When designing a world, the sky is the limit, but with great power comes great responsibility. Here are the three pillars we use when designing the Kingdom.
For a strategy game packed with content, it's vital to present information clearly without overwhelming players. Fortunately, there are effective techniques to improve on-screen clarity.
Most of the assets in Kingdom Hex have an outline. These outlines are usually one of two different values. The darkest outlines denote troops, locations, and interactive elements, while the medium grey outlines are used for terrain, land edges, and background elements. These outlines are crucial for ensuring foreground elements stand out from the background.
We use distinct value scales to separate colors: medium values for backgrounds, darker values for outlines, and lightest values for important icons and interface elements.
In Kingdom Hex, we design icons to be used as assets. This is why every troop faces the same direction without mirroring when changing direction. Using icons enhances recognition, cognition, and memorization. On a massive map, these design choices become crucial when viewing assets from a distance.
Many excellent 4X games thrive on complicated menus, and we love those games, but Kingdom Hex takes a different approach. We design our game to be sleek, fast, and minimal without sacrificing depth. This way our players spend less time in menus and enjoy shorter turn lengths.
You control the zoom level, affecting how much information is visible at once. Even with a full screen, content must remain clear and manageable. We design with the awareness that increased on-screen activity slows the game and extends turn times.
Buttons on the screen are minimal, and so are the pop-ups. We want to avoid players getting lost in menus and prefer them to find information directly on the screen, in consistent locations.
The challenge was balancing rich content and depth with quick turn times, and a minimal interface has been essential to achieving this.
Kingdom Hex grew into having its own beauty. By prioritizing clarity and functionality, we ensured the art didn’t compromise usability. In the process, we found that this approach led to a unique and evolving art style.
Before choosing colors, we first test the screen's values to ensure they are well-separated and distinct. On a personal note, as a colorblind individual, using digital tools like the color picker and keeping a color wheel open on my computer is essential when painting the Kingdom.
The blending tilemap is a key feature of the Kingdom's beauty, a technique we discovered by accident! Seamlessly connecting and blending biomes helps make the maps feel natural and alive. For more information on each biome and tile blending, check the blogs.
Kingdom Hex features a day/night cycle with moving shadows. If you look closely, even the edges of land masses shift light and shadow as time progresses. All of this is done in 2D to keep the game feeling light and fast. The moving light adds a natural, beautiful touch, with these small details enhancing the overall vibe.
These are the three pillars of our visual design. Stay tuned for more insights into our artistic process, and thanks for reading.
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