In Wreck Runners, players have to gather salvage to turn in for money to meet the required quota and buy items and upgrades. Each piece of salvage has an associated weight, which is important because the player vehicle has a limited weight capacity, so players have to judge the utility of an item at a glance. 

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Salvage value is tied to health, so as the health is reduced you see associated value go down as well.

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The color scheme indicates the relative value of salvage and follows general gameplay conventions for communicating rarity.

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The color schemes are drawn from a data asset for easy tuning and an alternate data asset can be swapped out for color blind mode. The properties of each piece of salvage like value and weight are being drawn from a data table.

There are two other modifier types for salvage indicated by tags that pop out from the top and right of the label as needed. The first modifier is the salvage type. If the salvage has a red label with a sword icon, it is considered a combat type of salvage, meaning it does extra damage to enemies when struck with it. A yellow label with the universal symbol for fragile indicates salvage has less durability and players must take extra care when transporting it. 

 

 

 

 

 

Salvage has a chance to get a paranormal effect, like low gravity, health drain, or player voice modification. The purple paranormal label gives a name or nickname for what the paranormal effect does.

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The nice thing about the modifier labels is that there is room for further gameplay expansion later. The team is constantly adding new curses, so the label works at scale. The type modifier allows for any number of additional statuses, like explosive, electrified, or radioactive. It just needs a color and an icon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I came up with the initial design, then we worked as a team to iterate on it. There are concepts for a cleaner version that eliminates the need for a number for weight, however there are some hurdles to overcome. Without a number value it is more difficult for players to plan and optimize their load to stay underweight and mobile.  

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Playtest feedback from about 8,000 players showed no confusion on what the labels indicate. The only confusion is the combat salvage icon. Most players get that the sword indicates that it can do damage, but while watching streamers I saw more than one comment saying they didn't know why that piece of salvage had a red label. We added some red lightning vfx on the salvage to further indicate the damage potential in the hopes that it would be more obvious. I am going to try some different icons, perhaps a spiked ball or a board being snapped in half to indicate damage. More than likely though it's something that will spread by word of mouth as the game's audience grows and it may not be necessary.