Ava Arnett Design
Ava Arnett
Dig Deeper
Malice In Wonderland
Since August of 2024 I have been on this team, started as a Junior Game project at DigiPen with a team of just under 20, it has evolved since to become a collaborative, dedicated project with aspirations for digital retail release and an extended post-graduate development plan.
Made by the newly incorporated Slyglass Studios.
The Game
Malice In Wonderland is an Action Roguelike game based loosely on Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, taking influence from games like Path of Exile as well as Hades to create fast, dynamic ability-driven combat. The main catch is that everything runs off a ticking clock. If you can't beat the encounter before time runs out, you die and rather than health, you simply lose time on hit.
My Role
Early in development, I served as the primary UI Designer, mapping out the games' various menus, as well as the HUD and attack/damage indication.
Over time, more UX specialists joined our team, including our current UX Lead, Bren Hermann, so my role was shifted into primarily wireframing, and when there wasn't enough wireframing work to do, UX Tech and Controller Implementation.
Ability Bar Work
The earliest piece of my work to be locked down was the ability bar. Taking heavy inspiration from MOBAs like DOTA2 or League of Legends, we had early on planned for 3 basic abilities and an Ultimate, with upgradable notches for upgrades that later became the current Decrees system.
Stylistically it was wanted to be kept sharp, as Alice's design is built around sharp, but natural symbols with a mainly dark with accents of punchy red color palette.
Over time, it was decided to ditch the Ultimate abilities, and the timer for reasons explained later was moved to the hotbar. Giving us the final design we have now.
Health As Time
This was a fairly tricky part to work with. Conveying damage through the timer was always hard to sell well without explicit tutorialization, as it's not exactly innately something many seem to pair together.
That said, it very quickly was settled to be some sort of pocket watch to convey the element in UI. This is for both stylistically connecting the look and feel to the pop culture ideas of Wonderland as a setting as well as the shape language somewhat evoking a circle-fill health bar like those seen in games like Mario 64.
After a while, it was decided in collaboration with our then-new UX Lead, Bren Hermann, and UI Artist, Alice Mikhaylyuta, to move the clock to the hotbar, in hopes all moment-to-moment HUD UI being in the same location would mitigate players without sound cues failing to notice damage taken.
Some of my earliest work on the project, an early iteration of the ability bar and timer
Early Iteration with color
Current in-game Hotbar (UI Art by Alice Mikhaylyuta)
An early damage-indication animation test by me
Current in-game Health Timer (UI Art by Alice Mikhaylyuta)