Greetings Gamedev.net community,

I was wondering what some of you well seasoned game dev vets out there feel all game user interfaces should contain in general. By user interface I am referring to the start menu and player options before engaging in game play, as well as what those tabs lead to (i.e. Play now tab > Board select > Game options). I am sure this question can be answered quite simply, its just something I want to get input from all ends on this one.

Warm Salutations,

Null

Really depends on your game. If you have tutorials, you don't need an entry for instructions in the menu, but an option to enable them in gameplay. Generally the less you have the better as a general rule, less confusion is always a winner. You should have a Play, Options and maybe Quit buttons in the main menu, and if you have several difficulty levels I will put that the next set of options after pressing Play. Within options depending on how many you have you can go with only one menu or have sub-menus. If you only have sound settings for example there is no need for multiple menus. If you have a lot of graphics tuning options and then audio and input and so on, then it is better to make a menu for each. Generally it is not a good idea to go more than two levels deep, you risk to confuse your average user.

Quit button? :)

I'm not sure why you ask, is there some reason you can't do it the same way other games of the genre you are making did? Generally, menu is probably the last place where you would want to be original (confusion).