the crystal maze

The crystal maze was a British made game show created in the 1990's to compete with the french game show fort boyard as the English version could not be filmed due to trouble getting the set so chatsworth television came up with the idea of the crystal maze based loosely off the same concept as fort boyard but instead of a set time they played for time crystals where at the end of the zones they reached the crystal dome where all the time crystals equated to 5 seconds of time each and the contestants had to get as many gold tickets as they could whilst avoiding the silver.

for the start of the project we have been asked to come up with ten questions relating them to the crystal maze game and the UI and answer them,
1.what the zones look like to design the interface around them
2.what information the interface should have in it i.e. health, ammo, map of the zone.
3.what is the crystal maze.
4.what is a UI and how does it work.
5.how does dyslexia affect someones user interface.
6.how does colour blindness affect someones user interface.
7.what makes a good user interface and what makes a bad one.
8.how is it integrated into the game, i.e. does it animate.
9.what stuff goes in the zones.
10.what is the target audience for the game.

 1.
http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/crystal-maze/screenshots/gameShotId,217253/

 different pictures of the zones of the crystal maze including, Medieval, Aztec, Industrial, Futuristic and Ocean these images are to give me ideas of how the zones looked and ho i might style my interface around them.

2. this is the map layout for the crystal maze from series 4 and on they replaced the industrial zone with the ocean zone in this seriesyou may need something like this or of the individual sections so that the player knows where they are and can find their way around the level. the interface should also contain what weapon you are using your ammo for that weapon if it applies the current zone that you are in and your health or lives in some form.

4. a user interface is the on screen information relating to the character and the game including where the player is what weapons they are carrying their health and a minimap.

5.to make sure that people with dyslexia dont have trouble with the interface you should make sure that you limit the amount of words in it and if you do have words you should try not to make them too long or crucial to the game just have the name of the items.

6.to make sure that people with color blindness can play the game you should avoid having colours that get mixed up alot together such as red and green and light blue and light green mainly it would be nearly impossible and very boring to try and make the colours so that everyone can be use to it.

7. user interfaces should relate to the game that you are playing so having loads of boxes for an mmo on the bottom of the screen like in world of war craft is ok because you can customise them to have as many as you need and in that type of game you may need something accessed quickly,

whereas a first person shooter game should be less cluttered so that it immerses you more and so that the hud doesnt get in your way usually just consists of a gun in the corner with your ammo and a mini map,


then you get games such as final fantasy where the game world has no hud on screen but when you get into a battle the attacking hud comes up with the health and attacks.

you also get huds that are built into the game world such as the spartan helmet in halo which has the ammo map/radar, health  built into the game world so we are seeing everything on screen that the character sees

8. most ui's are animated in some way whether it is the weapon changing or the ammo going down your health depleating or the mini map moving so i will probably have to have mine animated in some way.

9. the crystal maze