(Please note that the VYXL newsfeed/blog has now moved to www.vyxl.co/blog)
Back in November 2017 I sent an email to Reiza Studios, offering my services to design the UI and Branding for Automobilista 2 — a title that I don’t believe was announced at the time but was very much anticipated by the Sim Racing community.
Now, here in early February 2020 and with the original Automobilista title voted #2 best Racing Sim over at Race Department I am extremely proud to have been involved on both these aspects for the forthcoming succcessor to that title (please do check out the post about the Vyxl branding for AMS2 here).
Reiza recently shared some preview images of the AMS2 UI designed by Vyxl and assisted + guided by the awesome Reiza team, so I felt it would be good to share them here on Vyxl.co too —
It’s no big secret that AMS2 is built on the foundations of the Madness Engine (Project Cars 2) so designing a fresh UI on that platform while retaining the brand feel of AMS1and delivering a contemporary appearance has been a challenge — but a highly enjoyable one at that.
As I am myself a long-term Sim Racer there was one particular design oversight made by many other Sims that I wished to ensure we avoid; placing any important buttons or information in the lower central section of the screen which is often blocked by Steering Wheels in the Players line-of-sight (a common setup for serious Sim Racers, to help the feeling of immersion).
This can be demonstrated by this early AMS2 UI mockup by Vyxl shown on my personal setup —
Above you can see the important START button bottom right, with a button cluster for Replays and Options on the bottom left, and all central textual content floated to the top of each panel accordingly: all so the Player can navigate the UI comfortable from this viewpoint without the need to crane their necks around their Wheel rim to read awkwardly-placed UI elements.
Loading Screen, with load bar across the screen top
The same design thinking is also applied to the Replay taskbar; an element that slides down from the screen top and auto-hides itself after a few seconds of Player inaction, allowing the Race replay to be fully visible —
** Please note that all the content in the images shown above is placeholder and no final Game content should be inferred **
Automobilista 2 is scheduled for release in March 2020 and Vyxl is very excited and proud to have been involved with this fantastic title.
(Please note that the VYXL newsfeed/blog has now moved to www.vyxl.co/blog)
Vyxl is hugely proud to have been involved in the AVERT platform (Adaptive Virtual Reality Training) — a live VR Training system currently being demonstrated to Police Forces around the UK.
Vyxl was involved in designing the VR-Operator UI, Location Maps and Taser Iconography for the system, which has already been demonstrated to over 60% of the UK’s Police Firearms organisations.
Check out the pretty awesome AVERT trailer above, and examples of Vyxl design work below —
Many thanks to Andrew at Oakley Mobile, Hannah Merton, and best of luck to the team demonstrating this exciting Training system around the UK.
(Please note that the VYXL newsfeed/blog has now moved to www.vyxl.co/blog)
Vyxl is requesting Sim Racers complete a quick (and fun!) survey here right here on the Vyxl website.
This Survey is intended for Sim Racers with a Steering Wheel in the line of sight of their primary display. It is not intended for Racers using VR or non-Wheel controllers.
The results will inform the UI design of the upcoming Automobilista 2 title, which Vyxl is currently working on.
Results will be published in due course for the benefit of the entire community.
Incredibly excited that a title I’ve been working on in secret for a few months, was announced yesterday. Automobilista (motorist in Portuguese) is a highly-regarded Sim Racing series developed by Brazilian-based Reiza Studios.
Vyxl has delivered new logotypes for the title —aka AMS2— and is working on the UI for the late-2019 launch (with some world-first design concepts, to be announced in due course).
Below you can see the logotypes, heavily inspired by (and fixing issues with) the original logo, shown bottom. Vyxl wanted to deliver a highly polished, highly recognisable motorsport-inspired identity, with the need to encapsulate the titles’ 14 characters within a recognisable silhouette for maximum readability wherever used. The master logotype even retains a horizon line, inspired by its’ predecessor. The acronym and social media badge/icons provide further flexibility for the brands’ applications across Social Media, Print and within Digital realms.
Original title logo for reference —
Reiza have created an announcement teaser featuring some of the titles new features (such as a new graphics engine including weather and day/night cycles) and of course Vyxl’s AMS2 logo design. Check it out —
Great work from all the team at Reiza, to say I’m very excited for this title would be a massive understatement!
Vyxl was recently involved in a rebrand for the 22nd Century Racing Series (’22RS’) racing game title currently in development at GOATi Entertainment in Melbourne, Australia.
Having finally caught up with the latest Star Wars latest movie ‘Solo: A Star Wars Story’, I found a great article detailing the work involved to create the screen graphics within the movie.
Released today is Rockstars’ sequel to the superb Red Dead Redemption — a Vyxl favourite from way back in 2010. As part of my own work, I regularly save out examples of UI and HUD designs from titles for reference and inspiration.
While RDR and RDR2 appear to have quite ‘minimal’ and unintrusive menu systems, they are anything but simple from a design point of view, and the quality and style achieved by Rockstars’ team is superb overall.
One standout piece of UI Design are the catalogues the protagonists can peruse at many of the games’ stores —
Not only do the page designs look period-authentic but the implementation is seamless. Here’s a link to a video showing the catalogue & UI in action — (if the link doesn’t take you to the correct timestamp, jump to 1:13.45)
Hard-hitting article over at Polygon about the massive increase in game titles released every year, and the challenges facing smaller teams getting their work noticed.
One of the most eye-opening facts Polygon quote is the number of games on Steam nearly doubled year-on-year from 2014 onwards (1,772 in 2014 upto 7,672 in 2017); which equates to around 16 new titles a day currently. The number of games on Nintendo Switch’s eShop also multiplied by a factor of 5 in just a single year.
In a climate where every game is stuffed to the gills with five tiers of colored loot, massive open worlds, reams of optional content and a dozen content patches lurking on the schedule before the core package even hits store shelves, it seems that game developers are battering each other harder than ever before to compete for the attention of games worldwide — Polygon
Vyxl offers services such as Branding, UI and Graphic Design — that will really help your product stand out. That first impression; whether its’ your app store logo, or your UI, is all-important in engaging your players and customers. Get in touch!
At Vyxl, well-chosen fonts need to perform and behave beyond design appeal and basic readability and that’s where we move into deeper areas of Typography (leading, kerning, tracking and layout design) as well as beyond into good copywriting.
Take a read of this superb Washington Post article and see if you feel strongly about either argument discussed.
It may be a nuanced subject (well, sure, it is) but for any content consumption, clearly messaged advertising, Brand acumen, solid UX or to help achieve plain language, the devil is in the details.
It’s rare to see such an in-depth and revealing Game Dev talk available for freeonline viewingless than a week after the actual event (GDC I’m looking at you, here…). Yet here we can watch Marcel Offermans from Studio 397 talk about many of the processes involved in the ongoing rFactor2 race simulator development.
Of particular interest to Vyxl is their UI Design backstory, and the architecture overhaul needed mid-project. Additional to that Marcel explains many other facets of creating the title such as licensing and laser-scanning racetracks, tyre modelling and 3D model creation.
Thanks to Luminis DevConfor sharing, and Marcel for the fascinating talk.
Very informative article detailing some of the do’s and don’ts of form design – where forms can either offer low friction entry to your app, website, game or service; or stop your potential customer in their tracks. Great read!
Wired recently took a closer look at some of the spectacular UI design seen in The Last Jedi, which pay homage to Star Wars Art Director Harry Lange and IBM computer graphics pioneer John Whitney. Stunning work.
Fascinating —and painstakingly designed— microsite detailing 12 laws of UX, based on research by Pyschologists, Economists, UX experts and the laws of nature.
Fourth in an ongoing series of ‘UI/Branding Teardowns’ at Vyxl. The articles in this series are not intended to be excessively deep, but focus on key aspects of a game titles’ UI and Branding; providing a summary intended for design reference. Continue reading “UI/Branding Teardown — Project Cars 2”→
Third in an ongoing series of ‘UI/Branding Teardowns’ at Vyxl. The articles in this series are not intended to be excessively deep, but focus on key aspects of a game titles’ UI and Branding; providing a summary intended for design reference. Continue reading “UI/Branding Teardown — Automobilista”→
Welcome to the second in an ongoing series of ‘UI/Branding Teardowns’ at Vyxl. The articles in this series are not intended to be excessively deep, but focus on key aspects of a game titles’ UI and Branding; providing a summary intended for design reference. Continue reading “UI/Branding Teardown — Assetto Corsa”→
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Welcome to the second in an ongoing series of ‘UI/Branding Teardowns’ at Vyxl. The articles in this series are not intended to be excessively deep, but focus on key aspects of a game titles’ UI and Branding; providing a summary intended for design reference. 
Vyxl 
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