Tech Tree - This one was a bit complicated, because out tech was not only split between categories, but also between production hubs. I iterated quite a lot over development to allow it to control smoothly on MKB and gamepad.
Databank - Where all of the lore in the game lives. Our narrative director, Will, wrote a massive amount of great content for Techtonica, so we had to include it all, along with all of the technical specs for machines, tools, and everything else.
Guide - This one didn't make it into the game unfortunately, but it would have been where all of our gameplay FAQs would have been. Some of the info was rolled into the Databank and other youtube content.
Inventory and Schematics - This is where you can handcraft items, look at recipes, organize your toolbars, and generally just see what ya got. Again, the challenge was to make sure this screen felt good on both KBM and gamepad.
Journal - task tracking. Techtonica is one of the only factory automation games with a full narrative, which is structured via tasks that are collected in this menu. We ended up not needing to handle key items per quest, but everything else shipped.
Log - Techtonica is fully voice acted and we wanted a way to replay all of the dialog since task and focus-shifting is a big part of the gameplay. This screen has a fully transcribed record of all dialog translated into over 10 languages.
Echosketch Map - The map menu displays the full world, along with all buildables, machines, and resources in a 3d scrollable format. I aided the creative director in polishing the visual heirarchy and legibility of the map on top of designing the menu.
I was responsible for UX wireframing, designing the visual style, creating the production art, and implementation for all of the menus in Techtonica, including these menus. The carousel menus served as the main information hub and inventory/crafting center for the player. The goal was to make them easily accessible via hotkeys as well as smoothly navigable on gamepad. Each one had to have a distinct layout while also maintaining visual cohesion with the rest of the UI, meaning that while information was laid out in subtly different ways in each screen, they were designed to feel consistent and familiar when shifting from one to the next.
