What do you want from a Menu?

[Darren]

What do you like to be included in a menu and why? I'm not talking design wise here. I mean features. This is for 2d games so I will not be including detailed graphical changes (shadows, hair physics etc), purely basics. I'd like to create a list so I can be sure to cater for everything with my game.

Here's a list of features I can think of that I like to see in a game menu.

• Resolution Options (Self explanatory, ease of use, pretty standard feature)

• Fullscreen Options (Proper fullscreen, windowed fullscreen, bordered etc. Because it's nice to have options and different people play in different games. I tend to play single player experiences fullscreened, but something like Hearthstone for example I'll play windowed whilst watching a film etc)

• Subtitles (If I'm playing a game on my phone on mute or something I want to know what's going on, caters to deaf people)

• Colour Blind Mode (Obviously caters to Colour blind people, good to think of all possible audiences)

• Sound Settings (My game has settings for every little sound detail, like fx and music and menu sounds seperately, so the player can chose what immerses them most. Also has master settings, for when you simply want to mute everything or turn the whole game down without going into windows sound settings.

• Visual FX and particle settings (Like I said, I'm only making a 2d game so it isn't too intensive but particles and visual FX are an important option for older PC's which may not be able to handle everything running smoothly at 60FPS)

• Input/Key Bindings - Added by MCWolke (Always a good option to include, so the player can play in a way that is comfortable to them. )

• Controller Support (Doesn't apply to my game, but in a Platform game I almost always to look to play with a controller, including some menu options to choose to play with Keyboard or Controller is a big selling point)

User Yal adds-

• An option to disable flashing effects if you've got any. (If you're a good designer you'd never really use 'bad' flashing anyway, just rapid fades and low-contrast flashing... but I guess it's a lot easier to be conscious about this if you know photosensitive people).
  
  Resolution-wise, I like when pixelarty games lets you scale up the game window (integer amounts) without forcing fullscreen.

User Barvix adds-

• I think - though it's not too necessary most of the time - an option to change difficulty, or even gameplay speed for speedrunners. I probably wouldn't do the latter in my current game but I could see it being fun for some games.

So what am I missing? Lets create a good list for reference for people creating their own games.

 

[McWolke]

Input/key bindings.

 

[Darren]

Input/key bindings.

Very good point! A must in a lot of games. I'll add it to the list. Mine personally doesn't have this because it only uses the mouse but it's always good to see. Same reason I didn't include controller support but as this is a general list I'll add both.

 

[Yal]

An option to disable flashing effects if you've got any. (If you're a good designer you'd never really use 'bad' flashing anyway, just rapid fades and low-contrast flashing... but I guess it's a lot easier to be conscious about this if you know photosensitive people).

Resolution-wise, I like when pixelarty games lets you scale up the game window (integer amounts) without forcing fullscreen.

 

[Darren]

Very good point! My own game uses no flashing effects, but it's also something I hadn't really considered. It'd definitely suck if I was unable to play a game because there was no option to turn off something that affected me.

Me too, I also like the option to keep the aspect ratio bordered or to stretch the screen if I desire to, in the occasion none of the resolution options fit my screen. Something I'm trying to implement in my own game at the moment.

 

[McWolke]

Final Fantasy XIV (The MMORPG) has this cool feature, called Audio Visualisation or something like that. it looks kinda cool and.. that's it i guess. but if you want to have the best menu with everything covered and stuff, maybe you could add this one too
It looks like this ingame:

 

[Deleted member 467]

I think this information is actually useful, things like a setting to turn off particle effects is something I never even considered.

I think - though it's not too necessary most of the time - an option to change difficulty, or even gameplay speed for speedrunners. I probably wouldn't do the latter in my current game but I could see it being fun for some games.

 

[Darren]

That Audio Visualization feature is interesting, it seems a little unnecessary though, is there any real purpose to it in the game? (Other than looking cool) I don't think I'd even know where to start with creating something like that!

Difficulty options are a great one that I'd forgotten about. I like games that let you fine tune your experience that changes the game entirely as well, apparently in The Forest-a survival horror game on an island-you can turn all the enemies off and just enjoy the process of building/fishing on the island etc, creating a whole new experience and perhaps bringing in players who hate horror games, but love the survival/crafting elements.

 

[chance]

I like menu options in convenient places -- not necessarily in the starting menu. For example,

-- sound or music OFF / ON switches in the game screen itself.
-- a HELP button in the game screen (especially for games with complex controls).

Most importantly a QUIT button, especially when the game is full-screen (non-windowed). And more especially when the ESC button is disabled... for some inexplicable reason.

 

[Darren]

I like menu options in convenient places -- not necessarily in the starting menu. For example,

-- sound or music OFF / ON switches in the game screen itself.
-- a HELP button in the game screen (especially for games with complex controls).

Most importantly a QUIT button, especially when the game is full-screen (non-windowed). And more especially when the ESC button is disabled... for some inexplicable reason.

I agree with you for the most part, although it could be obtrusive if always on display. I like to have a kind of 'mini options' menu on the pause screen, and then more advanced options if needed.

Yeah, one of my pet peeves is difficulty in quitting, my game has a quit to menu and quit to desktop for this reason. Games that don't let you quit to desktop instantly irritate me! It's like some devs think if it's difficult to quit they'll just stay and play more. Not the case.

 

[ThunkGames]

This is a really great topic.

I think a sound and music slider is also important.

 

[Darren]

This is a really great topic.

I think a sound and music slider is also important.

Thanks! I was looking for a thread like this and couldn't find one, so started one myself. I'll keep editing the original post when I get a chance and try to make it as useful a reference as possible. I'd like to make something I can keep coming back to and ensure I'm providing a really user friendly experience with the games I create and help others do the same.

I agree, on/off volume is not enough, any game that makes me tab out and change the windows volume loses a point for me.

Thought of something else I'll add to the list - censorship options. If it's a violent game it'd enable/disable blood. Cut out swearing, etc. A bit of a niche one but could be useful for parents. (that isn't to say a child wouldn't be smart enough to simply switch it back on once they'd left the room, but a nice thought none the less!)

 

[Genetix]

I want Easter Eggs

 

[Darren]

I want Easter Eggs

Interesting! What sort of menu Easter Eggs would be a nice surprise for you to find in a game? Could you give me any examples of other games using this to good effect? I'd like to look into this.

 

[McWolke]

Interesting! What sort of menu Easter Eggs would be a nice surprise for you to find in a game? Could you give me any examples of other games using this to good effect? I'd like to look into this.

Stardew Valley for example has an Easter Egg in the Title Screen, you got to click 10 times on the "E" in "Valley" and it will Open a Door with an Alien waving

 

[Darren]

Stardew Valley for example has an Easter Egg in the Title Screen, you got to click 10 times on the "E" in "Valley" and it will Open a Door with an Alien waving

It's simple, I like it! I've always thought it'd be funny if in a violent game like DOOM they had a gore slider but if you pulled it to the far right for long enough the bar would just fly off and the slider itself would start bleeding, and you'd access a ridiculously over the top gore mode. The laughs for the few people that discovered it would be great!

I'll have to think of some cool Easter Eggs for my game, maybe some secret levels that can only be accessed from the menu.

 

[NicoDT]

I think noone mentioned brightness.

What's your game about? I'm making a JRPG and some of the things I have in my menu are "Text speed", "cursor memory" (it remember last skill or item used), and cursor color.