作者：Caryn Vainio

游戏开发者可能会经常遇到别人知道如何进入游戏行业的情况，比如“我怎样才能成为游戏设计师？”或者“我有很多游戏想法，我该如何找到能够认可这个想法的工作？“这些问题并没有明确偏向于一些特定的职位，比如程序猿或艺术家。大多数人认为像我这样在游戏市场工作的人没有明确的头衔。在他们看来，我的任务只不过是“整天玩游戏”。

但偶尔，一些熟人会问我的游戏操作界面设计师的职位、资格和入门方法，并问“我如何成为一名游戏UI设计师？”“是时候回答这个问题了。

游戏操作界面(以下简称UI)的设计没有那么光鲜亮丽，只是游戏开发设备中的一个不那么引人注目的齿轮，不同于程序猿、艺术家和游戏设计师——这就是为什么我会惊讶于有人故意问我这个问题。但我很高兴看到这种情况，因为越合格的候选人开始游戏UI行业，这意味着我们将来会看到更好的游戏页面。对于UI设计师的市场需求，我可以理解地告诉你，每两个月，一些大型企业就会向我伸出橄榄枝，或者请我帮忙推荐合适的候选人。我还没有准备好找工作，因为我对Uber很满意 Entertainment的工作，但如果你想进入这个行业，你可以关注下一系列文章。我将在这里讨论游戏UI设计师的相关话题：

*游戏UI设计包括哪些内容？

*开始游戏UI设计领域的要求和标准

*工作类型：UI设计师、UI艺术家，及其复合设计师

*工具

*吸取经验

*与游戏制作相关的大学和课程

*"前人传授的经验"

*更多资源

UI设计师的工作是让玩家的输入行为与游戏世界中的操作保持一致，也可以是玩家从游戏中获得反馈的方式之一。最常见的游戏页面是HUD，它涵盖了玩家在大多数游戏中看到的信息。它经常显示健康价值、武器装备、玩家当前应用武器和其他信息。最常见的游戏页面是HUD，它涵盖了玩家在大多数游戏中看到的信息。它经常显示健康价值、武器装备、玩家当前应用武器和其他信息。

游戏UI还包括前面的菜单，如选择屏幕、服务器浏览器和除真实玩法外的相关屏幕。

有很多方法可以让你开始游戏UI设计领域，以下只选择一些典型的讨论：

*网页/使用UI开发者：这类人在UI的其他领域已经有了设计背景。毕竟优秀UI设计的原理是相通的，不管你设计什么产品UI。网页或应用UI开发者必须将以前掌握的设计技能转换并应用到游戏领域。游戏UI的设计与网页开发或应用UI设计采用相同的技能和原理：即使UI简单易懂、实用。网页和应用程序设计师需要掌握的额外技能是在不断变化的环境中传递游戏制作信息，以一种一般复杂的游戏制作系统，易于接受和传递信息。

*有广告设计文凭的人：没有学校提供游戏UI设计学位，但许多学院和大学已经推出了广告设计学位。假如你是刚毕业并有意进入游戏行业的新手，那么这可能是最理想的学位之一。很多UI设计都有广告设计技巧的要求。当然，如果你的主要学科是指这门学科，你更有可能在这里站稳脚跟。假如你属于这类人才，下一步就是将广告设计技巧应用到游戏UI设计中，并自学相关技能工具等。

*自学者：假设你不是网站开发者，应用UI设计师，没有广告设计学位？我可以证明你仍然可以成为游戏UI设计师。但你必须比别人更努力。你可以自己做设计任务，很多专业的平面设计师都是自学成功的。要积累足够的设计案例，向顾主证明你有可靠的设计经验。

每个游戏开发公司都有自己的UI制作过程，所以这里没有固定的游戏UI设计师模板。有些公司有一个完整的UI解决方案团队——比如BioWare游戏《Mass Effect》员工页面上有很多UI设计师的名字。一些公司的用户界面设计几乎不需要任何全职用户界面设计师，而是直接将用户界面工作外包给他人，或者让艺术家和程序猿组成一个用户界面团队。其他公司的UI设计师可能有多个职位，可能会为企业所有的游戏而不是特定的项目设计UI，并估计他们将负责公司营销宣传材料的广告设计和用户体验设计。

然而，大多数企业需要一些全职UI设计师或艺术家。以下是游戏UI开发者的三种关键类型：

*UI艺术家：这是承担UI视觉效果和艺术风格的开发者。他们可能不会参与更广泛的UI设计（游戏邦注：例如，整体步骤、客户体验以及UI和游戏设计理念的组合）。UI艺术家一般都有很强的艺术或广告设计水技能，一般也不需要有编程技能。当一家公司有UI艺术家时，UI的技术问题通常由程序猿或技术艺术家处理，而游戏设计师大多承担跟踪UI步骤和与游戏制作兼容的问题。在一些团队中，UI艺术家经常与UI设计师搭档，前者制作UI艺术内容，后者承担创建地图和IU步骤。UI艺术家的艺术技能在RPG这种对艺术规定很高的游戏中尤为重要。

UI设计师：这通常是游戏UI设计中的高端角色。他们不仅仅是制作艺术模型和UI艺术财产，而是制作与关键游戏制作相关的UI步骤和平面图。UI设计师很可能会制作基本可行的UI屏幕和转换模型，但最终的艺术设计工作仍将移交给UI艺术设计师。游戏设计师在一些团队中扮演UI设计师的角色。有些公司会让用户体验（UX）作为UI设计师的设计师。根据项目技术框架的现象，UI设计师可能不需要掌握真正的编程技能，而是制作流程图，将其转换为可行的UI。对编程略知一二的UI设计师，甚至可以设计出可投入测试UI粗略模型。

复合设计师：正如你所猜测的，这就是艺术家和设计师的结合。复合设计师应该同时扮演两个角色。首先，他们必须建立自己的手稿、流程表，并制作大型UI地图和步骤原型。然后他们必须建立一个适合测试UI屏幕（因为有些游戏概念必须使用UI原素，即使这些元素只是一个样本）。最后，复合UI设计师应与艺术总监协商最终的UI艺术风格，建立粗略的艺术财产，形成UI的外观和风格。在大多数情况下，复合设计师必须考虑艺术和技术能力，但他们不一定同时是这两个方面的专家。他们只需要形成大多数用户界面内容，让艺术家和程序猿进行最终版本的用户界面内容，并对其进行修改。

这些角色叙述只是大多数游戏公司UI职位的一般内容，实际上取决于不同公司和项目的情况。如果XYZ的第一款游戏是一款非常简单的射击游戏，而第二款游戏是一款大型MMORPG，那么它们对UI人员的要求将会非常不同。一般来说，复合UI设计师最多有技能，在每个项目的UI要求中更方便。

创建游戏UI有各种各样的工具可供选择，掌握这些工具成为游戏UI设计师也很重要。现在让我们列出一些UI设计新手必须知道的工具：

*Adobe Photoshop,Illustrator及Flash/Actionscript：UI设计师可以使用Adobe Creative 所有Suite可以实现的应用软件，但这些都是大多数UI设计任务中最常用的工具。Photoshop适用于建立从完整的UI模块到用于UI屏幕的个人财产的所有UI内容。Illlustrator是一个应用不广泛的游戏UI开发环境，但我个人认为它是用来制作清晰的流程表和标志的(我喜欢根据矢量工具制作标志，然后导入Photoshop，以建立应用于游戏所需的特定纹理)。

Flash的实用性体现在两个方面。首先，设计师可以在不建立具体可操作的UI内容的情况下，快速建立基本可行的UI流程和交互原型（在一些团队中，这需要程序员的帮助）。如果您有很多UI与复杂的交互系统，并且不确定它们是否满足设计师的需求，您可以使用Flash快速模拟完整的交互过程，让团队成员进行测试和反馈。Actionscript是Flash的脚本部件，通常是完成复杂交互的必要因素。

其次，Flash和Actionscript的结合是Scaleform(游戏邦注:这是UI系统在游戏中应用越来越广泛的开发工具)。使用Flash为Scaleform开发的游戏开发UI，方便直接将完整的Flash模型应用到游戏中，更省时省力。

纸和笔：最快的UI迭代方法是画出你的UI步骤和屏幕概念。很多人可能会问你用什么工具画流程图，并抛出很多答案。我的观点是，如果你还想学习绘图工具，认为它可以让你在开发UI时更方便，那就去学习吧。只是我认为纸和笔是一种更快地展示想法和迭代的方式。优秀的UI设计师通常可以在讨论过程中直接从白板上画出清晰的手稿。

用iPad等平板电脑制作UI手稿是另一种可行的方式 Pro、实现Paper等制图程序。这些应用通常与Dropbox一起使用、结合使用Evernote或共享服务等设备，您可以快速方便地将UI概念推送给团队成员。

游戏SDK：如果您的游戏项目不使用Scaleform和其他设备，而是使用独家UI系统，您至少必须掌握该模型的基本概念，以确保UI在游戏中顺利运行。游戏和科技公司很少选择创建自己的UI系统，而是选择包括Scaleform在内的特殊系统。然而，一些可以下载SDK的小型游戏项目可能会选择自己的UI系统。这种SDK支持您充分挖掘游戏的具体架构，包括UI。它将为用户开发人员提供相同的内容和工具，并允许您根据自己的喜好修改游戏。

有些游戏允许你调整UI，拆卸和更换默认的UI皮肤。例如，暴雪的魔兽世界允许你使用Lua脚本系统。如果你正视iPhone等设备制作游戏，你应该熟悉面对iOS平台的XCode可下载开发工具。

游戏邦注:全文于2012年4月发表，涉及的事项和数据以当时为准。（本文为游戏邦//gamerboom.com编译，拒绝所有不保留版权的转载。如需转载，请联系:游戏邦）

The Path to Game UI Design, Part 1: Character Sheets

When you’re a game developer and someone asks you how to get into the game industry — which happens about twice a week — they almost always mean, “How do I become a game designer?” or, “I have lots of ideas for games. How do I get a job where I can get paid for my game ideas?” (Hint: you can’t, but that’s another article for another time.) The question is almost never framed in the context of a specific position within the game industry, like a programmer or an artist. Most people tend to think of people like me who work in the game industry as having some kind of amorphous job title; in their minds the job description on my business card reads, “plays games all day” .

But once in a while I get asked specifically about my job as a user interface designer for games, my qualifications, and how I got here. Every few months I’m asked the question, “how can I –” (or my friend, or my cousin) “– become a game UI designer?” And I realized recently that it’s time I laid out the answer in something I can pull up easily the next time the question comes up.

User interface design for games isn’t glorious — it’s one of the less visible cogs in the machinery of making games, unlike programmers, artists, and game designers — and this is one reason why I’m often surprised I get the question at all. But I’m always happy to get it, because the more qualified people there are going into game UI the better game interfaces will get over time. And if there’s any question about the demand for UI designers, I can tell you that every couple of months I’m asked by some of the bigger companies in the industry if I’m interested in a position with them or know someone who’s qualified. I’m not looking, since I’m happy where I am (Uber Entertainment, of course), but if the demand is still high by the time you’re reading this and you’re interested in this path into the game industry, it’s a good time to be you. We’ll spend the next few days talking about these topics in becoming a game UI designer:

- What Encompasses Game UI Design?

- Who is Qualified? A look at the different paths into game UI design

- Types of Jobs: The UI Designer, the UI Artist, and the Hybrid

- The Tools

- Getting Experience

- About Game Design Schools and Programs

- “How Did YOU Do It?”

- Further Resources

What Encompasses Game User Interface Design?

A user interface designer’s work is the glue that binds the player’s input to actions in the game world; it can also be one of the ways that a player receives feedback from the game. The most common interface that people recognize in games is the Heads Up Display, or HUD. This is the overlay of information that a player sees in most games, and it frequently displays information such as health, ammo for weapons, what weapon is currently in use, and more.

Game UI also encompasses front end menus, such as options screens, server browsers, and other similar screens outside of the actual gameplay.

Who Is Qualified?

The path into game UI design can be approached from many angles. Let’s discuss a few of them, going from most experienced to least.

The Web/App UI Developer: This person already has a background in UI design in another field. Since the principles of good UI design are the same no matter what you’re designing UI for, such a developer is already halfway there. The web or application UI developer will need to translate his or her knowledge and skills into the world of games. Designing game UI uses the same set of skills and principles as web development and design or application UI design does: the UI needs to be communicative and easy to use. The additional skills the web or app developer will need to acquire are the ability to communicate game design information in an environment that is constantly changing and learning how to present what can frequently be complex game design mechanics in a way that is understandable, informative, and barrier-free. Later on we’ll cover ways to practice these skills.

The Graphic Design Degree Holder: There aren’t any colleges that offer a degree in game UI design, but there are plenty that offer degrees in graphic design. This is one of the most applicable degrees you can have if you’re fresh out of college and want to work in games. Much of UI design requires graphic design skills, so if your education was focused on this, you’ve already got a foot near the door. If you fall into this category, your next steps should be to work on applying your graphic design skills to game UI and to educate yourself on the tech and tools involved.

The Self-Starter: What if you’re not a web developer, app UI developer, or even someone with a degree in design? It’s still possible to become a game UI designer — I’m evidence of that. But you’ve got more work ahead of you than anyone else. You’re probably doing design work on the side (or you should be), and plenty of working graphic designers are self-taught. Making sure you have plenty of work under your belt to show that you’ve got design chops is going to be the biggest task on your list.

The Path to Game UI Design, Part II: The Roles

Yesterday we looked at what types of backgrounds might be applicable to game UI design. Today we’ll talk about the three main roles that the UI designer or artist might play in the game industry.

Types of Jobs: The UI Designer, the UI Artist, and the Hybrid

Every game development company has their own process for developing UI and there isn’t one specific template you can try to fit into to become a game UI designer. Some companies have entire teams to handle their UI — BioWare’s credits list several UI designers for Mass Effect, a game with obviously huge UI requirements. Other companies have such minimal UI that they may not even employ a full-time UI artist, instead choosing to contract their UI work out or to pull an artist and a programmer together to make a UI team. And other companies may have UI designers that serve as a kind of service provider for the whole company, providing UI design services for all the games the company is working on rather than being attached to one specific project, and possibly additional services such as graphic design and user experience design for marketing and promotional materials.

But most companies need some kind of full-time UI designer or artist; let’s take a look at the three main types of game UI developers.

The UI Artist: The UI Artist is someone whose focus is almost entirely on the look and art style of the UI. He or she may have little to no involvement in the bigger picture of the UI — the overall flow, the user experience, or how the UI integrates with the game’s design concepts. The UI Artist usually has very strong art or graphic design skills and is usually not expected to have any technical skills in scripting or coding. When a company has a UI artist on board, the more technical aspects of the UI are usually handled by a programmer or other technical artist, while a game designer tends to the flow of the UI and its integration with the game design. On some teams the UI Artist is paired with a UI Designer, who creates the map and flow of the UI while the artist creates the look and feel. The UI Artist with strong art skills is essential for art-heavy UI in games like RPGs.

The UI Designer: The UI Designer typically has a more top-level role in the design of a game’s UI. Rather than creating art mock ups and UI art assets, he or she usually creates sketches and wireframes that map out the flow of the UI and how it will integrate with the core game design. The UI Designer will likely produce rough working prototypes of UI screens and transitions, but he or she will probably leave the final aesthetic design up to the UI Artist or the art lead. On some teams the role of UI Designer is played by a game designer. Some game companies look for UX (User Experience) Designers to handle the role of both the UI designer and the user experience designer. Depending on the tech structure of the project, the UI Designer may not need to do any actual scripting or programming, and instead may create sketches and wireframes that a programming team will turn into working UI. A UI Designer that can do basic scripting or coding, however, is likely able to work without depending on others to get rough prototypes of UI into the game for testing.

The Hybrid: The Hybrid is, as you guessed, a combination of both The Artist and the Designer. The Hybrid UI Designer needs to function in both roles. First he or she will create rough sketches, wireframes, and working prototypes of large-scale UI maps and flow. Next he or she will create rough working UI screens in the game for testing and work purposes (since some game concepts require UI elements to fully function, even if those elements are roughed in). And finally, The Hybrid UI Designer will work with the art lead to determine the final aesthetic style of the UI and create the raw art assets needed to complete the UI’s look and feel. In most cases the Hybrid UI Designer will have both art skills and technical skills but may not be an expert in either area, instead being a switch-hitter who can take the UI most of the way to completion and then allow artists and programmers on the team to bring the UI to its final completion and polish.

These role descriptions are only a rough guideline on the types of UI positions most game companies might employ, and the specifics will vary from company to company and even from project to project within a company. If Company XYZ’s first game is a bare-bones shooter and their second game is a large MMO (massive multiplayer online) RPG, the type of UI person they’ll need is going to be very different between the two projects. In all cases, The Hybrid UI Designer has the most varied skill set and will likely be the most successful at being able to easily move from project to project despite widely changing UI needs.

The Path to Game UI Design, Part III: The Tools

Yesterday we talked about the different hats that UI designers and artists wear in the industry; today, let’s discuss the tools that they use.
There’s a wide variety of tools used in creating game UI, and experience with those tools is going to be critical to becoming a game UI designer. Let’s look at the tools that every budding UI designer should be familiar with.

Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and Flash/Actionscript: A UI designer can use any set of applications that do what the Adobe Creative Suite does, but this is the most common set of tools for the bulk of UI design tasks. Photoshop is used to create everything from full UI mock ups to the raw individual assets used within UI screens. Illustrator is less commonly used as a game UI development tool, but I personally find it useful for creating clean wireframes (more on that in a moment), and for icon work (I prefer creating suites of icons in a vector-based tool and then taking them into Photoshop to create the actual textures used in the game).

Flash is useful for two reasons. First, a designer can create quick and dirty working prototypes of UI flow and interaction without needing to create and run UI in the game (which, on some teams, might need the help of a programmer). If you have a chunk of UI that has a set of fairly complex interactions and you’re not sure if it meets the design needs of the game designer, you can mock up the full interaction in Flash very quickly and have anyone on the team test it and provide feedback. Actionscript is the scripting component of Flash and is often necessary for more complex interactions.

Secondly, Flash and Actionscript together are a development environment for Scaleform, the UI system that is becoming more and more common in games. Developing UI in Flash for games that use Scaleform will allow you to be able to take well-developed Flash mock ups directly into the game, saving time.

Pen and paper: Sketching out your UI flows and screen concepts with pen and paper is the quickest way to iterate on UI. While many people will ask you what wireframing tool you use — and you’ll hear a lot thrown around — I’ll editorialize a bit and say that if you want to learn to use a wireframing tool and it makes your UI development easier, by all means use it. But I’ve found pen and paper to be the absolute fastest way of getting ideas out and iterated on. Learn the various wireframing tools if you can work quickly and easily in them, but it’s a valuable UI designer who can do clear, informative sketches on a whiteboard during discussions.

Sketching UI with tablets like the iPad is another possibility, and can be done with sketch programs such as Sketchbook Pro, Paper, and more. These apps often integrate with tools such as Dropbox, Evernote, or sharing services, which let you quickly and easily send your UI concepts to team members without having to scan them.

Game SDKs: If your game project doesn’t use a tool like Scaleform and instead has a proprietary UI system, you’ll need to at least learn the basics of that system in order to get UI up and running in the game. Fewer game and tech companies are opting to build their own UI systems and are instead moving to include systems like Scaleform. Some aller games with downloadable SDKs (Software Development Kit), however, may have their own UI systems. These SDKs allow you to dig into the actual construction of the game, and possibly its UI, by giving you all the same content and tools that the game creators used and letting you make whatever changes you’d like to make it your own. Some games allow you to play with just the UI, essentially reskinning the default UI — Blizzard’s World of Warcraft allows you to do this by using the Lua scripting system. And if you’re looking to work on mobile games for devices like the iPhone, you’ll want to get yourself familiar with XCode, the freely-downloadable development environment for iOS.（source：part1、part 2、part 3）