Selection screen research

Right, so before I began to design the selection screen, I realised that I was going to have to look at and evaluate several different existing selection screens featured in various games. Some of them I really liked and too inspiration from, a lot I didn't like at all.
So please brace yourself for a very long post, as there's lots for me to go through.

:NOTE: The images in this specific post are not mine, I do not claim that they are in anyway, and they are copyright to their rightful owners.



So this was the first selection screen that I looked at, and gathered inspiration from to create this first draft.

Looking at it now, I don't think it's particularly anything amazing. I'm not sure exactly what game it was from, so I don't know what era it came from, which could explain the blocky graphics if it's quite an old game, although by the looks of it it was on one of the xbox platforms.
One thing that I really did like in this design though was the maximised image on the right hand side of which ever character the cursor is on.
How ever much I like that idea though, I think it's been pulled off quite badly in this shot, as the full scale portrait of the selected character is quite a confusing image. I think what causes this is the mirror behind the character, and the extended arm over the dark background. The characters blue colouring also doesn't help to stand out from the rest of the image either, which further contributes to the confusion of the eye.

And so after I created the first mock up I realised that I was going to have to look at several other examples until I found enough aspects that I liked and could incorporate into my own design.

Most of the next images that I researched didn't really inspire or influence me in anyway, nor did they stand out for me either.






The only things that really stood out for me was the really detailed portrait of Darth Vader on the Soul Calibur screen (the first of these four images) and the really detailed character icons on the Mortal Kombat screen (the last image). The idea of incorporating these two aspects allowed me to further develop my original design to what it is now.

There is one final selection screen that I want to feature, and that's the one that stood out and appealed the most to me. It's quite delicate and beautiful looking, with really interesting details on the character icons.



After seeing this design, it inspired me to experiment with the icon borders, which is where this came from. I also really liked the soft quality that the design has, and the two sketches on either side of the screen.

So that's all the research I conducted for my selection screen, and I really think that the outcome of my design would have been totally different to the one I have now if I hadn't looked at existing designs. I also think that my own work would have been a lot weaker if I hadn't.