Rise of Legends Does UI Right
I get really excited about good UI. As the feature set for games grows more complex the need for a good interface to access it is more important than ever. The guys at Big Huge Games have done a great job in making all of the features in Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends easily accessible.
Ease of use is everywhere. Account information required for new users is minimal so they can create an account and get straight to the action. For returning users all information is cached. One click and they're ready to play.
That ease-of-use continued in matchmaking. The default play mode is "fast-match" (built using our Auto Match feature) that gets players into games as quickly as possible. The tried-and-true lobby system is there, of course, but it takes a back seat to quick and easy.
Their buddy list implementation is also superb - especially the in the use of non-modal windows. Name me one IM program that handles messages in a modal fashion. Can't think of any? That's because it's a terrible convention! I'm really happy to see games adopting familiar user interface conventions instead of forcing users to alter their behavior.
You can read more about Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends in our project summary.
Developers, take note! The bar for UI has officially been raised.
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