When the game interface itself becomes part of the plot and the world

One of the most magical things is to turn the interface into a game object. For example, rate:


^{The Fallout 3NV kid wears the exact same system menu as we do.}

And in Deus Ex everything that we see on the screen is displayed directly on our optic nerve. This is not the interface of the game, it is our character's duality:
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The game interface is a familiar convention, and if you eliminate it, you will get a little less distrust of what we see on the screen. Well, it's just insanely beautiful.

Here is another absolutely wonderful old game. Here the entire interface is brought to the laptop:



They finished shooting, crouched on the grass, laid down a rifle, opened the mail and read the intelligence report. Or ordered a couple of trunks to the nearest airport. Or looked at the mercenary file.



And here comes the second insanely interesting thing. It is not enough to make the interface a part of the game - you can still play with the way it affects the game itself. For example, in JA2: UB the pilot of our helicopter manages to break off the antenna of the laptop, and the interface needs to be repaired (!) In one of the cities where there are suitable accessories.

Here are the Vangers . Here, during a dialogue with the advisors of the escs, it was possible to pick up strange objects around the edges. The game is played without knowing this feature, but with lipuring and a Rabbox, before being ratified, it is at times easier. Sticky, imbued with the amount of scent, dragged by a wanger, at some point even advises picking Cucumber, giving quite a game prompt.



And here in Deus Ex a dialogue system is shown with a pre-option from the negotiation module integrated into our heads.



In addition to collecting information (which is perfectly implemented ), at the right moment we can release the necessary pheromones. And there are two scenes in the game: the heroine who urges Adam not to use this module (the pheromones convince her that Adam is sincere and speaks from the heart), a pheromone-immune man who practically makes fun of our movements in the interface. This is also one more step towards realism of the world.

In some games, cartridges are shown directly on the weapon - this is also a good step towards diving deeper into the world. What else can be brought to the "reality" of the world? A good example is the magazines and logs of role-playing games. Here is Bioshock Infinite, here the information carrier is a voice recorder, a sound recording. The joy is that at the beginning of the game you are given a fair to record your voice on such a device. After this, I believe in their realism.



Another cool role-playing theme is to change the interface depending on the abilities of the character. For example, the diary of the main character Arcanum can turn into a hell of hell, if you manage to generate a mental retarded character.

It is also very good when some mega useful game books are put into the delivery of a large collectible box. For example, maps of the world, important reference books or something else like that. You can keep the "game" item in your hands - this also creates an additional connection with reality and the game world.

Desktop examples

I think the beauty of diminishing the virtuality of the world through turning the interface into a game object has more or less been sorted out. Now a couple of examples from our sphere.

The easiest is to remove the threshold of virtualization. For example, we have an intercom in Space Alert, which announces the time of the mission and gives important information during the flight. It is implemented on a card with a list of events and a timer. The good course of changing the interface is recording voice files that solve the same game task, save the players' attention, are more realistic and, in general, are recorded with EDI's voice from Mass Effect (as we would like in the Russian version - but not yet a fact).

Secondly, the speed of work with the interface can be a game delay. And even the main object of the game. In reaction games, there are usually two bars: recognizing the game situation and using the appropriate game action. In Bear, you need to grab a log in the middle of the table with the correct maps, and in the same Confusion to break the brain, trying to determine the coincidence of the cube with the blue edge and the second cube with the yellow edge that says "blue."

Thirdly, the interface can simplify calculations. For example, in Pentago (these are tic-tac-toe on a line of length 5, where you have to turn each turn and turn a quarter of a field) you can physically take the game in your hands and turn the field to see how it will look a little later. And turn back.

Fourth, the interface can perform non-basic functions. For example, on the box of the Imaginarium, the lodgement is simultaneously a playing field. And under it there is still a storage room for other small games. So in the end it turns out such a meta-box. By the way, thanks to the unusual, at first she often suffered from attempts to tear the field.


^{This is a lodgement field, a storeroom under it}

And fifth, the interface can be directly a game object. In games to perform tasks like the Ruff, you can roll up an airplane from the rules, put a box on your head, and so on. In this regard, the book “Wreck this Journal” is incredibly happy, which offers a quest to destroy itself every day: you need to bury it in the garden and find it in two hours, then go to the shower with it and so on. A great example of a self-destructing interface.

At last

Comparing Stalker and Fallout 3, one should be surprised at the unrealistic execution of the last interface idea in some moments. Remember, when we go into the radiation zone in Fallout, a crash begins and a pop-up block appears on top of the screen? In Stalker, if something pops in your pocket, you need to get it and look at the arrow. True, our hero is able not only to heal bullet wounds with bread, but also to see radiation, but still the absence of a pop-up window on top of gaming reality is cool.



Try this run with pip-fight.

And absolutely wonderful Outcast. Also prereality, as in much later Deus Ex over the character's view. But that's not all.



The game has an incredibly stylish first-run map in every new world. A green laser grid from his wearable computer, which scans the terrain, runs up around the hero. The player sees that the map is not some abstract function, but a very specific part of our special forces equipment.

And the second absolutely charming moment is the saving of the game. Yes, Outcast is one of the few games that has managed to make the preservation of the game part of the world. At the very beginning we are handed a special stone - gamsaav. According to local beliefs, before an important matter you need to look inside and concentrate. The reality will go in circles, and the case will definitely succeed.