Progress Tracker
The purpose of the progress tracker is to make the player aware of their progress in the level directly through the HUD, as well as making it available in the pause and loss screen menus. This will give the player an indication of their location in the level, while also alerting them to where in the level they died.
The progress tracking feature will be displayed at various locations in the game; the pause and loss menus, and a progress bar featured on the HUD. As such, in all cases where it isn't directly obvious, (i.e. at the beginning or end of a level) the player will be made aware of their progress in a level.
This version of the progress tracker will be displayed as a completion bar and percentage, and an indication of whether or not the checkpoint has been passed. Both these progress indicators will appear when one of the two menus appear; i.e., when the game is paused or when the player has lost.
This version of the progress tracker will be centred at the top of the game screen and will feature a progress bar that increments as the level progresses. Moving backwards will not decrement the progress bar, however losing will return it either the last checkpoint reached or initial spawn location at the beginning of the game, depending on where the loss occurred. The bar will increment in 10% stages.
Design Process: A few design ideas were considered regarding the progress bar:
- A normal progress bar being quite generic and uninteresting
- Asteroid player marker symbolising the impending doom of the asteroid apocalyptic event
- Astronaut head symbolising the player's progress
- Astronaut head and spaceship end marker representing the end goal being the player reaching their spaceship
User feedback chose the asteroid marker being the preferred design.
Progress bars with the asteroid marker were created in increments of 10%, symbolising the players location on the game map.
