When working on a sequel of a remake, it’s important to strike a balance between delivering what fans loved about the original game and improve on it by still being faithful to the original source.
While closing on the first title I got moved to the sequel which was in its pre-production phase.
Destroy All Humans! 2: Reprobed” which featured updated graphics and improved gameplay mechanics compared to the original game, making it a fresh experience for both new and returning players.
While keeping the main structure of the first remake, the sequel had some substantial differences, for example the expanded set of weapons and the possibility to have a local co-op mode.
I had of course to play to original game on previous consoles to grasp the idea of what fans loved and even research on blogs and comments to see what they did not like at the time.
Overall I started to structure the flow from the tutorial, improving on what we had at the beginning. My proposals were heavily inspired by what Final Fantasy VII Remake was doing, by being clean and informative.
A big learning from the previous project was the sub menu, for example the skins system which we already knew was going to be expanded way more than the previous title.
In my proposal I wanted to give more space to enjoy the 3d model compared to the previous iteration and give a bigger overview of the amount of skins.
Another challenge was the split screen because of the aspect ration of nowadays monitors. By splitting it equally I wanted to give a wider visual to each player since they were going to lose it on height, but at the same time the HUD needed to showcase the map and the current goals of the missions, that’s why I used the empty portions of the screen to envision it.
I personally found pride in the possibility to setup the whole UX and flow for the upcoming sequel. The team gave me full trust in exploring what could have been a proper direction of a remake of the sequel.
When the product got released I was so glad that my initial work was still valid and consistent with the official product.
