Hi everyone,

first of all a little sorry, this is not about "visual arts" but more a GUI topic.
I didn't know where else to put it, though.

So, I just wondered if anyone of you has any experience or even real data on Google's material design in games?
What are the pros and cons? Would players accept it? And can you make material design feel more "gamey"?

Thanks in advance,
BG

Not sure what the question is. Are you asking "can a game be made from Google's app design language?" I had to look up "Google Material Design," and it sounds to me kind of like the "WIMP" metaphor for graphical user interfaces (Windows, Icons, Menus, Pointers). Can you make a game using the WIMP metaphor? Sure you can. Can you make a game based on a touch-screen GUI scheme? Sure you can.

Hi @Tom Sloper,

thanks for your response and sorry for the confusion.

I am talking very specificially about Google's design language "Material Design",
which is about a whole catalog more than just WIMP
Find it here or there.

And of course, I know that you CAN do a game with this
as you probably can with virtually anything.

My actual question is in two parts:

1. Is there any experience in doing so?
   Can you have material design while still maintaining a "gamey" feel?
   Are there any traps or bottlenecks to consider, that people already ran into?
    
2. Is there any analysed data (i.e. usage statistics) available?
   How well or poorly is it accepted by players of games compared to users of application software?
   How well does Material Design perform in games? Is it just as intuitive as it is in apps?

Thanks again

I don't think those are your real questions, but I'll take them.

21 hours ago, ptietz said:

1. Is there any experience in doing so?
Can you have material design while still maintaining a "gamey" feel?
Are there any traps or bottlenecks to consider, that people already ran into?

What do you mean by a "gamey" feel?  There are games like Chess, Go, Checkers, Mancala, board games that have been played for hundreds or even thousands of years. They're the longest running games in human history, would you say they have a "gamey" feel?  There are probably millions of web games from things like Slither, Generals, Alter Ego, A Dark Room, do they have a "gamey" feel?  There are other games like Hearthstone or Civilization that are highly turn based and not particularly animated, would you say they have a "gamey" feel?  There are first-person shooters, real time strategy, platform games, puzzle games, one-tap games, and many more; would you say any of those do or do not have a "gamey" feel?

 Certainly there are traps and bottlenecks. EVERY system has limiting features.  It is far more likely that the liming features will be your own implementation, but you might bump against the limitations of their system. 

21 hours ago, ptietz said:

2. Is there any analysed data (i.e. usage statistics) available?
How well or poorly is it accepted by players of games compared to users of application software?
How well does Material Design perform in games? Is it just as intuitive as it is in apps?

Google probably has their own statistics. Some larger companies have their own statistics. There are probably market research firms who have done some of those things.  Unless you have a pile of cash none of those statistics are available to you.

As for how well it is accepted, that's irrelevant. Players don't particularly care what technologies a game uses.  You don't hear stories that that game reviewers are critical of a game because the developers use WWise, or instead use Miles Audio, or how a game absolutely must be written with XAudio2. You don't hear a game reviewer say "I'd give this five stars, but because they use Lua for scripting, I'm bumping it down to three."  Instead, people care about how the game feels to them.

I think your REAL question is if the tools will work adequately for the game you want to make. Those answers depend almost entirely on the game you want to make.  Since we don't know what game you are trying to make, we don't know the visual style, or the control style, or the responsiveness style, we can't really tell you if the system will work for your game or not.

Games usually have UIs that match the game theme. Material design might not work well for a steampunk game, or a farm game, and so on.

For instance, Deus Ex has its whole UI built around triangles, gold, black and white. You put material design on it and it looks very out of  place.

You grab something like a medieval fantasy game and you get these ornamented borders on menus, metal or wooden surfaces, etc.

The only example I can think of right now of non-orthodox "game theme matches UI theme" is Skyrim. It's menus are quite modern with transparent surfaces, sharp borders and highlights,  kinda material'y if you wish. Still you can see details here and there with the ornamentation I described (line drawing mostly).

That UI doesn't screams "medieval fantasy" precisely, but look at ornamented borders. It's like "modern" medieval fantasy. It was really interesting for me when Skyrim came out.

Look at Deus Ex Mankind Divided's

Looks futuristic, preserving the gold, black and white colors of the overall theme of the game (hell, in Human Revolution they had a friggin golden post process throughout the whole game).

Diablo 2's UI

You get these very ornamented gold/silver metal thingies everywhere.

In short, I don't think you'll find examples of material design in game UIs unless you see cartoony games, ie, something that has a tone that would match the usual material design colors and shapes.

Thank you guys for answering and sorry for the late response. The flu knocked me out -.-

@frob this video describes pretty well what I mean with game feel:

GUI design is obviously only just a small part of it.

That data will cost was already what I thought. But you know, hope's the last to die ^^

@TheChubu Thank you so very much for actually approaching my question! The Skyrim example was kinda like an eye-opener for me. It's not material design at all, obviously, but I think, I got what you mean. I think, I will try a few things out in that manner. Maybe I'll report back if the thing leaves raw concept draft state.