SANTANA panero

"Passionate about create and desing new experiences"

UI/UX

I worked on FallGuys UI polishing and keeping consistency across all menus,
UI shaders, UI tweening animations, call to action tweens, victory/lose animations, in-game UI tweens and layout, readjustment of prefabs hierarchy, setup text localization using CMS and HTML tags for all languages and glyph icons for different versions (PC, PS4, and other platforms)

A SafeArea script was added to contain the elements inside the frame area,
to meet PS4 requirements.
The UI setup was complex, and it was reworked to have less nested prefabs, as they
were adding extra complexity over time (Unity)

Tweening animations included lots of different UI elements,
that usually were animated in groups, and then individual tweens for each.
The entire UI is in motion and very responsive to player navigation.

Just Deal With It! mobile App (iOS, Android)
JDWI is a PS4 game where players need to use their smartphone
to play card games on the flat screen (TV).
As Lead Artist I had a key role defining
the UX for each card game and art direction.

Haptic feedback is provided to players as they move the cards,
touch the chips or interact with different power-ups effects

UI assets samples used for each state of Glass

Glass
This power-up will create a glass layer on top of the cards, blocking them

Tapping the screen will break the glass progressively.
The amount of glass particles spawned is based on the strength applied
to provided haptic feedback to players.

Other power-ups interactions:

Smoke Bomb
Blow the microphone to remove all the smoke

Jelly Bomb
Remove the jelly paint covering all the screen sliding the finger

Unstoppable Rex
Responsible for art direction, asset creation and working close with game designers to quickly iterate and re-work the UI-UX during the game development
(mostly when new features were added
but also iterating and improving previous designs)

God & Monsters (PS4, SONY)

At SuperPunkGames we pitched a VR game to Sony Europe,
consisting on a playable game demo and inspirational video.
I was responsible of art direction, UX/UI research and 3D/2D assets creation.

The game is a strategy game, controlled with PS4 VR Controller.
The art gets inspiration from tarot cards, 15th century maps and mythology books.
Visual style mimicking gouache/watercolors and ink (quill).
The book is used to represents the maps where the gameplay will take action, and also the game's myth story : creatures of hell were summoned to take over the world and gods are fight against them.

UX/UI

Fog of war is represented as Spatial User Interface :
a map painted on the floor, that allow players to have a simple notion of what's ahead, but it will unfold and reveal enemies and details as players move through the environment.

The game allows for right/left handed.
Players can bend their lower arm and look down (like looking the time on a wrist watch) to reveal a menu selection of troops and spells
After being selected, point on the map where to cast them.

More Spatial User Interface uses:
players can interact with the elements over the table for:
(vimeo.com/538859027#t=35s)

Tarot Cards choose which magic spells activate for the battles
Coins to access the shop
Mirror to save/load game session
Sand Clock to check the time left
Books to enter general Settings
Candles represent life bar of player (left candle) and enemy (right candle)

(left-to-right gameplay levels, related to the antique book metaphor)
-sinistrodextral writing direction-

Art Direction & Hands on
During my career I worked in a variety of projects
with different UX behaviors and interactions (mobile , flat screen, VR)

These are different assets and styles
developed for games (flat screen, mobile) and apps
I'm responsible for art direction, style and concepts development,
hands-on creation in many of them,
working closely with UI artists and game designers for wireframes.

From my experience,
I tend to prefer use darker themed UI
as I think they create less digital eye strain, help focus user’s attention,
provided better battery life for mobile players or
spectator/relaxed-mode feeling to flat screens users (TV)

Dark themes don't work better in all scenarios
(conflicts when there is lots of text or
many different content types -text, icons, tables, graphs-)

I usually think game UI as a combination of
diegetic, meta, and spatial interfaces
They help to keep the game fiction and
enhance the whole user experience.
Use non-diegetic interfaces
to communicate critically visual information

or information that requires being permanently visible.