Project Summary:

While I would never dream of replacing Konami’s original game (nor Ayami Kojima’s singular art style), I thought it would be fun to redesign the game’s Pause Menu and Inventory UI (User Interface). My Inventory concept focuses on placing more attention to all the interesting equipment the player collects throughout the game, and how Alucard’s appearance would change as his equipment changes.

I had 5 goals for this project:

  1. Create a modern, minimal, and clean UI style while staying true to the original’s display of information.

  2. Experiment with UI elements that aren’t flat parallel angles.

  3. Create quick and interesting transition animations which highlight the player’s main weapons.

  4. Maintain the game’s sense of humor through the UI.

  5. Do my best to stay true to Ayami Kojima’s black ink + watercolor art style while creating something unique.

Below is the end result, built in Unity. I would love to design the other screens (Spells, Familiars, Relics, System) when time allows!

**Best viewed at full screen (click the BLUE expand icon) with sound on.**

 

If your native resolution cannot support the game window above, please visit my itch.io page and play the game there:

https://mr-mirrorshades.itch.io/castlevania-sotn-ui-redesign

 
 

Design Changes

 
sotn1Capture.JPG

Old Pause Menu

That’s a lot of information! While I love the stark blue color (which I believe was designed to match the map screen), I was definitely one to change it to dark neutrals in the game’s settings when I first played it as a kid.

 

NEW Pause Menu:

 
 
 
sotn_invCapture.JPG

Old Inventory Menu

Again, a lot of information for the player to soak in all at once. My goal was to simplify this into a modern inventory layout so as to reduce the cognitive load while adding more flavor to each item.

 

NEW Item Equip Menu and Animations:

 
 

I designed the transition animations to imitate Alucard’s sprite trail effect from the original game.

 
 

Finally, for a bit of fun I made a quick intro animation with the original sprite animation, and made an explosion effect with Unity’s particle system.

 
 

Asset Sheets:

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

*Rights Disclaimer*

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is the intellectual property of Konami Inc. Use of it’s respective material is not meant for any type commercial or monetary gain whatsoever, and fails under fair use.