After five years of relative quiet, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond finally showed up again during this summer’s Nintendo Direct. The gorgeous trailer set the tone with moody music, hostile new settings, and plenty of Space Pirates for intergalactic bounty hunter Samus Aran to blast into oblivion. In a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Thursday, Retro Studios’ lead UI artist Jon Wofford detailed the process behind the modernized redesign of Samus’ HUD — the view the player will see through her visor throughout much of the game.
“Metroid Prime 4 has been a dream project, and my favorite part has been designing, crafting, and animating Samus’s HUD,” Wofford wrote. “I learned a lot during MPR [Metroid Prime Remastered], and I hope it shows. Check out my artstation for a deeper dive!” Wofford’s post concludes with a link to said ArtStation, which has tons of screenshots and short descriptions from the artist about the process involved in each UI decision, as well as shout-outs from Wofford to his coworkers “Jordan Johnson, whose UI tech enables it all, and to Nina Morris, for her great work on scans,” plus his “amazing art director, Jhony Ljungstedt, for his clear vision and leadership.”
In an ArtStation caption on a screenshot of the HUD display from the trailer, Wofford explained that his “goal was to create a modern update to the visor that honors the Metroid Prime legacy.” The result is a more minimalist, line art-style look as compared to how the HUD looked in Metroid Prime Remastered (although since that was a remaster, it was an update to the appearance of the HUD that didn’t alter its technical layout).
Of course, the best UI elements fit seamlessly into a world and don’t even feel noticeable, as Wofford noted in a reply to his post on X: “I think the trailer also does a good job showing that the HUD shouldn’t bother trying to compete with the incredible environments, characters, lighting, animation, VFX… I am constantly humbled by the talent on this team.”
Wofford’s UI
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