Red Dead Redemption

Front End framed vistas

The Front end was a fairly simple press start screen with a DLC menu but ended up the area for Social Club messages and game mode selection on Undead Nightmare and Hardcore Mode. Daren Bader set up some nice vistas for a simple, smart solution to attract mode.

Loading

Streaming textures were randomly selected and crossfaded in a render target in Flash. Textures were done as greyscale and tinted in Flash using a color tuning value. This approach made global color changes possible and Undead Nightmare and hardcore mode color switches were done in code. The script calling directly to the Flash in this case caused strange sequences and transition bugs requiring interruptable transitions. Slight layout variations were needed for localization late in the project due to font sizes and copy lentghs.

Pause Menu post-process, reuse, workflow

Art direction wanted to use pre-baked textures like the loading screen and I pushed hard for post processing which helped immersion, variety, and multiplayer end sequences. There were multiple Flash movies streamed in and out for the pause menu which created layout challenges but enabled multiple artists to work as a team. To keep layout consistent we used a set of shared actionscript to set line spacing, titlesafe zone, general position, and scale for different aspect ratios. There were additional common behaviors for transitions, scrolling, color, and table layout that were in shared script. Seperating tuning values and screen-specific actionscript made screens look custom and enabled the team to work without as much overlap.

Multiplayer

I was responsible for concept through implementation on most of the multiplayer UI and worked closely with scripters to achieve the visual targets. The first thing I was tasked with on Red Dead was to create a dynamic, efficient list which could be used by designers to display any number of active players any number of columns, with icons that could be enabled in any column. This system was useful for scripters to prototype without dependency on art or programming. It was eventually extended throughout the pause menu during a style overhaul. The profile editor, rewards screens, and end-game sequences were implemented late in the project and it all came together shortly before submission.