intro rambling
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPGsGYahjd0 Dirt 2 goes to the far extreme of spatial menus, making every option have its own space in the world. Because of this there are a lot of opportunities to integrate the theming, through maps and tv’s etc. The major downside of this is that moving through all these menus takes time, as well as making it more difficult to find the menu you're looking for. Particularly things like moving “outside” are an unnecessary additional layer that the player shouldn’t have to think about.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJR8kOpMlJc Shift 2 uses a simplified somewhat 3d radial menu to access the different settings. This setup feels more interesting than a flat menu, however it misses the association of different screens tied to different locations and doesn’t convey much of the theme of the game through its interface.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LrFJ420Xbs Grid 2 is a nice balance of the two approaches, more environmental feedback than Shift 2 by having the different menus in different locations but it keeps the usability and simplicity of a traditional 2d menu by not having lots of submenus to get to different locations. The theming is conveyed well through the garage environment, but it doesn’t become as cumbersome as Dirt 2.
The initial concept was to do a camera that would move around a building similar to Grid 2, but early on I decided to make it more focused on the car. I started by just getting the car in place, positioning cameras in the different locations and transitioning between them.
I spent quite a while simplifying the connections to other menus, trying to make sure that it was easy for the user to access what they wanted without having to go through several menus. For example, adding a direct route from the pause menu to quitting the game rather than having to go back to the main menu to quit.
I slowly added more visuals and feedback. Initially I had assumed I would use a pixel font however I ended up switching to drawing each of the pieces of text separately. This allowed each menu item to feel unique and match the rough pixel art aesthetic I was going for. Another thing that helped the readability of the text was to render it separately on top of the pixelated background.
I moved from a simple main menu to a first-person perspective camera in the driver's seat, because I felt that it was strange to transition from menus in 3d space to a 2d menu. The first-person perspective allowed the title to take up most of the initial view, while still being able to access routes to the different menus.