15. UI and Information Design
15.1 Philosophy — The Player Learns to Read the World
This game withholds information deliberately and rewards observation over notification. The UI philosophy follows one rule: if the world can communicate it, the HUD does not. Semangat, Rage, and Health are surfaced through a minimal persistent HUD because they change rapidly in combat and the player needs to react in fractions of a second. Everything else — detection state, Orang Laut judgement, outfit effectiveness, Shahbandar corruption — is communicated through the world itself: through architecture, sound, NPC behaviour, and absence.
The player is never punished for not reading the HUD. They are rewarded for reading the world.
Design Rule — Information Hierarchy
- Combat-speed feedback (Semangat, Rage, Health, detection state) → Diegetic-first with minimal HUD reinforcement.
- Session-speed feedback (Ilmu, Keris, outfits, Codex) → Dedicated pause-state screens. No HUD presence.
- Playthrough-speed feedback (Orang Laut judgement, Shahbandar corruption states) → World behaviour only. No UI of any kind. The player reconstructs it.
- If the designer’s instinct is to add a tooltip, the design has failed.
15.2 The Persistent HUD — Minimal Screen-Edge
The persistent HUD contains three elements only. All three sit at the bottom of the screen as thin, clean meters. They are visible during combat and ability use, and fade entirely during stealth and traversal when all resources are full and no threat is present. The protagonist’s body communicates nothing about resource state — they move like an operative at peak capability at all times, regardless of meter values.
Semangat — The Guard Meter
Semangat is the primary combat meter — a thin arc at the bottom of the screen that fills gold (#C9A84C) and empties toward black. It is the protagonist’s guard buffer and ability fuel (see Section 4.3). No numbers, no percentage text. The player reads fullness, not digits.
Combat visibility: During combat, the Semangat arc is always visible. It depletes visibly on each hit absorbed and on each ability or dart fired. Perfect parries produce a brief gold pulse as the meter recovers — the one moment of positive feedback in the combat HUD.
Stealth visibility: During stealth, the Semangat arc appears only when the player fires a Pukau dart or activates Ghaib — showing the cost drawn from the buffer. Between dart uses, the meter fades. A pure ghost who never fires a dart never sees the meter at all.
Break feedback: When Semangat reaches zero, the arc shatters — a brief visual crack animation across the meter’s position — and the protagonist staggers. The meter does not reappear until the first successful perfect parry or until out-of-combat refill begins.
Rage — The Creeping Red
Rage is communicated through progressive environmental distortion rather than a traditional meter. As Rage builds, the following effects layer cumulatively:
Stage 1 (0–30%): Subtle. The protagonist’s breathing becomes audible — faint, rhythmic, present. Peripheral screen edges carry the faintest red vignette. Most players will not consciously register this stage on first encounter.
Stage 2 (30–60%): The heartbeat becomes audible. Not loud — present. The vignette deepens. The protagonist’s idle animations shift: hands flex involuntarily, head turns sharper. Camera micro-shakes on heavy impacts increase in amplitude. The player is being told something is accumulating.
Stage 3 (60–90%): The heartbeat is now the dominant ambient sound. Environmental audio compresses — market noise, water, birdsong all pull back as though heard through a tunnel. The red vignette is unmistakable. The protagonist’s movement animations carry a barely-perceptible forward lean. The world is closing in.
Stage 4 (90–100%): A low-frequency pulse replaces the heartbeat — felt more than heard. Screen colour drains rapidly. The protagonist’s hands tremble visibly. The player knows Amok is seconds away. There is no cancel button. There is no prompt. The state simply arrives.
A narrow Rage indicator sits beneath the Semangat arc — visible only when Rage is above zero. It fills crimson (#8B1A1A). Between encounters, when Rage decays, the bar drains silently. The bar exists for players who want to track the number. The environmental distortion is the real communication.
Design Note — Rage and Immersion
- The escalation from silence to heartbeat to tunnel audio is the core Rage read. The bar is a safety net, not the design.
- A player who mutes the game and ignores the vignette will still see the bar. But the intended experience is somatic — the game gets louder and tighter until Amok takes over.
- The Amok trigger has no confirmation prompt. The transition from Stage 4 to Amok is a single breath — the heartbeat stops, the world desaturates, and the protagonist moves.
Health — Physical Consequence
Health is expressed through damage modelling on the protagonist’s body and movement degradation. Cuts, limping, and blood on clothing accumulate visually. At critical health the protagonist’s breathing becomes laboured and their recovery animations lengthen.
A small Health indicator sits beside the Rage bar — visible only when Health is below maximum. It does not persist at full health. The player should not be staring at a health bar during stealth; they should be watching the world. When damage occurs, the bar appears, communicates the cost, and recedes when health recovers.
During Amok, Health decay is shown through the desaturated world progressively darkening at the edges — the tunnel vision tightening. The Sheathing Ritual exit animation reverses this: colour returns from the centre outward. The protagonist kneels, sheathes, and the world comes back.
15.3 Detection Feedback — The World Warns You
Guard detection states are communicated through guard behaviour, not HUD icons. There are no awareness meters above enemy heads. No “last known position” ghost silhouettes. The player reads the guards the way an intelligence operative would — by watching what they do.
Unaware → Curious: The guard’s movement changes. They slow down. Their head turns. They may mutter or adjust their posture. Audio cue: a distinct ambient shift — the guard’s footstep pattern breaks rhythm. Experienced players will hear the transition before they see it.
Curious → Alerted: The guard calls out. Their hand reaches for a weapon or signal device. Their movement becomes directed rather than wandering. The ambient sound of the zone shifts — nearby NPCs react. A market crowd parts slightly. A dock worker looks up.
Alerted → Combat: The guard commits. Weapon drawn, voice raised, closing distance. Nearby guards enter Alerted through the communication cascade (shout, signal device, runner). The sound design escalates — percussion enters the mix, ambient audio compresses.
Hard Mechanical Line Zones: The Citadel restricted zones (Sultan’s quarters, treasury, inner command post) are communicated through architecture and atmosphere, not UI markers. Torch density changes. Guard posture tightens. The ambient score drops to near-silence — a void that signals danger more effectively than any warning icon. The player crosses the threshold knowing the rules have changed because the space told them.
Design Rule — No Awareness Meters
- Enemy awareness indicators above heads were considered and rejected. They convert guard behaviour into a progress bar — the player watches the meter instead of the guard.
- The entire detection system is built on readable guard behaviour. Adding a meter would undermine that investment.
- A first-time player will fail because they misread a guard. A returning player will read the guards fluently. This learning curve is the game’s stealth literacy and it is worth protecting.
15.4 The Ilmu Tree — Pause-State Interface
The Ilmu tree is accessed through a full-screen pause overlay. The protagonist does not meditate, visit a shrine, or enter a menu hub. The player pauses the game and the Ilmu tree is there — immediate, available, no ceremony. This is deliberate: Ilmu upgrades are frictionless by design (Section 6.3). The protagonist is always learning. The tree reflects what they have already become.
Visual design: The three paths (Langkah, Kebal, Pukau) branch from a central point. Unlocked nodes glow. Locked nodes are dim but visible — the player can always see the full shape of each path. Nodes requiring a narrative object (Kuku Harimau kerambit, sumpitan) show the object’s silhouette until acquired, then illuminate.
Spend interaction: The player selects a node and allocates mastery points. No confirmation dialogue — the spend is immediate and permanent. A brief visual pulse travels down the path from the purchased node. The sound is a single clean tone.
Information layer: Hovering on any node shows its effect in plain language. No damage numbers, no percentage modifiers in the display text. The player reads “Footsteps are silent during parkour” not “+100% footstep noise reduction.” Exact mechanical values live in this GDD and in QA documentation, not in the player-facing interface.
Design Note — Why No Hub
- Previous design considered requiring a Balai visit or meditation pose to access the Ilmu tree. This was rejected because it adds friction to a system designed to be frictionless.
- The Keris trait system already has ceremony (the Warangan ritual). Making Ilmu ceremonial too would homogenise two intentionally distinct progression speeds.
- The pause-state tree communicates the design intent: Ilmu is recognised, not acquired.
15.5 The Keris — The Ritual as Interface
The Keris trait system has no dedicated menu screen. The player does not browse a skill tree and select a node. When the player has accumulated sufficient mastery points and possesses the required Warangan materials, the Balai ritual table or Hinterland shrine becomes interactive. The protagonist kneels. The four trait branches (Shadow, Poison, Water, Flame) are presented as offerings on the table — physical objects representing each path, arranged around the blade.
The player selects a trait direction. The 45-second ritual plays. The blade changes. This is the interface.
What the player sees at the ritual table: The Keris rests at the centre. Around it, the four trait paths are represented by material symbols — a dark cloth (Shadow), a vial (Poison), flowing water in a channel (Water), an ember (Flame). Unlocked nodes in each path glow faintly. The next available node in each path glows brighter if the player has the points and materials to unlock it. Paths the player cannot yet afford are dim.
What the player does not see: No numerical point totals on this screen. No “3/7 mastery points remaining” counter. The player knows they can afford an upgrade because the offering glows. They know they cannot because it does not. The system communicates through presence and absence — consistent with the game’s broader information philosophy.
Keris state outside the ritual: The blade’s current trait investment is visible on the weapon model at all times. Shadow investment darkens the blade. Poison investment adds a green-grey patina. Water investment produces a fluid ripple pattern in the metal. Flame investment reddens the edge. A player who has invested across two traits sees both. The blade is a mirror, not a stat sheet.
Design Note — Why the Ritual IS the Interface
- Separating the Keris upgrade into its own menu would reduce the Warangan ritual to a cutscene that plays after a menu selection. The ritual must be the moment of choice, not a consequence of a choice already made.
- This means the player approaches the ritual table not knowing exactly what the upgrade will feel like — only which direction they are choosing. The 45-second ceremony is the space where intention becomes reality.
15.6 The Codex — Wikiword Navigation
The Codex (Section 14) is accessed from the pause menu as a separate tab. Its navigation model is wikiword — entries contain highlighted terms that link to other entries, with a back-stack for return navigation. The interface is text-primary. No icons, no category grids, no card layouts.
Visual treatment: Entries appear as handwritten manuscript pages — ink on aged paper, consistent with the Malaccan court’s literary tradition. Illustrations are sparse and hand-drawn in a style consistent with period manuscripts. The Codex should feel like an object that exists in the world, not a database the player queries.
Discovery gating: Entries unlock through gameplay — encountering a person, visiting a place, hearing a term. Locked entries are invisible, not greyed out. The player does not know how large the Codex is until they have filled it. This prevents the Codex from becoming a checklist.
Entry notification: When a new Codex entry unlocks, a small ink-drop animation appears at the edge of the screen and fades within two seconds. No text, no fanfare. The player who notices it can check the Codex at their leisure. The player who misses it will find the entry waiting when they next open the pause menu.
15.7 The Orang Laut — No Interface At All
The Orang Laut judgement system has no UI representation. No bar. No icon. No notification. No ambient indicator. No change to any existing HUD element. Nothing.
This is not a gap in the design. It is the design.
The player learns what the Orang Laut think of them through what happens in the world. Routes that were open are closed. A contact who was present is absent. The sumpitan arrives early, or late, or not at all. The boat is at the river mouth at the end — or it is not.
The player’s first playthrough may not make this system legible at all. They may complete the game believing the Orang Laut were scripted NPCs with fixed behaviour. A second playthrough, with different choices, reveals the shape of what was watching. This is intentional. The Orang Laut observed the Straits for centuries without anyone fully understanding what they were doing. The player’s experience of their judgement should mirror that opacity.
Design Rule — No Compromise on Orang Laut Opacity
- Every instinct to add a subtle indicator — a colour shift, a sound cue, a vague on-screen flash — has been considered and rejected.
- The moment the player can correlate a HUD element with an Orang Laut judgement event, they will optimise for it. The system becomes a reputation bar with extra steps.
- The power of this system is that the player must reconstruct it from memory, observation, and — on a second playthrough — comparison. That reconstruction is itself an act of respect for the Orang Laut’s mode of seeing.
- Community discussion about this system post-launch is a feature, not a bug.
15.8 Shahbandar Corruption — Readable Through the World
Shahbandar corruption states (Active, Compromised, Hostile, Dark) are not displayed in any menu or HUD element. The player reads them through the world:
Active: Normal commerce. Guards relaxed. The Shahbandar is visible and accessible. Goods flow.
Compromised: Goods become unreliable — a contact mentions that a shipment was “redirected.” Guard numbers around the compound increase slightly. The Shahbandar is harder to reach — an intermediary appears where direct access existed before.
Hostile: The compound is visibly fortified. Guards challenge the protagonist on approach. Contacts in the quarter warn the player verbally: “Don’t go there.” The Shahbandar is not seen.
Dark: The compound is shuttered or occupied by unfamiliar guards. The Shahbandar’s absence is felt through the network — contacts reference them in past tense. The quarter’s ambient life shifts: fewer merchants, more tension, different sounds.
The player who pays attention will read these transitions naturally. The player who does not will discover the state change when they attempt to use the network and find it altered. Both are valid discovery paths.
15.9 Mission Interface — Intelligence, Not Objectives
Mission information is not delivered through an objective tracker or waypoint system. The protagonist receives intelligence — from Mata-mata contacts, Shahbandar informants, overheard conversation, and discovered documents — and the player decides what to do with it.
The Intel Log: Accessed from the pause menu. A running record of intelligence gathered, organised by source. Each entry is written as a field report, not a task list. “The Gujarati Shahbandar’s ledger is kept in the second-floor study. Two guards rotate on a half-hour cycle. The window faces the canal.” The player extracts the objective, the route, and the timing from the prose. The game does not highlight the relevant words.
No waypoints: The game world contains no floating markers, no minimap objective pings, no compass bearing indicators. Navigation is by landmark, memory, and spatial knowledge. The Mata-mata contact system (Section 9.2) already establishes that the protagonist identifies contacts through environmental signals, not markers. The mission system extends this principle to all objectives.
Mission completion: A brief text notification confirms mission completion. No score screen. No rating. No letter grade. The ghost bonus (Section 6.3) is awarded silently — the player sees the mastery points added but is not told which points came from the bonus. A player who completed a mission cleanly may suspect they received extra credit. They cannot confirm it. This is consistent with how real intelligence operations are evaluated: you know you did it well because nothing happened.
Design Note — The Anti-Checklist
- Objective trackers train the player to follow the HUD instead of engaging with the world. In a game built on environmental reading, social signals, and spatial memory, a tracker would short-circuit the core experience.
- The Intel Log gives the player everything they need. It asks them to think, not follow.
- Players who struggle with navigation can revisit the Intel Log at any time. The information is always available. The hand-holding is not.
15.10 Pause Menu Structure
The pause menu contains four tabs. No more.
Ilmu — The skill tree (Section 15.4). Always accessible.
Codex — The wikiword knowledge base (Section 15.6). Grows through play.
Intel — The mission intelligence log (Section 15.9). Current and archived.
Outfits — The wardrobe. All acquired outfits displayed as visual catalogue. Equip from here. No stats, no comparison screen. The player chooses what to wear based on where they are going and who they expect to encounter.
No map tab. No inventory tab. No quest log. The protagonist does not carry an inventory — materials for the Warangan ritual are tracked internally and surfaced only at the ritual table. The protagonist does not consult a map — they know Malacca. A player who wants to know if they have enough warangan materials visits a Balai. The answer is on the table.
Design Note — Four Tabs
- Every additional pause menu tab is a concession to complexity the game should not have.
- If a system cannot be expressed through one of these four tabs or through the world itself, it is too complex for this game or it has not been designed clearly enough.
- The four-tab limit is a forcing function for design clarity. It stays.
15.11 HUD Modes — Accessibility Without Compromise
The default HUD mode is Minimal — the diegetic-first approach described throughout this section. For accessibility and player comfort, two additional modes are available:
Clean: All HUD elements hidden. Semangat, Rage, and Health communicated entirely through body and environment. For players who want full immersion. Not recommended for first playthrough but not gated.
Assisted: Semangat, Rage, and Health bars are persistently visible (not just when active). Detection state adds a small directional indicator at screen edge when a guard enters Curious — not a meter, just a bearing. Intel Log entries highlight key nouns (names, locations, times). No waypoints. No minimap. No objective tracker. The game’s core philosophy is preserved; the readability floor is raised.
Accessibility Note
- The Assisted mode is not a concession or a lesser experience. It is the same game with a wider readability window.
- Colourblind options should allow remapping of Semangat gold, Rage crimson, and Health indicators to accessible palettes.
- Audio cues for detection states should be distinct enough to support hearing-impaired play when combined with Assisted visual mode.
- Subtitle options for all ambient NPC dialogue, guard vocalisations, and environmental audio cues.