The Power of Video Game HUDs

The Power of Video Game HUDs

The video explores how heads-up displays (HUDs) do more than present information: they can shape a game’s look, difficulty, atmosphere, and even its underlying mechanics. The creator argues that HUDs should be designed alongside gameplay, rather than added as an afterthought.

What HUDs Do

The video divides HUD information into two broad types:

• Gauges reveal the game’s current or upcoming state, such as health, enemy intentions, movement ranges, or off-screen threats. In Slay the Spire, enemy-intention indicators let players plan their turns instead of guessing.
• Previews show the likely result of an action before the player commits, such as a grenade’s trajectory, a target lock, or a unit’s route. In Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment, an indicator made Specter Knight’s Dash Slash easier to understand by showing when it would trigger and where it would take him.

Both types can help players make deliberate choices, but too much information can overwhelm them.

Designing Readable HUDs

• Reduce cognitive load by removing information that is redundant, irrelevant, or constantly visible when it isn’t needed.
• Use visual hierarchy—such as color, size, position, and motion—to make the most important information stand out.
• Consider Zach Gage’s “Three Reads” approach: distinguish primary information, important secondary information, and less urgent details. What stands out can shift as the situation changes.
• Show information only when it is useful. For example, Ghost of Tsushima displays the health bar during combat rather than throughout exploration.
• Use sound as well as visuals to draw attention to important changes, as Hitman 3 does with its trespassing warning.

HUDs, Immersion, and Player Behavior

A HUD can be presented in ways that support a game’s style or immersion:

• Diegetic interfaces exist within the game world. Dead Space places health and stasis displays on Isaac’s suit, while ammo appears on weapons. Metroid Prime frames the HUD as information on Samus’s visor.
• Diegetic UI can also create gameplay trade-offs. In Alien: Isolation, using the motion tracker means holding a tool instead of a weapon.
• The world itself can communicate information: car damage in Wreckfest, temperature in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and Mario’s health through his size in Super Mario Bros.

The amount and precision of information also affect how players act. Reigns originally showed exact statistics and predicted effects, encouraging players to optimize numbers rather than engage with the story. Replacing exact figures with vague bars encouraged more intuitive, story-focused decisions.

Less information can also make enemies more unsettling. In The Last of Us Part II, hostile whistles conceal enemy intentions that human dialogue might otherwise reveal.

Previews, Difficulty, and Design Trade-Offs

• Precise previews let players plan further ahead. Less precise previews encourage them to learn the game’s systems themselves.
• In Peggle, the shot guide shows the ball’s path only until its first collision, leaving players to estimate later ricochets.
• HUD assistance can be adjusted like any other difficulty setting. For example, racing games may show an ideal racing line on easier settings.
• UI can constrain game design. Into the Breach’s detailed enemy-action display led its developers to remove mechanics that were too difficult to communicate clearly. Hearthstone’s seven-minion limit is another example of a rule shaped by what fits and reads well on screen.

The video’s central takeaway is that UI is part of game design, not a decorative layer or a fix for unclear mechanics. It should be intentional, readable, and developed in tandem with the game.

The video closes with a recommendation for Room to Grow, a grid-based puzzle game about a cactus that grows to push plants toward goals.

Games, People, and Sources Featured

Games discussed or shown: The Last of Us, The Last of Us Part II, Slay the Spire, Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment, Hitman (2016), Hitman 2, Hitman 3, SpellTower, Hearthstone, Castlevania, Ghost of Tsushima, Persona 5, Dead Space, Metroid Prime, Alien: Isolation, Wreckfest, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Super Mario Bros., Reigns, Mark of the Ninja, Peggle, Into the Breach, XCOM, Call of Duty, and Room to Grow.

People and developers cited: Alexandria Neonakis, Zach Gage, Justin Ma, Naughty Dog, Mega Crit, Yacht Club Games, Visceral Games, and Subset Games.