CANDY CRUSH SAGA:
Settings Menu Re-Design Proposal
by: Ed Bourg
I chose to re-design Candy Crush’s Settings menu as an exercise.
After playing different King games, I noticed several aspects that could be improved to reach the other games’ UI design standards.
I made a list of things that I personally think could be improved in the Candy Crush Settings menu:
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The side menu blocks the “new game” banner in the welcome screen.
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Buttons don’t have the same size and/or proportion, and they differ from the “Play” and “Connect” buttons on the welcome screen.
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There are two Facebook buttons (one on the welcome page, and one on the side-menu).
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There is not enough room for displaying the same setting options that the other games have.
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As the last point in the list says, the main challenge was to design a menu that contains all the options that the other games have; I got inspired by Farm Heroes’ side-menu, where there is plenty of room for all the buttons. I also used Alpha Betty’s Settings screen as an example for the language selection part. After analyzing these games, I had a much clearer idea how the Settings menu would look. I did a couple of quick sketches, just to figure out the order of the options displayed on screen.
And finally, I put everything together in Photoshop ande made two mockups, one for Landscape mode and another one for Portrait mode:
Then I decided to transform the Settings menu into a popup, since this way it would be easier to rescale when the game is played in landscape mode. The first mockups had all the information, but looked too plain. So I decided that the menu needed the presence of one of the most beloved characters in the game: Odus.
First, I did a couple of sketches before going digital; I found the idea of having Odus playing with gears funny and also makes reference to the “Settings” menu.
On the first mockup, I totally skipped the head title “Settings”, so this time I decided to make it notorious on top, (alongside Odus, of course).
The portrait mode shows all the options the user will be able to modify, while the landscape mode has a scroll bar, in order to keep the buttons legible and easy to tap.
- (Above) Settings Menu - Candy Crush Saga Live version, King
- (Above) Settings Menu - Ed Bourg’s Re-Design