago

    I don't care what they do with the hud as long as its 3 discs long and has an amazing story :p Should keep with tradition, mass effect 1, 1 disc, 2 2 discs, 3 3 discs!!!!

  • GamesProgrammer Verified Games Team Programmer, Eutechnyx Ltd. #5 1 year ago

    @sodding_gamer

    They make it to 2 blu rays then i will be impressed :p

  • Sodding_Gamer #6 1 year ago

    @GamesProgrammer

    Likewise. Having played Mass Effect 1 over 4 times and mass effect 2 3 times. I want a bigger game!!! I have a ps3 too but I would have to get the 360 version so I could keep with the disc trend haha ;) God I'm so sad xD

  • andywilkie35 #7 1 year ago

    Knowing Bioware, they'll hold back the HUD and release it as extortionate DLC.

  • MojoDex #8 1 year ago

    That English voiced guy is Sean Bean, I swear to god!

  • MattEdWithCheese #9 1 year ago

    surprised I'm in before PC gamers blame console gamers for silly design decisions on the part of the developer...

    /Hopes bioware deliver on the promise of making ME3 more of an RPG than 2

  • Sodding_Gamer #10 1 year ago

    @MattEdWithCheese

    Me too. And no foookin Multiplayer please! I absolutely loved both Mass effects however I disagreed with how they changed the levelling up system as i preferred just adding points and getting little bonuses here and there.... and removing the MAKO completely, and the side missions, once completed just ended and you couldn't go back.

    In mass effect 3 they should totally bring back the MAKO in more varied environments and let you come back to the planets!!!!!! I know people hated the MAKO but I thought it was quite fun messing about making it do backflips and stuff xD

  • andywilkie35 #11 1 year ago

    Will probably release the game in 5 minute installments at around 800 Microsoft points each.

  • kinky_mong #12 1 year ago

    Do they need a health HUD? If 2 is anything to go by all you need to know is your shield will drop as soon as you pop your head out of cover while every enemy absorbs your peashooter shots like sponges. Then just repeat this through lots of dull corridors and do a few dialogue trees for 40 hours.

    "Wow it's the game of the year!" Give me strength.

  • Sodding_Gamer #13 1 year ago

    @andywilkie

    Sorry but I don't get your problem with DLC. Fully completing Mass effect 2 took me 40 hours. That is bloody good for a game nowadays. They added loads of DLC at a fair price IF you want to expand your knowledge of the universe and IF your interested and as much as a fan as I am.

    So if you don't like DLC just don't get it simple as. But I personally love it.
    Edited by Sodding_Gamer at 29/03/11 @ 09:49

  • kinky_mong #14 1 year ago

    They added loads of DLC at a fair price

    PAH! An hour's extra of game for £5! You could make a fiver last longer at a coin guzzling arcade!

    For future reference when you want to discuss fair priced DLC use Borderlands as your reference point.

  • Sodding_Gamer #15 1 year ago

    @Kinky_mong

    Sorry do you live in a third world country? Fair enough if you don't think an hour is worth a fiver. Just don't buy it then. That is what I'm saying.

  • udat #16 1 year ago

    I'd be astonished if the London Eye was still standing in whatever year Mass Effect is set in!

  • Widge #17 1 year ago

    I don’t like DLC, the release of drips of gameplay over the course of a few months. I want the entire lot of content there to be accessed when I play the game through the first time, as part of the game.

    I picked up ME2 cheap off Steam and kind of begrudged having to pay out more than the game price on DLC. In fact I’ve only now grabbed it all after completion and am going to dive into it when Arrival hits. The thing about DLC is that you’re used to a nicely paced 45 hour game, and then you get all this drip feeded bollocks afterwards. Its why half the time I spend waiting for the GOTY edition instead.

  • Sodding_Gamer #18 1 year ago

    Now everyone is negging me because I'm saying don't buy DLC if you don't want to pay for it?!

    Which is the whole point of DLC... It's completely up to you if you want to buy it.

    Fairplay if you play a game thats half done and then they ask for 1200MP to play the rest. But mass effect 2 is quite the contrary

  • kinky_mong #19 1 year ago

    @Sodding_Gamer: Classy argument, I don't think gameplay that lasts 1/40th of the games length is worth 1/8th of it's price, so I must be a third world peasant.

    I bought all the DLC when it was on sale at Christmas, and of the bits I've played so far I would have felt very short changed if I paid full price for them.

    Fairplay if you play a game thats half done and then they ask for 1200MP to play the rest. But mass effect 2 is quite the contrary

    That's exactly what will happen if you buy Mass Effect 2 second hand, they charge you 1200 for the lacklustre Cerberus Network DLC and then even more for the rest of it.
    Edited by kinky_mong at 29/03/11 @ 10:16

  • Sodding_Gamer #20 1 year ago

    @Kinky_mong

    Well done for you bargain hunter! That's why you look at DLC reviews before you buy ;) I've also played them all and I have to say I have paid for a lot more dlc for other games that have been absolutely terrible. But I didn't moan about it. Just got on with my life.

  • ShiroBen #21 1 year ago

    I remember nothing about ME2's HUD except for the whirly skill/weapon-select thing. Which means it did its job perfectly. Don't change it; it's not broken.

  • LHH #22 1 year ago

    So they want to streamline the HUD even more? Gears of Effect 3 it is then

  • Seoh #23 1 year ago

    As long as they don't do a dragon age 2 and have you explore the same area again and again and again ........

  • Sodding_Gamer #24 1 year ago

    @Kinky_mong

    One very last thing!! Don't buy second hand! unless its a shit game xD

  • spekkeh #25 1 year ago

    Excellent, Dead Space 2 is probably the best game out there when it comes to immersive qualities. Although ME2 already was a massive step up from ME1, further tinkering (yes streamlining) is always good.

    Taking away the HUD also frees up the peripheral areas of the screen for environmental information. This means that the game and level designers don't have to engineer it so that all the major events always happen in the center of your view, lest it end up behind hud information or away from the area of focus the player has mentally categorized as environment information and onto interface information. The player also does not have to move the camera around as much, because the entire screen becomes environment information. A problem that's normally further exacerbated by ME's targeting system that needs the player to center on the target for the radial menu to work as it was intended.
    Edited by spekkeh at 29/03/11 @ 12:48

  • 32768Colours #26 1 year ago

    @spekkeh

    Excellent post sir!

    I thought the Dead Space interface was pretty classy but I hadn't really given any thought to that particular benefit. As long as Bioware don't shoe-horn things in - and it sounds like they won't - then it could be quite impressive :)

  • spekkeh #27 1 year ago

    ^ thanks.

    I'm not quite sure if it's at all possible to do with ME, because there's simply so much information there to incorporate, but I always find it interesting to hear that some game and interface designers are busy with what is still a much overlooked but methinks important area: cognitively engineering the game experience. A lot of developers just seem to rehash what other people did without giving it clear thought.

  • Ryze #28 1 year ago

    "...it feels really immersive. I just want to touch the hell out of those buttons..."

    Kinect support confirmed!

    /runs

  • Mirqy #29 1 year ago

    I played ME2 a lot and really enjoyed it. One revelation that hit me after quite a few hours of play was just how beautifully detailed the enemies were. I'd spent the whole time up to then staring fixedly at the shield bars above their heads, since you have to whittle them down before half your attacks have any effect.

    Worked ok as a game mechanic, except that it meant that often many of your powers were useless, and occasionally you didn't have any useful powers, depending on the enemy. But mainly it meant that I didn't actually get to look at the game I was playing, just at the arcadey readouts.

  • Gastrian #30 1 year ago

    Post deleted at 17:56:43 13-04-2012

  • spekkeh #31 1 year ago

    Sounds like Matrix Revolutions.

  • Inmediasress #32 1 year ago

    @MattEdWithCheese

    After the, well lets just say problematic DA2 game and seeing ME3 with a multiplayer mode or whatever. Why do I get the feeling that ME3 will have even less rpg then ME2.

  • Soton4084 #33 1 year ago

    Sounds like a good idea, I've always been a huge fan of the Dead Space HUD.

  • nooooobie #34 1 year ago

    That's a shame, because I think that the Dead Space interface is crap :\

  • spekkeh #35 1 year ago

    what was crap about it?