MOON – Personal Project
Moodboards Mockups Prototype
Moon is one of my favourite sci-fi films, and I recently found myself wondering how it might have played out if it had been released as a video game instead.
This project is spoiler-free (if you haven’t seen the film, I highly recommend it!) but I do wonder how players would’ve reacted to the main plot twist if they were experiencing it first-hand, playing as astronaut Sam Bell.
The main challenge that I set myself with this project was adapting an existing IP and translating it into video game UI. Fortunately I had tons of reference as the film is pretty packed with screens and graphics. I also found this brilliant UI review by Fey Vercuiel which was a huge help during the research phase of this project.
I also wanted to create a fully animated prototype for the ‘game’ where I could experiment with motion graphics, staying faithful to the style of the original film but also adapting existing elements to fit the flow and experience of a video game.
Moodboards
I started out by grabbing as many references from the film as possible – from monitor screens and display boards to graphics and logos dotted around the Sarang base. I also analysed the animations used in warnings and loading screens to get a feel for the overall motion style.
Film UI and Graphic Design Reference
Game UI Reference
As well as thoroughly researching the film’s UI, I looked at other existing sci-fi games for UI references.
High Fidelity Mockups
Because the film already has such a strong UI style, I jumped fairly quickly into creating high fidelity mockups (after spending some time establishing a basic flow for the game, and some simple wireframes).
By using a combination of stills from the original film, some fantastic environment art created by Alex Clarke and Constantin Os, and my own UI assets, I created several screen mockups that pay homage to the original bold UI of the film, whilst giving it an accessible player-friendly feel.
Working with an extremely limited colour palette was an interesting challenge, but ultimately something that I think benefitted the overall UI. I wanted to maintain the palette from the film, focussing on a largely monochromatic theme with accents of orange and red to emphasise different gameplay elements such as button states and warnings.
Prototype
The final challenge was putting everything together into an animated prototype!
I focussed on maintaining Moon’s simple animations and sci-fi interfaces, but adding some extra touches that emphasise the slightly dated feel of the film’s UI systems.
The overall goal was to capture the sense of isolation and mystery that you feel when watching the original film, incorporating features from the film’s narrative into a game format that feels familiar and faithful to the original but also intriguing and immersive.
Warning: This video contains flickering imagery.
Credits:
- Stills and film artwork were taken from the original film – Moon, 2009
- Sarang Base interior environment artwork by Alex Clarke
- Exterior Moon environment artwork by Constantin Os
- Lunar Rover based on model miniature