Marathon launches in just a couple of days, following the semi-successful server slam that took place last weekend. The testing period drew in hundreds of thousands of players across all platforms, stress-testing the game for Bungie and uncovering some of the game’s most critical issues.
One of those more glaring issues concerned the game’s UI. It was found to be overly complex by many, boasting unnecessary visuals, far too much clutter, and awkward navigational elements. Bungie has said it’ll iterate on the UI, but one of the game’s UI designers has suggested that won’t happen.
What’s The Deal With ‘Fontslop’?
Marathon’s user interface designer, Elliott Gray, recently popped up on social media in response to a UI ‘redesign’ by a Marathon player. The redesign in question oversimplified the game’s layout, which drew a comment from the self-proclaimed ‘fontslop merchant’.
If there’s one leading debate amongst Marathon players, it’s that the game boasts a needlessly complex UI and visual palette, and that naturally includes the many fonts that make up the game’s front end. It’s a little bit too cacophonous for some.
When user LukeCB14 posted an image of the ‘simplified’ Marathon, Gray wrote:
all jokes aside there’s plenty of work we can and will do as a team to respond to player feedback about inventory management, navigation, density of info, etc…
…but don’t think for a second that we’re gonna remove the SAUCE from the UI.
Marathon’s former art director, Joseph Cross, wrote on social media that the game boasted ‘an embarrassment of riches’ in the graphics space. He parted ways with the project last year, but has remained positive about the game’s delivery since.
Gray’s post has racked up almost 200,000 impressions and generated a widespread debate regarding Marathon’s UI… Again. It has been recognized as one of the biggest points of contention by Bungie, leading the studio to promise a reiteration of the appearance post-launch, but to what depth, nobody knows.
Many have argued that Marathon’s full visual palette is one of the only things that’ll help it stand out from the competition in the extraction space.
Do you like how Marathon looks? Let us know what you’re thinking on the Insider Gaming Discord server.
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Grant has been gaming for 30+ years and in the industry for 10+. You'll probably find him playing a post-apocalyptic game or an extraction shooter somewhere.
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