Devlog #4 – A New Dark Fantasy Interface

In the previous devlog, I showed how the world of Age of Failon has changed from a visibly tile-based map into a much more natural top-down fantasy world.

But the world wasn’t the only part of the game that needed a new visual direction.

The original interface had been with Age of Failon since the early stages of development. It was functional, but as the game grew and its visual style evolved, the old brown interface increasingly felt disconnected from the world I was building.

Eventually, it became clear that updating individual windows would not be enough.

The entire user interface had to be redesigned.

Finding the Visual Identity of Age of Failon

The biggest change is immediately visible.

The original brown and bronze interface has been replaced by a much darker fantasy style built around black stone, metallic frames, purple magical energy and subtle animated effects.

Purple has gradually become one of the defining colors of Age of Failon, so I wanted the interface to reinforce that identity throughout the entire game.

The goal wasn’t simply to make the UI darker.

Menus, frames, icons, buttons, backgrounds and decorative elements were redesigned to feel like parts of the same world rather than independent interface components.

Rebuilding the Main Screens

The redesign started with some of the screens players encounter before they even enter the world.

The Main Menu was completely rebuilt around the new visual direction, including a new Age of Failon logo and background.

The Create Hero screen received an even larger redesign.

Hero selection, race selection and attributes are now visually separated into their own areas, while the central panel keeps the most important character creation decisions immediately visible.

The Select Hero screen was also transformed from a primarily statistical overview into a visual presentation of the character.

Hero attributes, race, class, castle and current Age can now be understood much more quickly, while detailed information remains available when needed.

More Than a New Coat of Paint

While the visual difference is the most obvious part of the redesign, many interfaces also had to change because Age of Failon itself had changed.

New progression systems introduced Building Points, Skill Points, Spell upgrades, card rewards and new ways of developing the hero, army and castle.

That meant several windows couldn’t simply receive new graphics.

Their functionality and information hierarchy had to be rebuilt as well.

The Castle interface was redesigned together with its building and unit details.

The Skills interface was updated around the new skill progression system.

The Spell Book was rebuilt to support spell upgrades and multiple pages of spells.

The Hero interface, Army management, Reward windows, Quest interface and many smaller dialogs have also been redesigned or heavily updated.

Even the Battle Screen received its own interface rework to match the new visual direction.

One Interface Across the Entire Game

One of the biggest challenges was consistency.

Age of Failon contains a large number of screens and windows, and redesigning only the most visible ones would have created a mixture of old and new styles.

Because of this, the rework eventually expanded across almost the entire game.

Main menus, gameplay windows, battle interfaces, dialogs, notifications, rewards and other supporting screens now follow the same visual language.

The interface was also reworked to behave correctly across different resolutions and aspect ratios, including widescreen and ultrawide displays.

It was a much larger task than originally expected, but it means Age of Failon now has a visual identity that remains consistent from the moment the game starts until the player enters the world and battle.

The Game Behind the New Interface Has Changed Too

The new interface may be one of the most visible changes to Age of Failon, but underneath it sits an even larger redesign.

The old progression loop has been replaced.

Instead of relying on the traditional weekly unit progression familiar from many turn-based strategy games, Age of Failon is now built around a persistent campaign spanning 357 maps, with rewards and progression connected directly to what the player accomplishes during those maps.

That system introduces unit cards, building points and several other forms of progression that connect the world map, castle, hero and army together.

And that will be the subject of the next devlog: