The Game UI Design Process and How to Tell Good UI From Bad UI

September 26, 2026 Aven BrisailLeave a comment

Game user interface (UI) design is the planning and creation of everything players use to understand and control a game: menus, buttons, the heads-up display (HUD), icons, prompts, maps and feedback effects. The UI design process is the sequence of steps designers follow to create it. Good UI lets players focus on playing; bad UI gets in the way, confuses or frustrates.

This lesson builds on Module 1’s User Experience (UX) Factors and the Five Key Principles of Interaction Design and How to Wireframe a Game User Interface. Now we look at the process specific to games and at how to judge a UI.

The process of UI design for games

What are the inputs and outputs? List everything the player must do (inputs: move, jump, pause, choose items) and everything the game must tell them (outputs: health, score, objective, danger). Also decide which devices you support – touch, controller, keyboard.
Prioritise. Rank the outputs by importance and frequency. Critical, constantly changing information (health, timer) goes in easy view; rarely used options go in menus.
Find affordances. Choose shapes, icons and behaviours that suggest their function – a glowing door looks enterable, a raised button looks pressable. Use familiar conventions wherever possible.
Give immediate feedback for your inputs. Every press needs a visible and audible reaction within a fraction of a second: a button animates, a sound plays, the character responds.
Reduce everything. Remove anything unnecessary. Can two screens become one? Can a number become a simple bar? Can information appear only when it matters (for example, the ammo counter showing only when you are low)?
Prototype. Build quick wireframes and clickable or playable mock-ups.
Playtest. Watch players use the UI, note where they hesitate, and repeat the process.

Heuristics of user interface design

A heuristic is a rule of thumb. Jakob Nielsen’s ten usability heuristics are widely used to evaluate interfaces, including game UIs:

Heuristic	In a game
1. Visibility of system status	Show loading progress, whether the game saved, and current health or objectives.
2. Match between system and the real world	Use words and symbols players know: a heart for health, a map icon for the map.
3. User control and freedom	Allow players to go back, cancel, skip cut-scenes they have seen and undo mistakes.
4. Consistency and standards	The same button confirms everywhere; icons keep one meaning.
5. Error prevention	Ask “Are you sure?” before deleting a save; grey out actions that are not possible.
6. Recognition rather than recall	Show button prompts and item icons instead of making players memorise them.
7. Flexibility and efficiency of use	Shortcuts and quick menus for experienced players; remappable controls.
8. Aesthetic and minimalist design	Show only what matters now; keep the HUD clean.
9. Help users recognise, diagnose and recover from errors	Clear messages: “Not enough coins – you need 20 more.”
10. Help and documentation	A tutorial, a help menu, and tips that can be revisited.

Guidelines for game UI

Keep the centre of the screen clear for gameplay; put HUD elements near the edges.
Make text readable from the player’s viewing distance (a TV across the room needs larger text than a phone).
Support the platform: full controller navigation on consoles, large touch targets on phones.
Use colour, shape and sound together so information is not lost (colour-blind and deaf players).
Match the style of the UI to the game’s art and theme, so it feels part of the world.
Let players adjust settings: text size, subtitles, volume, control layout.

Diagram of the Lunar Lander screen: a line-drawn lunar landscape, the lander and readouts for score, time, fuel, altitude and speed — Figure 2 – The interface of the arcade game *Lunar Lander* (1979, labels in French). Even early games displayed key status – fuel, altitude and speed – clearly around the play area. Image: FR, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Good and bad UI: examples

Good UI	Bad UI
Health bar that flashes and beeps when low.	Health shown only as a small number in a corner.
Inventory sorted by type with clear icons and names.	Long unsorted list of text with tiny font.
Pause menu opens instantly and stops the game.	Pause takes several seconds or does not stop the action.
Button prompts match the controller the player is using.	Keyboard prompts shown to a controller player.
Objective marker appears when players seem lost.	No indication of where to go; objectives hidden in a sub-menu.
Settings let players remap controls and resize text.	Fixed controls and tiny text that cannot be changed.

This short PixelUX video summarises five UI principles that professional game designers use every day:

Example

A student applies the UI process to a tower-defence game for tablets. Inputs: tap to place towers, drag to scroll, tap to upgrade. Outputs: coins, lives, wave number, tower range. After prioritising, coins and lives go top-left, the wave counter top-right, and tower range only appears while placing a tower (reduce everything). Towers that cannot be afforded are greyed out (affordance and error prevention). Each tower placement plays a “thunk” and a dust puff (feedback). In the first playtest, players could not find how to upgrade towers, so the designer added a small arrow icon that appears above towers when an upgrade is affordable – then tested again.

Exercise

List the inputs and outputs for a game you play, then rank the outputs from most to least important.
Evaluate that game’s UI using Nielsen’s ten heuristics. Give each a score out of 5 and identify its best and worst features.
Find one example of good UI and one of bad UI in any game or app. Explain why using a heuristic or guideline from this post.
Redesign one bad UI screen using the seven-step process. Sketch the before and after versions.

Next: Game Camera Views: Static, Scrolling, Parallax, First-Person, Third-Person, Isometric and Top-Down

Syllabus link: This post is relevant to the CAPE® Animation and Game Design Syllabus, Unit 2: Interactive Design and Game Development, Module 2: Game Design and Development – Specific Objective 14 (“state the process of User Interface design for games”); Specific Objective 15 (“distinguish between good and bad user interface design for games”).

Attributions to media used in this post:

Star Fox interface (English).png – Jean-Frédéric – CC BY-SA 4.0 (via Wikimedia Commons)

Lunar Lander (1979 video game) Interface (French).png – FR – CC BY-SA 4.0 (via Wikimedia Commons)

SuperTuxKart in-race (2018).png – QwertyChouskie – CC BY-SA 4.0 (via Wikimedia Commons)

Characters and Environments in Games: Archetypes, Scale, Time of Day and Camera

September 26, 2026 Aven BrisailLeave a comment

Game characters are the imaginary people, creatures or objects that players control, meet, help or fight. They are shaped by character design (how they look, move and behave) and by character archetypes – familiar story roles such as the hero, shadow, mentor, ally, guardian, trickster and herald. The game environment is the world those characters exist in, described by its scale, time of day, physical characteristics and camera view.

Visual character design was covered in Character Design: Genre, Shape Language and Silhouette and Character Turnarounds and Model Sheets; environment art in Environment Design, Genres and Digital Artwork and Conceptualising Environments: Layers and Depth of Field. Here we look at the role characters and environments play in a game’s design.

Character design for games

Game characters must work in ways film characters do not:

Readability: they must be recognisable at small sizes and in fast motion, so silhouettes and colours must be clear.
Gameplay fit: a heavy character should move heavily; a speedy character should look light. Appearance should hint at abilities.
Animation needs: every character needs a set of animations (idle, walk, run, jump, react), so designs should be practical to animate.
Player connection: a player character may be a blank slate the player projects onto, or a strong personality the player accompanies.

The seven character archetypes

Archetypes come from Joseph Campbell’s study of myths and Christopher Vogler’s The Writer’s Journey. They are roles, not fixed personalities – one character can play different roles at different times.

Archetype	Role in the story	Game example of the role
Hero / protagonist	The main character who grows and drives the story; usually the player.	The player character setting out to save the kingdom.
Shadow / villain / antagonist	Opposes the hero and represents the main conflict.	The final boss or a rival.
Mentor	Guides, teaches and gives gifts or advice to the hero.	The tutorial character who explains the controls and gives the first tool.
Ally	Helps the hero on the journey, offering friendship and support.	A companion who fights alongside the player or gives hints.
Guardian (threshold guardian)	Blocks the way and tests the hero before a new stage.	A gatekeeper or mini-boss who must be beaten or convinced.
Trickster	Brings humour, mischief and change; questions the rules.	A cheeky sidekick or a folklore figure like Anansi.
Herald	Announces change and calls the hero to adventure.	A messenger, letter or radio call that starts the quest.

Screenwriting teacher Christopher Vogler explains these character types in this interview:

Cartoon rabbit standing in a sunny forest clearing — Figure 1 – Big Buck Bunny in his forest. Scale (a big, round rabbit dwarfed by even bigger trees), time of day (soft daylight filtering through the leaves) and physical characteristics (grass, rocks, roots and tree trunks) all shape how the scene feels. Image: Blender Foundation / Project Peach, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Describing the game environment

Scale

Scale is the size of the world and objects compared to the player. Huge spaces make players feel small and adventurous; tight spaces feel tense or cosy. Scale also affects gameplay: a large open map needs fast travel or vehicles, while a small room suits a puzzle.

Time of day

Time of day changes light, colour and mood. Morning feels hopeful, midday is clear and easy to read, sunset is dramatic and night is mysterious. Some games have a day–night cycle that changes gameplay: certain characters appear only at night, or shops close in the evening.

Physical characteristics

Physical characteristics are the features of the place: terrain (hills, water, sand), weather, vegetation, buildings, materials and hazards. They should support both story and play – ice is slippery, deep water blocks the path, tall grass hides the player.

Camera view

The camera view decides how the environment is shown. A top-down view shows layout and routes; a side view emphasises jumping and height; a first-person view makes the world feel immediate. Environment artists design differently for each view – for example, the roofs matter a lot in top-down games but hardly at all in side-scrollers.

Painted concept art of a wooden hut surrounded by plants and props — Figure 2 – Concept art of a shaman’s hut. The physical characteristics – building materials, props and plants – tell players about the culture of the people who live there. Image: David Revoy / Blender Foundation, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Example

Here is a character and environment description for an adventure game called River of Lights:

Hero: Kai, a 12-year-old boat builder; small, quick and curious, with a bright red scarf for readability.
Mentor: Grandma Mira, who teaches Kai to read the stars.
Herald: a glowing firefly that appears on the first night and leads Kai away from the village.
Guardian: a giant river turtle who will only let Kai pass after solving her riddle.
Trickster: a mischievous monkey who steals items but sometimes reveals shortcuts.
Shadow: the Mist, a silent force that dims all light along the river.
Environment: a wide river valley (large scale), explored mostly at dusk and night (time of day), with mangroves, rapids and stilt houses (physical characteristics), shown from a third-person camera behind the boat (camera view).

Exercise

Identify the seven archetypes in a game, film or folk tale you know. Is any character playing more than one role?
Design a game character. Draw it and explain how its appearance tells players about its abilities and its archetype.
Describe the environment of a game level using the four headings: scale, time of day, physical characteristics and camera view.
Change one of those four features for the same level (for example, day to night). Explain how the gameplay and mood would change.

Next: The Game UI Design Process and How to Tell Good UI From Bad UI

Attributions to media used in this post:

Big Buck Bunny – forest.jpg – Blender Foundation / Project Peach – CC BY 3.0 (via Wikimedia Commons)

Environments-02-shaman-hut.png – David Revoy / Blender Foundation – CC BY 3.0 (via Wikimedia Commons)

Types of Stories in Games: Linear, Branching, Open-Ended, Instanced, Emergent, Thematic and Algorithmic

September 26, 2026 Aven BrisailLeave a comment

A game story is the sequence of events, characters and meaning that players experience while playing. Unlike a book or film, a game story can be shaped by the player’s actions. Designers usually describe seven primary types of stories in games: linear, branching, open-ended, instanced, emergent, thematic and algorithmic. Each gives a different balance between the writer’s control and the player’s freedom.

For story-building basics, see Story Development and Scriptwriting for Animation and Games and Story Arcs, Game Scripts and Storyboards for Interactive Games.

The seven types of stories in games

1. Linear stories

A linear story follows one fixed path from beginning to end, like a film. The player controls how they get through each part but not what happens. Linear stories are easier to write and produce, and they allow carefully crafted emotional moments. Many platformers and action-adventure games are linear.

2. Branching stories

A branching story offers choices that split the plot into different paths, often leading to different endings. Branching gives players agency but grows expensive quickly: three choices with three options each already create 27 routes. Writers often use a branch-and-bottleneck structure, where paths split and later rejoin at key events.

3. Open-ended stories

An open-ended story gives players a world to explore and lets them decide what to do and in which order. There may be a main quest, but players can ignore it and follow side quests or their own goals. Open-world adventure and sandbox games use this approach.

4. Instanced stories

An instanced story (also called an instance) is a self-contained story episode that is created fresh for a player or group each time they enter it. In online games, a dungeon or mission might be an instance: your team gets its own copy of the quest, with its own beginning, middle and end, separate from other players.

5. Emergent stories

An emergent story is not written by the designer at all. It emerges from the interaction of the game’s systems and players’ actions. When players describe “the time my farm flooded just before the harvest festival and my neighbour saved the day”, they are telling an emergent story. Simulation and sandbox games are rich in emergent stories.

6. Thematic stories

A thematic story is carried by a theme, mood or idea rather than a detailed plot. Puzzle and abstract games often use thematic stories: the art, music and setting suggest loneliness, hope or friendship without much dialogue. The player builds the meaning from the atmosphere.

7. Algorithmic stories

An algorithmic story is generated by the computer using rules and random elements, a technique called procedural generation. The game might assemble quests, characters and events from building blocks so every play-through is different. Roguelike games and some strategy games use algorithmic storytelling.

Differentiating the types

Type	Who controls the story?	Replay value	Cost to make
Linear	Writer	Low to medium	Lowest
Branching	Writer, with player choices	High	High (many paths to write)
Open-ended	Player chooses order and focus	High	High (large world)
Instanced	Writer, repeated per group	Medium	Medium
Emergent	Game systems + player	Very high	Depends on systems, little writing
Thematic	Player interprets the mood	Medium	Low to medium
Algorithmic	Computer rules + randomness	Very high	High to design, cheap per story

Choosing a story type for your game

Start from the experience you want and the resources you have. A small student team with a short deadline will usually get the best result from a linear or thematic story, perhaps with one small branch near the end. If your game is built around systems – farming, cities, ecosystems – plan for emergent stories and give players ways to share them, such as screenshots or a journal. Many successful games mix types: a linear main quest inside an open-ended world, with emergent moments created by the systems.

This video from Curious Gamedev compares narrative types with clear game examples:

Example

Here is one idea – a young fisher saving her village from a storm – told as four types of story:

Linear: the player follows a set sequence: repair the boat, rescue the fisherman, light the lighthouse.
Branching: the player decides whether to stay and protect the village or sail out for help, leading to two different endings.
Emergent: the game simulates wind, waves and villagers’ needs; each storm plays out differently depending on what the player prepares.
Thematic: almost no words; the rising storm, fading colours and hopeful music tell a story about courage.

Exercise

List the seven types of stories in games and give one example game (or invented idea) for each.
Explain the difference between an emergent story and an algorithmic story.
Draw a branch-and-bottleneck diagram for a short story with two choices and two endings.
Retell an emergent story from a game you played (or a playground game). Why did it feel memorable even though no one wrote it?

Next: Characters and Environments in Games: Archetypes, Scale, Time of Day and Camera

Syllabus link: This post is relevant to the CAPE® Animation and Game Design Syllabus, Unit 2: Interactive Design and Game Development, Module 2: Game Design and Development – Specific Objective 10 (“identify the primary types of stories in games”); Specific Objective 11 (“differentiate among the types of stories in games”).

Attributions to media used in this post:

Dialog tree example.svg – Dcoetzee – CC0 (via Wikimedia Commons)

The Banner Saga conversation screenshot.jpg – Stoic LLC – CC BY-SA 3.0 (via Wikimedia Commons)

Game Mechanics Explained: Rules, Players, Avatars, Game State, Game Views and Goals

September 26, 2026 Aven BrisailLeave a comment

Game mechanics are the rules and procedures that make a game work: what players can do, what the game does in response, and how someone wins or loses. When designers formulate the mechanics of a game, they define five things: the rules, the players, the avatars they control, the game state and the game views. They also plan goals, both short-term (collect this coin) and long-term (win the race).

In the previous lesson, Iterative Design in Games, we saw that mechanics are tested and revised again and again. Here we learn how to write them clearly in the first place.

Common mechanics found in most games

Common mechanic	Question it answers	Example (a racing game)
Setup	How does the game begin?	Four karts line up on the start grid; each player picks a character and a track.
Victory conditions	How does someone win (or lose)?	The first to finish three laps wins.
Progression of play	How does the game move forward?	Players race in real time; laps are counted; new tracks unlock after each cup.
Player actions	What can the player do?	Accelerate, brake, steer, drift and use a collected item.
Definition of game views	What does the player see?	A third-person camera behind the kart plus a mini-map; split-screen for local multiplayer.

Figure 1 – Four-player split-screen in SuperTuxKart. The game view is part of the mechanics: each player gets their own camera on a shared screen. Image: QwertyChouskie, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Formulating the mechanics: the five parts

1. Rules

Rules define what is allowed, what is not, and what happens as a result. Good rules are clear, consistent and testable. Write them as short “if… then…” statements: If the ball touches the paddle, then it bounces and the score increases by one.

2. Players

Decide how many players there are and how they relate: single-player against the game, player versus player, cooperative, team versus team, or many players online. The same rules feel completely different when played together or against each other.

3. Avatars

An avatar is the character or object that represents the player: a hero, a car, a paddle, even a cursor. Define what the avatar can do (its abilities), how fast it moves, and what happens when it is hit or helped.

4. Game state

The game state is a snapshot of everything that matters at one moment: scores, lives, positions, time left, items held, which doors are open. When you save a game, you save its state. In programming, game state is stored in variables, and every rule either reads or changes those variables.

5. Game views

Game views define how the game world is shown: the camera angle, how much of the world is visible and what information appears on the HUD. Views are covered in detail later in this module.

Short-term and long-term goals

Goals give players a reason to act. Short-term goals can be completed in seconds or minutes: collect a coin, jump a gap, beat one enemy. Long-term goals take a whole level, session or game: win the race, finish the story, complete the collection. Good games layer them, so there is always something to do right now and a bigger reason to keep going. Many games also have medium-term goals, such as finishing a level or upgrading a tool.

Figure 2 – A simple platformer level. Short-term goals (reach the next platform, grab the item) build towards the long-term goal of reaching the exit. Image: Kenney (kenney.nl), CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Try the Scratch Team’s Pong Starter below. Look for its rules, its avatar (the paddle), its game state (the score) and its goals, then click “See inside” to see how the mechanics are built with code blocks.

View it at scratch.mit.edu

Some mechanics are hidden: games quietly help players to make play feel fair and exciting. Extra Credits explains these “hidden mechanics”:

Example

Here are the formulated mechanics for a one-screen game called Coconut Catch:

Players: one player against the game.
Avatar: a basket that moves left and right along the bottom of the screen at a fixed speed.
Setup: the score is 0, lives are 3, the timer is 60 seconds, and the basket starts in the centre.
Rules: coconuts fall from random positions; if a coconut touches the basket, score +1; if a coconut hits the ground, lives −1; every 10 points, coconuts fall faster; a golden coconut is worth 5.
Game state: score, lives, time left, fall speed and the position of each coconut.
Victory conditions: the player wins by reaching 30 points before time runs out; the game ends if lives reach 0.
Game view: a static side view of a beach with the score, lives and timer at the top.
Goals: short-term – catch the next coconut; long-term – reach 30 points and beat your high score.

Exercise

Choose a game you know and describe its setup, victory conditions, progression of play, player actions and game views.
List three short-term and two long-term goals from any game. Explain how the short-term goals help players reach the long-term goals.
Formulate the full mechanics (rules, players, avatars, game state, game views) for your own simple game, using the Coconut Catch example as a model.
Remix the Pong Starter project: add one new rule and one new variable to the game state, then describe how they change the play.

Next: Types of Stories in Games: Linear, Branching, Open-Ended, Instanced, Emergent, Thematic and Algorithmic

Syllabus link: This post is relevant to the CAPE® Animation and Game Design Syllabus, Unit 2: Interactive Design and Game Development, Module 2: Game Design and Development – Specific Objective 7 (“identify some common mechanics used in games”); Specific Objective 8 (“formulate the mechanics for a game”); Specific Objective 9 (“distinguish between short term and long term goals for games”).

Attributions to media used in this post:

Split-screen 4-player multiplayer in SuperTuxKart (2017, 0.9.3).png – QwertyChouskie – CC BY-SA 4.0 (via Wikimedia Commons)

1-bit platformer sample.png – Kenney (kenney.nl) – CC0 (via Wikimedia Commons)

Iterative Design in Games: Prototype, Playtest, Revise, Repeat

September 26, 2026September 26, 2026 Aven BrisailLeave a comment

Iterative design is a way of creating games in repeated cycles: you build a quick prototype, playtest it with real players, revise it based on what you learn, and repeat until the game is fun and works well. Each cycle is called an iteration. The word “iterate” simply means “to do again”, and the aim of each round is to get a little closer to the best version of the game.

In The Game Design Process: RAD vs Waterfall we compared development models. Iterative design is at the heart of Rapid Application Development and of almost every modern game studio, because fun is hard to predict on paper – you have to play it to know.

The stages of iterative design

1. Rapid prototyping

A rapid prototype is a quick, rough version of an idea, made in hours or days rather than months. It can be a paper prototype (cards, dice, drawings) or a digital prototype with coloured boxes instead of art. The only question it must answer is: does this core idea work and is it fun? Keep it cheap so you are not afraid to throw it away.

2. Playtest

In a playtest, real players try the prototype while the designer watches. Good playtesting habits include:

Test with people who match your target audience, not just friends who love your idea.
Explain as little as possible – if players need you to explain, the game needs to explain better.
Watch and take notes: where do players hesitate, get stuck, laugh or lose interest?
Ask open questions afterwards (“What was confusing?”, “When did you feel most excited?”).
Record data if you can: time to finish a level, number of retries, where players quit.

The Extra Credits video below gives excellent advice on getting useful feedback from playtesters:

3. Revision

Revision means changing the design in response to what you observed. Group the feedback, look for patterns (one player’s opinion is a clue; five players stuck in the same place is a problem), and decide on changes. Sometimes a revision is a small tweak – slower enemies, a bigger button – and sometimes it means cutting a feature entirely.

4. Repeat

Then you repeat the loop with the revised version. Early iterations test big questions (Is the core idea fun?). Later iterations test details (Is level 7 too hard? Is the menu clear?). Each round the prototype becomes more polished, moving through alpha and beta towards the gold release.

5. Iterative design as a mindset

Finally, iterative design is an attitude: accept that the first version will not be perfect, test early and often, and let evidence from players guide decisions instead of guesses. It saves time and money because problems are found while they are still cheap to fix.

Common mistakes to avoid

Polishing too early: spending days on art for a mechanic that playtesting later removes.
Testing only with yourself: designers know the answers, so they cannot see what confuses new players.
Defending instead of listening: arguing with testers wastes the test; just take notes.
Changing everything at once: if you change five things, you will not know which change helped. Change a few things per iteration.
Never stopping: set a deadline or a “good enough” target so iteration leads to a finished game.

Example

A student team is making a Scratch game where a hummingbird collects nectar while avoiding rain drops.

Iteration	Prototype	Playtest finding	Revision
1	Paper version: a counter moved on a drawn garden; a die decides where rain falls.	Players enjoyed dodging but found collecting too easy.	Flowers now open and close, so timing matters.
2	Scratch prototype with coloured circles, no art.	Controls felt slippery; the bird overshot flowers.	Reduced momentum; added a small hover when touching a flower.
3	Added simple art, sound and a score.	Players did not notice when nectar was collected.	Added a “sip” sound, sparkle effect and +1 pop-up.
4	Three levels with increasing rain.	Level 3 was too hard – most players quit.	Adjusted rain speed; added a safe leaf to shelter under.

After four iterations the game was far more fun than the first design – and none of the changes could have been predicted without playtesting.

Exercise

Name and describe the stages of iterative design in your own words.
Make a paper prototype of a simple game idea in under 30 minutes using paper, pencils and a die or coins.
Playtest it with at least three people. Record what they did, what confused them and what they enjoyed.
Write an iteration table (like the example) showing two rounds of revisions and the reasons for each change.

Next: Game Mechanics Explained: Rules, Players, Avatars, Game State, Game Views and Goals

Attributions to media used in this post:

Iterative development model.svg – Aflafla1 – CC0 (via Wikimedia Commons)

Diamond Trust of London – Paper Prototype.jpg – Jason Rohrer – Public domain (via Wikimedia Commons)

The 10 Core Dynamics of Games Explained (With Examples)

September 26, 2026 Aven BrisailLeave a comment

The core dynamics of games are the basic kinds of activity that give a game its purpose and shape – what the player is fundamentally trying to do. Dynamics are the patterns of play that appear when players follow the mechanics (rules). Game designers often list ten core dynamics: territorial acquisition, prediction, spatial reasoning, survival, destruction, building, collection, chasing or evading, trading and race to the end.

We met game elements such as rules, goals and conflict in Elements of Gameplay and Game Theory. Core dynamics are the next layer up: they describe the experience those elements create.

Mechanics, dynamics and aesthetics (MDA)

The MDA framework explains the relationship. Mechanics are the rules designers write. Dynamics are the behaviours that happen when players interact with those rules. Aesthetics are the emotions players feel, such as challenge, discovery or fellowship. Designers work from mechanics outwards; players experience games from aesthetics inwards.

The ten core dynamics

Dynamic	What the player does	Examples
Territorial acquisition	Gains and controls space on a board or map.	Go, Risk, capture-the-flag, many strategy games.
Prediction	Guesses what will happen or what an opponent will do.	Rock-paper-scissors, guessing games, betting on a race outcome in a party game.
Spatial reasoning	Thinks about shapes, positions and routes.	Tetris, jigsaw puzzles, Portal-style puzzles.
Survival	Stays alive or keeps something going under pressure.	Endless runners, survival crafting games.
Destruction	Breaks or removes things.	Breakout, Angry Birds, Space Invaders.
Building	Creates structures, cities or systems.	Minecraft, SimCity, Lego games.
Collection	Gathers items or sets.	Coins in Super Mario, Pokémon, card collections.
Chasing or evading	Pursues targets or escapes from them.	Tag, Pac-Man, racing to catch a thief.
Trading	Exchanges resources with others.	Monopoly, Catan, market systems in farming games.
Race to the end	Reaches a goal before others.	Snakes and Ladders, Ludo, racing games.

Diagram of a Go board with black and white stones, showing areas of territory each player controls — Figure 1 – The end of a game of Go on a 9×9 board. Go is the classic example of territorial acquisition: players win by surrounding more of the board. Image: Jogador de Go, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Distinguishing between the dynamics

Some dynamics sound similar, so it helps to ask what counts as success:

Territorial acquisition vs building: in territory games you win by controlling space; in building games you succeed by constructing something, even if no one else is competing for space.
Survival vs chasing/evading: survival is about lasting as long as possible against any threat (hunger, weather, time); evading is specifically about staying away from a pursuer.
Collection vs trading: collection is about gathering; trading is about exchanging what you have for what you need, usually with other players.
Race to the end vs chasing: in a race all players head for the same finish; in a chase one player’s goal is another player.

Combining dynamics

Most games combine several dynamics, with one or two dominant. Pac-Man mixes collection (dots) with evading (ghosts) and, briefly, chasing (after a power pellet). Sandbox games such as Minetest combine building, collection and survival. Choosing the dominant dynamic early helps a team make consistent decisions about controls, levels and rewards.

Using core dynamics as a designer

Core dynamics are a powerful brainstorming tool. When you are stuck for an idea, pick two dynamics at random and combine them with a theme: “building + evading in a hurricane” or “trading + prediction at a fish market”. You can also use them to change the feel of an existing game. Adding a chaser to a calm collection game instantly creates tension; adding building to a survival game gives players something to protect and a reason to plan ahead.

Dynamics also help you check whether your mechanics support your goal. If you want players to feel clever, spatial reasoning and prediction are good choices. If you want them to feel powerful, destruction works well. If you want cooperation, trading and building let players help each other, creating a positive-sum game in which everyone can gain.

Example

A class played Ludo and a mobile endless runner and recorded the dynamics they observed:

Game	Dominant dynamic	Supporting dynamics	Evidence
Ludo	Race to the end	Chasing (capturing opponents), prediction (dice risk)	Everyone tries to get all four tokens home first; landing on an opponent sends them back.
Endless runner	Survival	Collection, evading	The run continues until you crash; coins are collected along the way; obstacles and a pursuer must be avoided.

Exercise

For each of the ten core dynamics, name one game (digital, board or playground) in which it is dominant.
Choose one game and identify its dominant and supporting dynamics. Explain how its mechanics create those dynamics.
Explain the difference between territorial acquisition and building using two examples.
Design a simple board or card game in which trading is the dominant dynamic. Write three rules and describe what players will experience.

Next: Iterative Design in Games: Prototype, Playtest, Revise, Repeat

Attributions to media used in this post:

Diagrama do final de uma partida de Go em tabuleiro 9×9 rotulado.jpg – Jogador de Go – CC BY-SA 4.0 (via Wikimedia Commons)

0 A.D. Alpha 23.jpg – 0 A.D. Developers (Wildfire Games) – CC BY-SA 3.0 (via Wikimedia Commons)

Minetest screenshot 2.png – Kotolegokot – CC BY-SA 3.0 (via Wikimedia Commons)

Game Design Terms, Careers and the Types of Design in Games (World, System, Content, Level, UI)

September 26, 2026 Aven BrisailLeave a comment

Game design is the art of applying design and aesthetics to create a game that is fun, challenging and meaningful to play. A game designer decides the rules, goals, challenges and experiences, while a whole team of game development professionals turns those decisions into a finished product. To work in that team you need its shared vocabulary, an understanding of its careers, and a clear idea of the different types of design that go into a game.

For an overview of the wider industry, see Jobs in Animation and Game Design. This post zooms in on the game development team and the design disciplines inside it.

Common game design terms

Term	Meaning
Mechanics	The rules of a game: what players can do and what happens as a result.
System	A collection of mechanics that work together to produce a result, such as an economy or a combat system.
Avatar	The icon or figure that represents the player in the game.
Engine	The core software that runs the game: graphics, physics, sound, input (for example Unity, Unreal, Godot).
Platform	The console, device or system a game runs on (PC, phone, console, web, VR).
Prototype	An early playable version of a game or part of a game, made to test an idea.
Rapid prototyping	Techniques for making quick, rough prototypes so ideas can be tested early.
Playtest	Testing a game with real players to find problems, bugs and unclear design.
Bugs	Errors in the design, code, art, sound or writing of a game.
Milestone	A point in the schedule where something significant must be finished.
Alpha	A stage where the main features are in the game but it is incomplete and buggy.
Beta	A more stable version, often tested by outside players to find remaining bugs.
Gold	The final version, ready to be released to the public.
Feature list	A list of the game’s key features, often its selling points.
Game jam	An event where developers plan, design and build a game in a short time, often 48 hours.
Zero-sum / positive-sum	In a zero-sum game one player’s gain is another’s loss; in a positive-sum game everyone can gain.

Careers in game design and development

Career	What they do
Programmer	Writes the code for gameplay, graphics, physics, AI, tools and online features.
Artist	Creates concept art, characters, environments, textures, animation, visual effects and UI graphics.
Designer	Designs rules, levels, systems and player experiences; writes design documents and balances the game.
Producer	Manages the schedule, budget and team; keeps everyone on track and communicates with publishers.
Tester (QA)	Plays the game systematically to find and report bugs and usability problems.
Composer	Writes the music that sets the mood and reacts to gameplay.
Sound designer	Records and creates sound effects, ambient sound and audio feedback, and places them in the game.
Writer	Writes story, dialogue, character backgrounds, quest text and UI wording.

In small indie teams, one person may play several roles. Watch these professionals describe their paths into game-related jobs:

Types of design in games

World design

World design creates the big picture: the setting, history, geography, cultures and rules of the game world. A world designer decides whether the game happens on a floating island, in a future city or inside a computer, and makes sure everything in that world feels consistent.

System design

System design creates the rules and mathematics behind the game: how damage is calculated, how much items cost, how experience points work, how fast enemies spawn. System designers use spreadsheets to balance the game so it is fair and interesting.

Content design

Content design creates the individual things the player meets: characters, items, quests, puzzles, vehicles and missions. If system design says “weapons have power and speed”, content design invents the specific tools, each with its own numbers and personality.

Game writing

Game writing covers story, dialogue, character backgrounds and all the text in the game, including tutorials and item descriptions. Game writers must write for choices, repetition and different player paths (see Story Arcs, Game Scripts and Storyboards for Interactive Games).

Level design

Level design builds the spaces where play happens: layouts, obstacles, enemy placement, puzzles and the pacing of challenges. We practised this in Level Design: Planning the First Three Levels.

Screenshot of a tile map editor showing a grass and water terrain being painted with tiles — Figure 2 – The free Tiled map editor, used by level designers to build 2D levels from reusable tiles. Image: Thorbjørn Lindeijer, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

User interface (UI) design

User interface design plans the menus, HUD, icons and controls that let players understand and control the game. It draws on the interaction design ideas in Module 1 and is explored further later in this module.

Example

Imagine a small team making a farming game set on a Caribbean island:

The world designer creates the island’s villages, seasons, market days and folklore.
The system designer sets how fast crops grow, their selling prices and how rain affects them.
The content designer invents 20 crops, 10 tools and the villagers’ requests.
The writer gives each villager a personality and writes their dialogue.
The level designer lays out the farm, the market and the forest path.
The UI designer designs the inventory, calendar and money display.
The programmer, artist, composer, sound designer, tester and producer bring it all to life and on schedule.

Exercise

Create a glossary card for ten game design terms from this post, each with a definition and an example from a game you know.
Make an infographic of the eight game careers, showing one skill and one tool for each.
Choose a game and describe one decision from each of the six types of design.
Which career or type of design interests you most? Write a short paragraph explaining why and how you could start practising it now.

Next: The 10 Core Dynamics of Games Explained (With Examples)

Syllabus link: This post is relevant to the CAPE® Animation and Game Design Syllabus, Unit 2: Interactive Design and Game Development, Module 2: Game Design and Development – Specific Objective 1 (“define the common terms associated with game design”); Specific Objective 2 (“state the types of careers in game design”); Specific Objective 3 (“state the types of design associated with games”); Specific Objective 4 (“explain the different types of design”).

Attributions to media used in this post:

Drawing Cats on Wacom Intuos3 A5 graphics tablet – Global Game Jam Berlin 2014.jpg – Iwan Gabovitch – CC BY 2.0 (via Wikimedia Commons)

Tiled-screenshot-terrain.png – Thorbjørn Lindeijer – CC BY-SA 3.0 (via Wikimedia Commons)

GGJ LA 2015.JPG – Kevin Wong – CC BY-SA 4.0 (via Wikimedia Commons)

Culture, Game Ratings, Intellectual Property and Monitoring Agencies in Game Design

September 26, 2026 Aven BrisailLeave a comment

Culture is the shared beliefs, stories, language, music, food, clothing and customs of a group of people. In animation and game design, culture shapes characters, settings and stories, and it decides what an audience finds funny, respectful, frightening or offensive. Four related ideas help designers use culture responsibly: folklore, game ratings (age-appropriate content), intellectual property and the monitoring agencies that set and enforce the rules.

We looked at folklore and heritage in Folklore, Culture and Heritage in Animation and Game Design and at copyright in Ethics, Copyright and Intellectual Property in Animation and Game Design. This post connects those ideas to publishing a game for real audiences.

Why culture matters

Authenticity: stories rooted in real places and traditions feel fresh and believable.
Representation: players like to see people, places and accents like their own on screen.
Respect: careless use of sacred symbols or stereotypes can hurt communities and damage a game’s reputation.
Market: culturally aware games travel better worldwide, and local stories can stand out in a crowded market.

Folklore: culturally and geographically appropriate characters

Folklore is the traditional stories, legends and characters passed down in a community. Mythological characters make memorable game heroes, guides and bosses, but they should be culturally and geographically appropriate: they should match the setting and be presented in a way the source community recognises.

The Caribbean offers rich examples. Anansi, the clever spider who outwits stronger animals, travelled from the Akan people of West Africa to Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and beyond; he suits a puzzle or trickster game. Trinidad and Tobago’s folklore includes Papa Bois, guardian of the forest and its animals, and Mama Dlo, protector of rivers – ideal characters for a game about protecting the environment. Placing these characters in a snowy European forest would feel wrong; placing them in a rainforest with local plants, music and dialect feels right.

Old book illustration of Anansi, a spider character with a human-like face — Figure 1 – An illustration by Pamela Colman Smith from *Annancy Stories* (1899), a collection of Jamaican Anansi tales. Anansi stories are shared across West Africa and the Caribbean. Image: Pamela Colman Smith, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Good practice: research with elders, historians and cultural groups; credit your sources; avoid mixing unrelated traditions just for effect; and ask community members to review your designs.

Game ratings: age-appropriate content

A game rating tells buyers the age group a game is suitable for and what content it contains. The CAPE glossary uses the categories of the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), used in North America and followed by many Caribbean retailers:

Rating	Meaning
EC – Early Childhood	Suitable for ages 3 and up (this category was retired by the ESRB in 2018; such games are now rated E).
E – Everyone	Suitable for all ages; may contain minimal cartoon or mild violence.
E10+ – Everyone 10+	Suitable for ages 10 and up; more cartoon or mild violence, mild language.
T – Teen	Suitable for ages 13 and up; may contain violence, crude humour and some strong language.
M – Mature 17+	Suitable for ages 17 and up; intense violence and strong language.
AO – Adults Only 18+	Only for adults; rarely used and not sold by most major stores.

Games also carry content descriptors (for example “Mild Fantasy Violence”) and notes about interactive elements such as in-game purchases or users interacting online. Europe uses PEGI (ages 3, 7, 12, 16 and 18), and the International Age Rating Coalition (IARC) gives ratings for many digital stores worldwide.

Black-and-white rating label with the letters EC for Early Childhood — Figure 2 – The ESRB “Early Childhood” rating label used from 1998. Today, games for young children receive the E (Everyone) rating. Image: Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

This short official video explains how the PEGI system labels games in Europe:

Intellectual property violations

Intellectual property (IP) is creative work protected by law: copyright (art, music, code, stories), trademarks (names and logos), patents (inventions) and trade secrets. Common IP violations in games and animation include:

Piracy: copying or distributing games or films without paying or permission.
Asset theft: using someone else’s art, music, fonts or models without a licence.
Cloning and trade-dress copying: copying another game’s look, name and code so closely that players are misled.
Trademark misuse: using famous characters or brand names in your game without permission.
Cultural appropriation of protected works: using a specific traditional design or recording that belongs to a community or artist without permission.

Protect yourself by making original work, keeping your sketches and files as evidence, and using assets with clear licences such as Creative Commons (always follow the attribution terms – as we do at the end of every post on this site).

Roles and responsibilities of monitoring agencies

Agency type	Examples	Responsibilities
Rating boards	ESRB, PEGI, IARC, CERO (Japan)	Review game content, assign age ratings and descriptors, enforce advertising rules.
IP offices	WIPO (worldwide), national IP offices such as the Intellectual Property Office of Trinidad and Tobago	Register trademarks and patents, educate creators, support copyright law.
Collecting societies	Music rights organisations such as COTT (Trinidad and Tobago)	License music and collect royalties for creators.
Law enforcement and customs	Police, customs and border agencies	Seize pirated goods and prosecute large-scale infringement.
Platform holders	App stores and console makers	Require ratings, remove infringing or harmful games, protect children’s privacy.

Example

A team is making Guardians of the Forest, a game in which the player helps Papa Bois protect animals from illegal hunters. Culturally, they interview a local storyteller and a folk troupe, use a steelpan-inspired soundtrack they commission themselves, and set the game in a Northern Range-style rainforest. For the rating, they keep conflict non-violent (hunters are scared away with traps and animal calls) and aim for an E rating. For IP, they draw all characters themselves, use only CC0 sound effects and keep a licence list. They register the game’s name as a trademark before launch.

Exercise

Choose a folklore character from your own country or region. Describe a game role for it that is culturally and geographically appropriate, and one way it could be misused.
Look up the rating of three games you know. Record the rating, the content descriptors and whether you agree with the rating.
Explain the difference between copyright and trademark, giving one game-related example of each.
Name two monitoring agencies and describe the responsibilities of each in protecting players or creators.

Next: Game Design Terms, Careers and the Types of Design in Games (World, System, Content, Level, UI)

Syllabus link: This post is relevant to the CAPE® Animation and Game Design Syllabus, Unit 2: Interactive Design and Game Development, Module 1: Introduction to Interactive Design – Specific Objective 18 (“outline the importance of culture in animation and game design”).

Attributions to media used in this post:

Anansi-34.png – Pamela Colman Smith – Public domain (via Wikimedia Commons)

ESRB 1998 Early Childhood (small).png – Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) – CC BY-SA 4.0 (via Wikimedia Commons)

How to Pitch an Interactive Game and Design for Your Target Audience (Demographics)

September 26, 2026 Aven BrisailLeave a comment

A game pitch is a short, persuasive presentation of an idea for a game, given to people who could approve, fund, publish or join it. A good pitch shows who the game is for, which means understanding demographics: facts about a group of people such as their age group, location, language, interests and the devices they use. The group you design for is your target audience. Using critical thinking to match the design to that audience’s needs is how designers solve interactive design problems.

Unit 1 covered pitch documents and funding in How to Pitch and Fund an Animation or Game Project and short pitches in Synopsis and Elevator Pitch for Games and Animation. This lesson focuses on presenting an interactive idea and on designing for real players.

Understanding your target audience

Target audience

Your target audience is the specific group of people most likely to play and enjoy your game. “Everyone” is not a target audience. A clearer statement is: “Casual puzzle fans aged 25–45 who play in short breaks on their phones.” Designers often describe the audience with personas – imaginary but realistic players with a name, age, habits, goals and frustrations.

Age group

Age affects almost every design choice:

Age group	Typical needs	Design implications
Young children (3–7)	Still learning to read; developing motor skills.	Big buttons, voice instructions, no text-heavy menus, no failure punishments, no in-app purchases or chat.
Older children (8–12)	Enjoy challenge and collecting; growing independence.	Clear goals, rewards, safe social features, content suitable for ratings such as E or E10+.
Teenagers (13–17)	Competition, identity, social play.	Customisation, multiplayer, deeper systems; strong safety and moderation tools.
Adults	Limited time; wide range of tastes.	Save anywhere, short sessions or deep campaigns, adjustable difficulty.
Older adults	May prefer slower pace; possible vision or hearing changes.	Larger text, high contrast, relaxed timing, familiar themes.

Location

Where players live affects language, cultural references, internet speed, the devices they own and how they pay. A game for a region with expensive mobile data should work offline and download quickly. A game for the Caribbean might use local music, dialect and settings that players recognise, while a game for a worldwide audience needs translation (localisation) and culturally neutral symbols.

Solving design problems with critical thinking

Critical thinking means questioning assumptions and choosing solutions based on evidence. A useful cycle is:

Define the problem from the player’s point of view (“Seven-year-olds cannot read the level instructions”).
Research the audience: observe, survey or interview real players.
Generate options (voice-over, picture instructions, a playable tutorial).
Evaluate each option against the audience’s needs, the budget and time.
Prototype and test the best option; measure whether the problem is solved.

This short Young BAFTA video explains why game designers must think about their audience from the very start:

Presenting an idea for an interactive game

A strong interactive game pitch usually covers these points in 5–10 minutes:

Hook and title: one sentence that makes people curious.
High concept: genre, platform and the core idea (“a cooperative cooking puzzle game for phones”).
Target audience: age group, location and persona; why they will love it.
Core gameplay loop: what the player does again and again, and why it is fun. Show a storyboard, wireframe or short prototype – interaction is easier to show than to describe.
Unique selling point: what makes it different from similar games.
Look and sound: concept art, colour palette, mood music.
Scope and team: what you can realistically build, how long it will take and who will do what.
The ask: what you want from the audience (approval, feedback, funding, team members).

Communication skills for pitching

Speak clearly, make eye contact and rehearse until you can pitch without reading.
Use visuals: a few strong images beat slides full of text.
Tell a short story about a player enjoying the game.
Invite questions and answer honestly; if you do not know, say how you will find out.
Keep to time – it shows you respect your audience and can manage a project.

Example

Here is a short pitch outline for Market Day Math:

Hook: “Can you run the busiest fruit stall in the market before the rain comes?”
Audience: children aged 8–11 in the Caribbean, playing on shared family phones or school tablets, often with limited data.
Design decisions from the audience: works offline; small download; spoken instructions; local fruits and currency; no ads or purchases.
Core loop: serve customers, add up prices, give change, earn coins to upgrade the stall.
Unique point: real mental-maths practice disguised as a busy, funny shop game.
Ask: “We would like your school to trial the prototype with two classes.”

Exercise

Write a persona for the target audience of a game idea: name, age group, location, device, play habits, goals and one frustration.
Describe three design decisions you would change if the same game were made for (a) five-year-olds and (b) adults.
Identify one interactive design problem in a game or app you use, and solve it using the five-step critical thinking cycle.
Prepare and deliver a three-minute pitch for your game idea using the eight-point structure. Ask your audience for feedback on clarity and confidence.

Next: Culture, Game Ratings, Intellectual Property and Monitoring Agencies in Game Design

Syllabus link: This post is relevant to the CAPE® Animation and Game Design Syllabus, Unit 2: Interactive Design and Game Development, Module 1: Introduction to Interactive Design – Specific Objective 14 (“present an idea for an interactive game”); Specific Objective 15 (“apply critical thinking to solve interactive design problems to meet customers’ needs”).

Attributions to media used in this post:

Stickies to brainstorm Edit.2014..jpg – Victor Grigas – CC BY-SA 3.0 (via Wikimedia Commons)

Global Game Jam 2019 à Arles.jpg – Yannickvernet – CC BY-SA 4.0 (via Wikimedia Commons)

Colour Theory for Game Design and Animation: Meaning, Harmony, Contrast and Colour-Blind Accessibility

September 26, 2026 Aven BrisailLeave a comment

Colour theory is the set of ideas that explains how colours are made, how they relate to each other and how they affect the way people feel and behave. It covers the colour wheel, colour harmony (combinations that look good together), contrast, and the meaning or psychology of colour. In animation and game design, colour theory is a tool for guiding attention, setting mood, telling story and giving players information.

The basics – primary, secondary and tertiary colours, warm and cool colours, hue, saturation and value – were introduced in Colour Theory, Texture, Composition and Layout. This post focuses on why colour theory matters in animated and interactive work, and on designing colour that every player can read.

Quick review: colour harmonies

Complementary: colours opposite on the wheel (blue and orange). Maximum contrast – great for making a hero or a pickup stand out.
Analogous: neighbours on the wheel (yellow, yellow-orange, orange). Calm and unified – great for backgrounds and moods.
Triadic: three evenly spaced colours (red, yellow, blue). Lively and balanced, common in children’s games.
Monochromatic: one hue in different values and saturations. Stylish and moody, useful for flashbacks or menus.

Why colour theory is important in animation and game design

1. It guides the eye

Players must spot what matters in a fraction of a second. Designers give important objects higher saturation, brighter value or a complementary colour against a muted background. Many games paint climbable ledges or interactive objects in one consistent colour so players find the path without a tutorial.

2. It sets mood and tells story

Animators plan a colour script: a strip of small paintings that shows how the colour of a film changes scene by scene. Warm golden light can signal safety and happiness; cold blues can suggest loneliness or mystery; a sudden shift to red can announce danger. Games do the same between levels, or between day and night.

3. It communicates information

Colour is part of the game’s language: green health bars, red damage numbers, gold for rare rewards, team colours in multiplayer. Once these rules are set, they must stay consistent – or players will make mistakes.

4. It builds identity and brand

A strong palette makes a game or animated series recognisable from a single screenshot. Think of a series you know well: you can probably name its main colours.

5. It links to culture

Colours carry different meanings in different places. White is linked to weddings in many Western countries but to mourning in parts of Asia; red can mean luck and celebration in Chinese culture. Designers creating for a worldwide audience research these meanings (we look at culture more closely later in this module).

6. It affects accessibility

About 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women have some form of colour vision deficiency (colour blindness), most often difficulty telling red from green. If a game uses only red versus green to show enemies versus friends, many players cannot play fairly.

Two photos of red and green apples, the second showing both apples in similar yellowish tones — Figure 3 – Red and green apples, and a simulation of how the same apples may look to someone with red–green colour blindness. Image: Limbicsystem at English Wikipedia, CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons.

Designing colour for everyone

Never use colour as the only signal: add shapes, icons, patterns or text (for example a skull icon on enemies, a tick for correct answers).
Check value contrast: turn your screenshot greyscale. If important things disappear, increase the difference in lightness.
Offer a colour-blind mode or custom colour settings where possible.
Test with free colour-blindness simulators before release.

This video from Tiny Shiny Things shows how an indie developer uses colour theory (and shape language) to make a game readable and appealing:

Example

A small team is making a cartoon game about a reef clean-up. Their colour plan looks like this:

Part of the game	Colour choice	Reason
Healthy reef levels	Analogous blues, teals and soft greens	Calm, natural and unified.
Player’s diver	Bright orange suit	Complementary to the blue water, so the player is always visible.
Rubbish to collect	Saturated yellow with a white outline and a sparkle icon	High contrast plus a shape cue that works for colour-blind players.
Polluted areas	Desaturated brown-grey	Shows the damage visually; colour returns as the player cleans up.
UI panels	Dark navy with white text	Strong value contrast for readability.

The colour itself becomes a reward: as the player cleans each area, the reef “re-colours”, turning a game mechanic into a visible story.

Exercise

Define colour theory in one or two sentences, then list four reasons why it is important in animation and game design.
Choose a game or animated film. Describe its palette and explain how the colours support the mood or story.
Create a colour plan (like the table above) for a game idea of your own. Include at least one complementary pair.
Take a screenshot of a game and convert it to greyscale. Is the important information still clear? Suggest two changes that would improve accessibility.

Next: Story Arcs, Game Scripts and Storyboards for Interactive Games

Syllabus link: This post is relevant to the CAPE® Animation and Game Design Syllabus, Unit 2: Interactive Design and Game Development, Module 1: Introduction to Interactive Design – Specific Objective 16 (“define Colour Theory”); Specific Objective 17 (“outline the importance of Colour Theory in animation and game design”).

Attributions to media used in this post:

Simple RYB Color Wheel without Title.png – Revulo.Studio – CC0 (via Wikimedia Commons)

Color schemes when viewed by color-blind people.jpg – Krit-tonkla – CC BY-SA 4.0 (via Wikimedia Commons)

Braeburn GrannySmith dichromat sim.jpg – Limbicsystem at English Wikipedia – CC BY 2.5 (via Wikimedia Commons)