A revolution in gaming history preservation
Valued at $159 billion, video gaming is the largest entertainment medium in the world. Hunger for meaningful access to obscure / retro gaming information & media is higher than ever, but despite the efforts of gaming history preservation enthusiasts, much of it is being lost to time. Legacy gamer aims to solve this issue.
Role: UI / Product Designer
Duration: 2 months, June 24 - July 24
Apps: Figma, Illustrator, Photoshop
The problem
The industry is heavily segmented with many games locked behind multiple storefronts & gaming services. With growing concern about gaming history preservation & players becoming more interested in retro gaming than ever before, information & access to lesser-known & legacy games is fractured, often requiring specialist knowledge to track down.
The objective
Fusing modern gaming with its storied heritage, Legacy Gamer aims to be the most complete repository for gaming information & media in the world. Users can view interactive 3D scans of historical gaming systems & sync the service with their gaming accounts, allowing them to view their complete gaming legacy across all platforms for the first time ever.
1: Research
According to a major multi-market study, 47% of gaming enthusiasts play multi-platform including PC, Playstation, Xbox & Nintendo.
In 2020 G2A data reported an 851% increase in searches for retro titles. According to YouTube, in 2023 there are 1000 times more retro game uploads than the same period in 2007.
The Gaming History Foundation found that only 13% of retro games are currently available on modern storefronts or shops with information on older titles being lost to time.
Retro gaming interest has seen an exponential rise in interest with Gen Z & Gen A, with a huge rise in retro gaming content channels & streams over the last 5 years.
In 2024 Spotify noted a 50% increase in users creating retro gaming music playlists in only 1 year.
Predominantly Gen Z / Millennial-based social media platform TikTok reported that #retrogaming has surpassed 6bn views.
After some iterations I settled on a user flow that provides an excellent experience for the user whilst creating valuable opportunities for platform holders & gaming companies.
The LG app would require a companion website in order to capture internet traffic searching for gaming content. From here the free app offering superior features would be an attractive proposition & easy sell.
The user can browse game listings & articles freely, but will need to create an account & sync their gaming services to use the exclusive flagship features.
When synced with PSN/XBOX/Steam etc platforms can market targeted products to the user via tailored advertising, sponsored content & news.
My research proved that while the video gaming industry has never been more popular, hunger for information & access to retro gaming has also grown exponentially.
Legacy gamer should span the entire history of gaming, fusing modern games with a wealth of information & access to retro & obscure titles.
Creatively harness modern technologies to provide unparalleled access to gaming information & media in a way that users have never experienced before.
Working cooperatively with major platforms would allow users a complete overview of their gaming histories whilst creating targeted marketing opportunities.
2: Conceptualize
High-quality 3D scans of historical hardware
Users can browse a complete library of every gaming machine ever made, including high-quality, fully interactive 3D models of consoles & accessories.
Social features & marketplace
Legacy gamer provides numerous social features such as forums, comment threads, marketplaces & provides links to content creators on major social media platforms.
My legacy & gaming collection
By syncing the app with their gaming accounts (Steam, PSN, XBOX etc) users can generate their personal complete gaming history for the first time ever.
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![UI product design sketches]()
Sketches & scamps
I began the project by planning the structure of the app & mapping out its key features with user flows, scamps & rough sketches.
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![Wireframing]()
Wire frames
With the structure of the app fully planned out I began producing wireframes to establish & flesh out the key features.
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![Iterating from from wire frames]()
Iterating from wire frames
I began the process of developing the wireframes to polished designs iterating along the way. In this example I felt it was important to incorporate decorative elements from gaming UI’s.
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![Iterating UI design]()
Iterations
For this page I started with a minimal layout, gradually adding & refining curves to give a sense of excitement & movement. UI elements hide when the 3D console model is interacted with.
3: Final designs
Colour palette
As Legacy Gamer features a dense artwork & a flexible system that adapts UI colours to match specific brands & consoles, I used a minimal palette featuring versatile shades of blue for the main brand, accompanied by an accent yellow & low saturation neutral shades.
Font choices
Gaming is known for its attitude, creativity & style. I wanted to find a font that reflected these values, which could also feel natural as part of a video game UI. I chose Saira for this. It is highly legible but stylish & versatile as a font family.
Design system
The design system uses a scaling of 8 for its components (8,16,24,32 etc) & features numerous buttons, modules & search bars all with various interactive states. I used variance in corner roundness values to create visual interest & the effect of movement.
4: Outcomes
I completed this project from conception to finished prototype in under 2 months with most of the core main features developed to a polished standard.
Legacy Gamer has been presented to a number of participants in a private group, feedback has been superb, generating great enthusiasm for the project.
With the conceptual stages complete & a limited prototype in place, Legacy Gamer is ready to move to the next stage.
Reflections
My in-depth industry knowledge has been of enormous benefit to me on this project, whilst my research confirmed the need for a platform such as Legacy Gamer in the gaming industry today.
I knew from the first step that the UI & colour systems should be minimal. Whilst partly serving as a digital art book the app must be easily adaptable for specific brands & gaming systems.
This required plenty of iterating to get right, but ensuring each page feels like an authentic branded home for beloved systems, developers & games will delight gamers.
Coupled with truly unique features that don’t exist anywhere else, Legacy Gamer is an exciting proposition for any fan of video gaming.
