My first step was to decide on a menu to make. I have already created a lot of main menus and pause menus so I wanted to do something new. A lot of games have some sort of inventory menu, so I decided I wanted to focus on that, more specifically the equipment menu because I feel it has a lot more going on then just an inventory menu.

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Once I decided on what menu I wanted to design I needed to determine how it was going to look, so I went to some of the most popular equipment menus and one of my personal favorites. The games I looked at are: Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild (BOTW), Horizon Zero Dawn, Destiny 2, and Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR).

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BOTW has a very sleek design. It doesn't use a lot of color, it is fairly easy to understand, and one of my favorite things is that you can still see what is happening in the world while you're in your inventory. This means if the player walks away from their game they don't have to close the menu to remember what they were doing. It also would be useful in an online game because the player would still be aware of their surroundings. One issue with the design is that it can be hard to tell what category your objects are in because they all blend together. There is nothing besides the look of the item that tells you if its apart of the helmets or the feet.

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Horizon has a similar style to BOTW, however, the design is less sleek. It matches the game with its gritty style. Unlike BOTW your items are categorized according to their type. Horizon doesn't have different helmets and chest pieces which might be why they categorize their items. The inventory menu is also the same as the equipment menu which could be another reason why they have the separate categories. In this case the character is very small, so seeing the different items equipped is harder.

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Destiny 2's equipment menu is quite different than the others. The character is very clear, the items are categorized, and the player can see where they are equipped.