My Process

Cue Drifter was originally envisioned to have a power meter that controlled how hard you hit the ball, which I envisioned would charge up by holding the shoot button and be represented beneath the cue. However, through playtesting the team realized that players would never have time to sit and charge, and were more worried about aiming the cue on the go. Eventually, I suggested we make the backspin weaker than the normal hitting, and we scrapped implementing the power meter altogether.

I designed the controls UI to be as clear to the player as possible. I used simple art that communicated how the ball would move when the mode is toggled on, set the indicators on the same side as their activation triggers on a controller, and also used them to communicate when the player can and can’t hit the ball.