Jared Delamora

MAIN MENU
NAVIGATION SYSTEM

The Main Menu is one of the first menu’s the player interacts with.
Every year, our goal is to try and give the player an immersive experience –
although, the challenge with the Main Menu is that your dealing with multiple top-level modes with each mode carrying a multitude of nested sub-menus.

The previous year for 2K18, the Main Menu handled this by navigating through horizontal and vertical lists. I wanted to get away from relying on the formatting of lists and instead focused on bringing forth content of each top-level menu. Also, I wanted to give the player a visual breadcrumb to help indicate where the player is located and how to navigate back.
My goal was to alleviate the player from confusion as they emerged themselves within the nested sub-menu’s. Lastly, we utilized camera movements and transitions to help steer the player through our navigation system, for example, if a player is going into a game mode, we move the camera to its respective area within the environment. If a player is entering a sub-menu, we push the camera forward (z-axis), If a player is backing out from a sub-menu, we move the camera back (-z-axis).

MYTEAM
REDESIGN

The MyTeam mode needed a complete UX and UI redesign.
Working with the MyTeam designers and the MyTeam Lead UI Artist, we overhauled the navigation system with the intention of showcasing content within the top-level menus.
One of our main challenges, was creating modular layouts that allowed us to turn on/off specific menus in real-time. I helped by providing a concept with an ideal UX and visual design. The conceptual layout, helped focus the direction of the new navigation system.

TRANSITION FROM ARTIST TO PRODUCER

The art department at Visual Concepts was going through some production changes. Through those changes, the studio needed to hire art producers for each department i.e. characters, environments, animation, UI etc.
At the time, as a UI/UX designer, I was having discussion with the UI Art Director and bouncing ideas on how to improve the department. In one of those times, my UI Art Director asked if I would be interested in transitioning to an Art Producer role and I was glad to do so given my interest in the area.

I went ahead started with getting my self familiarized with the production team and workflow. Attended meetings with Executives and Directors to understand the department’s needs. Coming from an Artist background, it helped me identify and address inefficiencies within our production workflow.
During 2K19, I learned how to lean on my experience as an artist to help resolve pipeline roadblocks.

SHOTGRID

(FORMERLY KNOWN AS SHOTGUN)

As I step into the Art Producer role, the art production team was already incorporating a production tool called ShotGrid (formerly known as Shotgun). I quickly picked up the tool and learned to utilize it. The goal was to have every department including the engineering team to utilize ShotGrid for task management. This was a challenge even within our Art department.
At the time, the tool was not pleasing to look at. Even though our art production team saw the tool as a powerful software for task management, unfortunately the tool lacked UI and UX design and made it difficult for anyone to care about the tool. To help onboard the tool to each department, I worked closely with the Engineering Manager and Lead Tech Artist and created visual homepage templates for the artist, engineers, producers and designers. Each template contained a condensed limited version of the tool and allowed each individual to only see what matters to them. This helped the studio move forward with implementing ShotGrid as our production tool.

NAVIGATION STRUCTURE

I moved forward with creating simple wireframes and blocking out the desired experience.
I started with the top-level menus and worked down to the sub-menus. I wanted to make sure the sub-menus stood out from other nested sub-menus. To do so, I decided to remove lists and instead have the content be represented. This allowed the player to view sub-level content on the top-level.

ANIMATIC
BLOCKOUT

I wanted each mode to feel memorable so I decided to utilize an environment and give the player some visual representation of the mode. The goal was to have each mode and its respective menu on a dedicated area. This would help the player have a visual breadcrumb and understand what part of the game they are in.
I created an animatic (which is an animated block-out).
I started with UI aesthetic exploration and taking into account of our navigation system and our UX. I wanted to make sure the navigation system allows the player to easily journey throughout our various menus. The Main Menu was going to be contained within an environment, allowing the player to travel through various location within. Lastly, we also wanted to utilize camera transitions. This would allow the player to see which menu they are coming from and where within the environment are they heading.

INGAME

Here is the final result of the Main Menu.

FEATURED
TRAILERS

Below are the official trailers released for the PS4 and XBOX One versions of the game.