Designing Four Tactile Menu Controls for Bioshock
A video game has a way of bending reality, but what would it look like to be armed with everything that Jack has his disposal?
I have a unique way of dealing with rejection for my writing.
Every 25 rejections I allow myself to buy something that I would otherwise deem frivolous. Something that’s meant for entertainment, aesthetics, or general curiosity.
This year, I reached 100 rejections for the first time since starting the practice in 2018 and decided that my reward would be a Nintendo Switch Lite.
This is my first foray into the world of console games since my brother had his PlayStation 2 and I was trying very hard to kill the three-headed dog in Kingdom Hearts.
(I never did, and it remains on my bucket list to do so.)
My first game purchases included Animal Crossing, Peaky Blinders: Mastermind, and the Bioshock series.
Lately, I’ve been spending a lot of time in Rapture as a way to unwind and decompress while working through the puzzles and mazes of the world.
While it’s been great fun, it also occurred to me that the game does give me certain affordances to survive in this environment.
You would think that, as a writer, television critic, and lover of all things sci-fi, I would be good at translating affordances into different worlds. Yet the idea that one man can carry an assortment of plasmids, tonics, and weapons as he walks through Rapture?
It’s an almost Mary Poppins-style ability to pull things out of my pockets and have them at the ready.
So I started deconstructing these menus.
On the Switch Lite, the menu appears with a circle in the center, indicating your selected plasmid or weapon. By toggling the joystick controls, a player can select the appropriate weapon by moving in one of eight directions.
I say eight because that appears to be the maximum. While players start out with one or two weapons and plasmids as they gain power the weapon and plasmid menu grows more complex. They also buy additional slots to accommodate as many as eight plasmids.
In thinking about how I could translate this control I started thinking about both the game’s setting (a 1960s mid-Atlantic city under the ocean) and also ways the game could potentially reach players who may not have as fine motor function.
Keeping that in mind, I began sketching.
At first, I thought of how I might directly translate the current interface by running balls along a series of tracks.
I constructed a rapid prototype of some cardboard and borrowed a series of glass flat-bottomed marbles. A similar setup, although perhaps using a larger mechanism, could be used and still incorporate the graphics from the game.
This is a satisfying interface but depending on final sizing might prove cumbersome for any player with a motor disability.
So I tried reconfiguring the setup to see how the same concept would play out if the options were in a straight line and just had to be pulled forward instead of sliding into the center.
This turned out to work a lot better since each plasmid or weapon is on their own individual track. Additionally, the operation could be as simple as an on/off switch instead of a sliding rule.
I set this on a slight angle as well so it could be propped up against the device. It takes away some of the portability of the Switch Lite though, and that would work to its disadvantage.
Going back to the idea of the original slider, I thought about buttons on a phone and designed a tactile controller that would operate in a similar fashion.
This interface would have plunger-like keys similar to a keyboard but would stay depressed as long as a plasmid or weapon was in use. A user would then tap the button again to disarm and rearm with a different plasmid or weapon.
In a slight variation, the middle button could be a clear screen that would give the player visual feedback as to which button has been pressed.
To prototype that version I once again used cardboard and fitted the middle button with a piece of aluminum foil to differentiate it as a screen interface. I found the cardboard to be playable enough when folded to give some positive tactile feedback for a first prototype.
However, then I began thinking a bit about the Nintendo Wii, which was one of the only other consoles I had ever had any success in playing.
Part of what helped was the freedom of movement and control that let me give the character an exact input for both where I wanted him to go.
Keeping that in mind, I set about looking to create an interface where the player could operate either a weapon or plasmid with accuracy.
For this design, I started searching out 1960s controllers so I could be in line with the game’s theme and narrative.
I found some inspiration in a set of 1960s slot car controllers and designed two sketches that had a similar profile. While one looks more like a weapon, the other looks a little more innocuous.
In designing and sketching I realized I needed an input method for my user to select their plasmid or weapon.
At first, I played with buttons but realized that buttons would be depressed too easily depended on handedness if they were on the side, and inconvenient if they were on the top.
To combat this problem I added a click wheel which, when turned, would display the selected plasmid on screen.
When prototyping, I once again manipulated cardboard and tried to make this prototype as interactive as possible. I secured the second piece of cardboard with a twist tie to give it a squeezing action and cut a slit for a circular selector on the top.
To make sure the circle could spin I mounted it with a toothpick.
Overall, I am very happy with these controllers as prototypes.
Although I can’t say for sure which one would be best suited for the game, I think this is a strong design starting point.
Taking this further would involve building a second prototype and further refining the design before asking potential players for their opinions.
