Crytek – Arena of Fate Forum

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ABOUT THE PROJECT

Crytek is one of the leading video game companies and they are famous for their Crysis series and their CryEngine game engine.

After the redesign of the Crysis community forum back in 2012 we were asked to give the forum for their brand new MOBA ‘Arena of Fate’ a visually appealing look. The look was to be similar to the game’s microsite. The forum’s functionality was predefined as it was based on the PhPBB platform.

First we tackled the grid and color palette and matched it to Arena of Fate’s mysterious and eerie fantasy aesthetic. We finalized our first layouts with the visual layouts for the forum and topic lists as well as detail pages.

After alterations and approval we finished up the visual page designs with the login page, which uses GFACE Login credentials and the user control panel. The process was finalized with the custom icon design of the default PhpBB Board Icons, in which we developed a visual language that could display the various message types and statuses.

All the other pages and sidebar components had to be developed on the basis of the visual layouts we handed over, so we had to be sure that all possible elements could be developed with the design given.

MOST CHALLENGING ASPECT

Sometimes even subtle color changes affect a whole visual hierarchy and contrast as well as readability problems can occur. During the design process the color palette had to be adapted to changes in the game’s product design, which through our previously established hierarchy and good contrast contrast out of the window and meant that we had to re-think a few design choices to re-establish readability and clear visual structure.

MOST FUN

We like challenges, so figuring out the color/ hierarchy problem was both a challenge and fun!