Game & UX Designer
Hardspace: Shipbreaker is a first-person simulation game set in a dystopic, capitalist future. The player assumes control of a shipbreaker employed by Lynx Corporation. The player must salvage useful materials in abandoned spaceships in exchange for credits so as to pay off the massive debt the player character owes to Lynx.
Company
Blackbird Interactive
Project Duration
2020 – Current
GDC Talk : Cutting Apart The Diegetic Interface of ‘Hardspace Shipbreaker’
Over the last year I have contributed the game on multiple fronts – User Experience Design, Game Design, User Interface Design and Narrative Design and Writing.
My primary goal on this game has been to explore the relationship between story, UI and Usability (making complex moments of the game approachable). Here are some examples of the application of my approach.
Above: Old HUD with overlapping UI elements
Below: New HUD with redesigned information architecture
Another application was the death experience in the game where the focus was to build game presence through the user flow and user interface.
Above: Old HAB Below: New HAB
I have helped design the controls, navigation and gameplay including features such as salvaging (the barge), the death experience, space truck and more. Along with the re-design of the entire HAB (habitation module – games menu), I have also been a contributing to the narrative design and writing and campaign implementation within the game. Personal hint: Look for the story of the chokri.
I have been fortunate enough to give a talk on my work at GDC 2021 titled “Cutting Apart the Diegetic Interface of Hardspace Shipbreaker”.
Vidhi 