# Game UI Hud And Diegetic Interfaces > Use when designing game HUDs, menus, maps, inventory, dialogue, tutorials, pause/settings, save/load, failure/success, controller focus, touch, couch-distance, or diegetic interfaces. Use ordinary app UI skills for non-game task flows. - Skill: `peterbamuhigire/game-ui-hud-and-diegetic-interfaces` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 3 files) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add peterbamuhigire/game-ui-hud-and-diegetic-interfaces` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/peterbamuhigire/game-ui-hud-and-diegetic-interfaces/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Productivity - Author: peterbamuhigire (https://skillmd.com/u/peterbamuhigire) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/peterbamuhigire/game-ui-hud-and-diegetic-interfaces --- # Game UI, HUD, Menus, and Diegetic Interfaces Design game information and control surfaces around player attention, pressure, world context, input mode, and viewing distance. ## Use When - A game needs a HUD, reticle, objective, map, inventory, dialogue, tutorial, pause/settings, save/load, failure, success, or lobby surface. - Information must work across exploration, combat, learning, cutscenes, couch distance, handheld touch, keyboard/mouse, or controller focus. - Diegetic, spatial, contextual, minimal, or conventional HUD choices need an evidence-based decision. ## Do Not Use When - The surface is a non-game app, dashboard, form, or website; use group 04 or 07. - The task is the game’s overall route; use `game-visual-experience-orchestration`. - The task is world/character/VFX art direction; use `game-art-direction-and-visual-development`. - The task is timing, impact, camera, haptic or response tuning; use `game-feel-feedback-camera-and-haptics`. - The task is general typography, colour, icons, motion, tokens, component states or handoff; pair with the existing owning skill. ## Required Inputs | Artefact or context | Source | Required? | Why | |---|---|---|---| | Player questions, game states, verbs, failure/recovery and stopping flow | Product/SRS | yes | Defines information priority and timing | | Platform, device, viewing distance and input matrix | Technical/support policy | yes | Governs layout, focus, touch and readability | | Content, localisation, access, save, privacy and commercial rules | Accountable owners | yes | Exposes complete states and prohibited interruption | | Representative build or prototype | Engineering | required for observed pass | Enables focus, legibility and pressure testing | ## Workflow 1. Inventory every state and the player’s immediate questions: what matters now, what can wait, and what must persist. 2. Choose world-only, diegetic, spatial, contextual, minimal HUD, conventional HUD, or a deliberate hybrid for each information class; record failure and fallback. 3. Build the attention hierarchy for calm, traversal, dialogue, combat, tutorial, failure, success, pause, save/load and interruption states. Keep critical threats and consequences redundant. 4. Specify every surface and transition, including map, inventory, objectives, dialogue, tutorial, settings, controls, accessibility, localisation expansion, safe areas, couch/handheld scale, controller focus and touch alternatives. 5. Pair with the existing owners for type pairing/licensing, accessible colour, iconography, component states, touch/haptics, motion, UX writing, internationalisation, tokens and engineering handoff. 6. Place ads or offers only at explicit, predictable genuine breaks after the requested action completes; define disclosure, decline/close, cap/pace, focus, no-fill/offline/error, data/consent and kill switch. Block interruption of gameplay, learning, narrative, saving, recovery, pause-to-stop, and exit. 7. Validate with real content, representative intensity, target input modes, devices/viewing distances and affected players. Preserve build identity, failures and unassessed matrix cells. ## Decision Rules | Condition | Action | Wrong-choice failure | |---|---|---| | Information is continuous and survival-critical | Keep it persistent or immediately recoverable with redundant cues | Minimalism hides state the player must act on | | Information is occasional and low urgency | Reveal contextually or on request | HUD clutter competes with world and action | | Diegetic treatment reduces legibility or access | Add an equivalent non-diegetic presentation | Immersion becomes an exclusion mechanism | | Controller, touch and keyboard/mouse share a surface | Preserve semantic intent with input-specific focus and prompts | One input model is bolted onto another | | Ad state conflicts with play, recovery, stopping, child safety or privacy | Block or disable the placement | A commercial surface becomes intrusive or unsafe | ## Capability Contract Read access to game states, content, platform/input rules and approved visual systems is required. Prototype/build inspection is required for a pass. Editing is limited to authorised design artefacts; implementation, participant contact, external SDK configuration, publication and production changes require separate authority. ## Degraded Mode Without full states, real content, target devices or input support, provide a provisional information architecture and state matrix. Use a clear conventional fallback when diegetic presentation cannot be verified. Keep ads disabled when disclosure, child/privacy treatment, focus, failure or kill-switch behaviour is unknown. ## Anti-Patterns - Mobile app navigation transplanted into a game. Fix: organise around play states, attention pressure and input continuity. - HUD stripped for screenshots. Fix: test comprehension and survival before removing persistent information. - Diegetic interface at any cost. Fix: provide readable, accessible non-diegetic equivalents. - Tiny controller text or touch-first couch UI. Fix: validate at actual distance and target size with each input mode. - Tutorial overlays that freeze, narrate and point at every control. Fix: teach one verb through safe action, then verify transfer. - Ad between failure and retry or inside pause/exit. Fix: preserve recovery and stopping; use only a genuine post-completion break. ## Outputs | Artefact | Consumer | Evidence and acceptance condition | |---|---|---| | Game information-priority and surface map | Product, UI and narrative | Every state answers player questions at the right urgency | | HUD/menu/diegetic specification | Engineering and QA | Layout, states, focus, inputs, content, access, localisation and failure paths are explicit | | Interface evidence matrix | Release and SRS owners | Target devices, viewing distances, input modes, player tasks, failures and ad states are recorded | ## Examples - `examples/exploration-to-pause-interface-spec.md` — a worked multi-state HUD/menu design with controller, touch, localisation, accessibility and ad interruption decisions. ## References - `references/game-interface-method.md` — information classes, presentation choices, state matrix and validation contract. - `../../04-web-and-ui-design/component-states-and-interaction-fidelity/SKILL.md` — control-state fidelity. - `../../07-mobile-ios-android-cross-platform/touch-gesture-and-haptics/SKILL.md` — touch and gesture alternatives. - `../../09-design-systems-tokens-and-theming/design-handoff-and-dev-spec/SKILL.md` — implementation handoff. - `../../../doctrine/design-doctrine.md` and `../../../doctrine/references/wcag-2.2-criteria.md` — shared craft and access floors.