Game Design Analysis

Good game design is similar to good editing in a film in the sense that when it's truly good you don't notice it. One way I've described game design is "teaching the player without them knowing they're being taught". The art of intuitive design is universal and the principle of making something feel natural is important to both game design and UX design because they are a one and the same.

Less is More

I'm going to be comparing the UI and game design of 2 similar games; the classic Super Smash Bros. and the new Multiversus.

Both of these games are part of the genre known as "platform fighters". Rather than lowering your opponents health bar to win, like in conventional fighting games, the player wins by knocking their opponent off the stage or launching them off the screen which is referred to as the "blast zone".

In conventional fighting games the health bars are displayed on the top of the screen. Characters are grounded and occupy the bottom half of the screen, occasionally jumping but staying grounded for the majority of the game. Because of this, the health is displayed where it stands on its own to avoid visual clutter. It's almost like the header of a webpage, drawing in attention and making a statement about what's being described below it.

Platform fighters are much less grounded. A lot of the gameplay is fought in the air and one of the main ways to win is the launch your opponent in the air far enough that they're not on the screen. Rather than health the player has a percentage which refers to the multiplier that applies the knock back. The higher your percent, the further you fly when hit. Naturally, this takes up less space than a full horizontal health bar.

Knockouts in platform fighters very often occur at the top, or side of the screen. Occasionally players will fall off the stage, but never through it. The stage is a solid entity, you battle on top of the stage but not inside it, so it acts as a bit of a negative zone, highlighted by the red box I added. Because of this it makes sense that the important information is located at the bottom of the screen or in this red box. Players will very rarely obstruct the information here. As you can tell by the above image, this is how Super Smash Bros. displays their information to the player.

In an attempt to innovate and reinvent the wheel Multiversus opts to display the percentage directly under the characters themselves, and showing character portraits at the top of the screen. Additionally, the game has status effects and ability cooldowns also displayed attached to the characters. In a very fast paced game this creates a lot of screen clutter and can make things difficult to understand for both players and spectators. Without the portraits you'd never know that was Wonder Woman.

How does Super Smash Bros. convey similar information?

Any lingering information that a character would need to display (such as meters for special moves or when a special move is ready) is displayed right on top of the characters portrait with a easy to recognize icon or graphic. This way both the player and the opponent can quickly glance and see the status of a character without it cluttering the screen. For certain other characters or mechanics it is shown on the characters themselves by adding an effect on the character's model. As a neat detail the style chosen for the status display is based on the style of the game the character originally comes from.

Here is another example of the character visually changing to alert the other player that a change of state has happened. When this character's ability is fully charged the character will start blinking. When playing a game like this you look at your opponent and don't want anything to clutter or obstruct your view of that character. If I see my opponent start blinking or glowing red I immediately know they have something ready that I need to look out for, even without looking at the character portraits at the bottom of the screen.

Conclusion

To Multiversus' credit the game does include many mechanics and statuses that need to be conveyed to the player. However, an argument could be made that including this many statuses or mechanics without having a reasonable and clear way to convey them to the player is itself a design flaw.

Additionally, the game does have settings to change where the damage or cooldowns are displayed so players who don't like having them attached to the character can change that. As far as settings goes Multiverses does have great accessibility and customization options.