Uligo: A Slime's Hike

ROLE

Design UI/UX

DESCRIPTION

Uligo: A Slime's Hike is Nôrdika Studio's first game. It's a precision platformer that was produced with accessibility in mind straight from the beginning. As a studio, we wanted to prove that even a small indie studio could make a great game with accessibility options. One of the biggest challenges of this project was to create a simple HUD that could be modified at will and still look good.

YEAR

2022

GENRE

Precision Platformer

PLATFORM

Steam

MADE WITH

Unreal Engine 4

Color Picker

The color picker is the set of options that we are most proud of. Initially, we set out the goal to be at least able to modify the color of the main character or, if needed, to be able to see it more clearly through all the different backgrounds the player would travel.

By the end of the project, we are now able to modify the color of every gameplay element of the game while also being able to set everything else in different shades of gray.

While developing the functionality, we discovered the use of Material parameters in Unreal Engine which allowed us to communicate the vector parameter from the selected color directly to the textures as well as also giving scalar parameters to be able to stop any moving textures if the players decide to toggle off the background movements.

The color picker also gives the chance to the player to modify the color of every HUD element such as: Texts color, Background colors, Goo bar color, etc.

HUD Customization

The HUD modifier allows the player to set every element of the HUD to any of the 8 available positions on screen whilst not allowing two elements to be at the same position.

The player can also modify the scale of the elements to make them bigger or smaller. The direction in which the goo bar depletes can also be modified.

Remapping

The game offers the possibility to modify every input for the keyboard and controller. The controller can take up to 2 buttons by inputs. The game is also compatible with the Xbox Adaptive Controller.

Whilst this might not seem impressive by the industry standards, It is really baffling to see how many indie games only allow partial remapping or just don't offer the option at all.

Other Options

Uligo: A Slime's Hike contains many more options than the one showcased previously. Here's a detailed list of every option available in the game

Gameplay Related

Gamespeed
Amount of energy to stick on walls (Can be infinite)
Number of checkpoints in the levels
- None
- Default
- Extra
Shield mode
God mode
Boss speed
- Slow
- Regular
- Fast
Color picker
In-game tips
Background movements
Hud modifier

Control Related

Keyboard and mouse full remapping
Controller full Remapping
Vibration Toggle
Hold on walls by holding the button or on a toggle
Quick respawn button

Graphics Related

Window mode
Resolution
V-sync
Frame rate limiting
Auto detect of the best quality settings
Quality settings
- Global
- Models
- Anti-Aliasing
- Texutres
- Vfxs
- Post processes
- Shading
In-game color corrections
- Temperature
- Saturation
- Brightness
- Contrast

Audio related

Master volume
Musics volume
Sound effects volume
Menu sounds volume

Evo\Wave

If I could make the game again

If I could make the game from the ground up, I would remake all the options already present in the game. With all the knowledge I've acquired during this production, I would be able to recreate them much quicker while also making them more refined. I would add the ones we didn't have the time to implement.

One option that would be redefined would be the HUD modifier. The option does allow the player to move the elements where they desire, but only at predetermined spaces on the screen. Also, we weren't able to make any verifications to see if elements are overlapping each other. If I could make this option again, I would like to allow the player to position the HUD elements to any place they desire whilst also warning the player if elements are overlapping.

An example of one option that sadly had to be cut is the ability to modify the font used in dialogue in-game and the size of the fonts in the dialogue boxes. We decided to cut the options because the HUD modifier already allows the player to upscale the dialogue boxes which also upscales the size of the texts.

Other options we wanted to add were the ability to create presets of gameplay and color options as well as input mapping presets to allow multiple players to set their preferred way of playing without hindering other playthroughs friends or family might have. It would also have allowed the player to start a new game with all these options already set up.

Evo\Wave