Bio
Joost Peters
UI/UX Designer
Bio
Joost Peters
UI/UX Designer
I was born and raised in the small town of Uden, in the Netherlands. Ever since I was able to reach over the desk, I was behind the home computer playing video games. First on the Philips MSX, then on whatever DOS PC's we had at home, eventually upgrading to a SNES and pretty much every console after that. From a very early age I knew I wanted to make videogames and nothing was going to stop me from making that dream come true.
In 2007 I landed my first internship as a game artist at a small indie studio called Codeglue in Rotterdam. I didn't leave there until almost 7 years later, having shipped a bunch of games and getting experience as a game artist, game designer and UI designer/artist. In 2013, I found a new job as UI Designer at a studio called Vanguard Games, who were working on Halo: Spartan Assault at the time. I joined at the tail end of the development of that game and became the sole UI Designer responsible for the sequel, Halo: Spartan Strike. Because of a lack of UI artists, I also served as the UI artist for that title. Eventually, I would get to work on my first VR game, after the studio was re-branded as Force Field. Landfall was Force Field's first VR title and I got to be part of that amazing process. It was completely exhilarating figuring out all the new rules to VR, not having any existing UI designs to rely on, really having to start from scratch on every design.
Eventually, I moved on again to join CCP Games' Newcastle studio responsible for creating and launching the stellar EVE: Valkyrie. I could not pass on the opportunity to work on the best VR game on the market and moved from the Netherlands to the UK to help them launch the massive EVE: Valkyrie Warzone expansion. This expansion added a whole new fleet of ships and overhauled the entire game to be playable in both VR and traditional 'flat' screens.
The entire CCP Games Newcastle studio was sold to Sumo Digital in 2018 and became Sumo Digital Newcastle, where I worked as Senior UX/UI Designer on Hood: Outlaws & Legends.
In 2021, I left to join Massive Entertainment/Ubisoft in Malmö, Sweden as Senior UX Designer to work on Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora.
When I'm not working, I enjoy playing video games, comic books, seeing movies, laughing at movies that are-so-terrible-that-they-become-good-again, making music, seeing bands live and watching football (traditional as well as American). I try to keep up with all big game releases to stay on top of UI design trends. My favorite games are Monster Hunter World, Destiny 2, Dark Souls, Burnout 3: Takedown, and Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
Work Flow
Work Flow
Workflow
Every UI Designer and every development studio have their own workflow. I'm flexible enough that I can adjust my workflow to fit within a studio (as I have done a few times already, after switching jobs). I am detail oriented and always approach design problems for a user's perspective. Below is a short description of my prefered workflow and how I approach problems.
FLOWCHART + WIREFRAMES
I like to create flowcharts to map all of the separate UI scenes and how they flow into and out of each other. The flowchart is update if and when menus are added to the game.
Whenever new menus or in-game UI elements need to be designed, I coordinate with the Lead Designer and Game Designer responsible for the feature to discuss what is needed. I make a list of the data available in the game and an assessment of which data is important to the player. Often, wireframes lead to designs of UI patterns, that can be re-used throughout the entire game.
Wireframes are reviewed with the Lead Designer and Game Designer(s) for approval before they enter production.
DOCUMENTATION
When a wireframe is approved, I document it with as much detail as possible. This includes text and images and explains all of the UI states and how they transition between each other. I try to catch as many edge cases as possible while documenting wireframes (and often the process of documenting brings up some edge cases I didn't think of before).
This documentation then goes to the artist(s) and programmer(s) that work on the feature. Any changes in the design lead to updated documentation.
MOCKUPS
I'm used to working with a UI Artist, so quite often they are the ones that handle mockups. But in cases where I served as UI Artist or to help with a heavy workload, I make mockups in Photoshop. I try to make sure the mockups are ready for exporting to the game immediately.
ASSET GENERATION
I keep my Photoshop files as organised as possible, with named layers and elements separated into folders. I've often used tools like CutNSliceMe or Photoshop Scripting to automate exporting of elements faster and easier.
(Vector) icons are created and exported in Illustrator.
IMPLEMENTATION
Often, I created screen layouts in the proprietary game engines used at Codeglue and Vanguard. Most of these tools were based on HTML or HTML5.
On Landfall and EVE: Valkyrie Warzone, I assisted in implementing UI widgets in Unreal Engine's UMG system. I handle scripting in the widgets, coordinating with programmers to make sure that data coming from the game can be plugged in and processed. Game or UI Programmers then hook up the elements to the game itself.