Lethal Company’s HUD-less design made every flicker of my flashlight feel consequential. But playtesters complained about unclear objectives when I tried similar. How are you balancing ‘immersive emptiness’ with necessary feedback? Any clever diegetic UI tricks from recent projects?
Tied oxygen levels to the helmet’s visor cracks in my space horror game. Players quickly learned to check their reflection in environmental surfaces instead of a UI meter.
The ‘Diegetic Design Challenges’ thread has great examples—devs posted prototypes where weapon durability shows via in-game model wear.
Ambient light color shifts can signal health states. In Nyx Hollow, the protagonist’s lantern dims from white to deep red as sanity drops—subtle but effective.
Case study: 73% of tested players preferred audio cues (heavy breathing, heartbeat) over visual UI for tracking stamina in horror contexts.
Prototype with full HUD first, then strip elements weekly. Analytics showed players didn’t miss the interaction prompts once environmental cues were polished.