Thank you! Yes, I made the UI too. I’m actually a bit obsessed with diegetic UI. I don’t want interfaces covering the gameplay. I want the information to exist naturally inside the game world, even if the player doesn’t immediately understand every detail.

For example, power-ups attach themselves to the core and keep their original colours, becoming visually integrated into it. The core itself gradually absorbs those colours, slowly mutating its own colour as the run progresses. A healing power creates a ghostly ring that slowly fills up. The core’s hitbox depends on how many rings it has, so having more health also makes it physically larger and harder to manoeuvre.

The permanent currency is attracted by a deliberately slow beam, which gives collecting it more importance. Even the currency itself has a small protein chain inside it. The experience isn’t shown through a conventional bar either: it accumulates inside the core and reaches a visible threshold before producing the level-up effect.

The threat level grows around the edges of the arena instead of using a normal meter. Off-screen enemies appear as coloured marks on the borders, and tutorials use arrows, circles and trajectories placed directly in the game world.

These are the kinds of tiny details I try to polish as much as possible, even though most players will probably never notice half of them. The goal is for the interface to feel like part of the world rather than a layer placed on top of it.

I still use a few conventional elements, like the settings button, combo counter and reroll button, but I try to keep them to a minimum.

My main advice would be to choose a visual rule and commit to it completely. For this game, I went for something mathematical, geometric and exaggerated. How would you represent poison in the most mathematical way possible? What about gravity? I try to reduce every idea to its most basic visual form and stay faithful to it.

After that, it’s mostly about iterating, experimenting and insisting. Sometimes things work, sometimes they look terrible, but both outcomes teach you something.

I don’t really recommend my software stack, though. I’m a front-end web designer, so I made everything from scratch in JavaScript using what I already know, even if it isn’t the most practical approach. I also love building engines and tools, so I avoid using a game engine because that’s one of the parts I enjoy most. For most people, though, using an engine would probably be a better choice.

P.S. I’m not sure which of these features are included in the version submitted to the jam. If you want to play the very latest version, it’s available on my website: gamebob.dev. I’ll keep updating the jam version too.

My creative motto: Once I commit to an idea, I take it all the way. Doubt and half-measures only weaken the result.