Microsoft Studio’s 2016 open world adventure required a user-interface which supported the game’s design of an ever-expanding Horizon festival: The ultimate celebration of cars, music, and freedom of the open road.
- Conceptual Design
- User Experience Design
- User Interface Design
- Gaming UI
Forza Horizon 3 was the ninth instalment in the Forza series and the third instalment in the Forza Horizon sub-series. Featuring a stunning open-world environment set in a fictionalised Australia, players can freely roam the map as leader of the titular Horizon car festival. The player has to expand the festival by completing events to earn fans.
Challenge
It was vital that the in-game UI reflected the ethos of an ever-expanding festival and the freedom of the open road. This created an interesting juxtaposition because a polished and refined UI would break the immersion of such an experience, even though the game itself was arguably the most polished and refined AAA title of the decade.
Large parts of the game design focused on giving users the creative freedom to set up their own events at locations of their choosing, including vehicle types, event rules, and environmental conditions. These user-generated events would then be promoted to other players online for them to join. Microsoft Studios required a revolutionary in-game UI that could handle the complexity of these requirements in a fun and intuitive way.
Solution
The ambitious concept of freedom and exploration, with an ever-expanding festival at its core, required an equally ambitious in-game user interface to support these principles. The entire UI was built around the kinds of materials and visual communication pieces found at music and automotive festivals around the world.
Every element of the in-game UI was fully customised to the user’s gameplay, showcasing the community’s behaviour and engagement behind each event, area of the map, and festival expansion points.
"Every element of the UI was to the user's gameplay, showcasing the community's behaviour and engagement behind each event, area of the map and festival expansion points."
