Trailer for 'Speak Easy', a student game created by Shots on Sunday at Falmouth University. (2019)

PRESS RELEASE: From late 2018 to mid 2019, Miles was a second-year student at Falmouth University making their first attempt at creating user interface. Their team came up with Speak Easy, a 1920s game full of the highs and lows of the roaring twenties that drove Miles to create newspaper-styled UI art with a touch of gold art deco flair.

FALMOUTH UNIVERSITY STUDENTS WIN BEST SECOND-YEAR GAME AWARD FOR THEIR PROJECT 'SPEAK EASY'

Speak Easy is a narrative-heavy game balancing drink-mixing and conversation mechanics set in a seedy underground speakeasy in the year 1925. You play Ruth, the bartender and a woman in more danger than she knows. Balance conversation with your patrons while getting their drink orders right, but make sure not to run into trouble with the police or the mob along the way.

INFORMATION:

YEAR: 2018 - 2019
MY ROLE: UI artist, Writer, Editor, Concept Artist, 3D artist
ENGINE: Unity
TEAM MEMBERS: Max Amaden, Nate Bedford, Stan Chatt, Robyn Bond, AJ Kerr, Miles Rodyakin, Will Snowden, Louis Sullivan, Martyn Ward

Trailer for 'Speak Easy', a student game created by Shots on Sunday at Falmouth University. (2019)

PRESS RELEASE: From late 2018 to mid 2019, Miles was a second-year student at Falmouth University making their first attempt at creating user interface. Their team came up with Speak Easy, a 1920s game full of the highs and lows of the roaring twenties that drove Miles to create newspaper-styled UI art with a touch of gold art deco flair.

FALMOUTH UNIVERSITY STUDENTS WIN BEST SECOND-YEAR GAME AWARD FOR THEIR PROJECT 'SPEAK EASY'

Speak Easy is a narrative-heavy game balancing drink-mixing and conversation mechanics set in a seedy underground speakeasy in the year 1925. You play Ruth, the bartender and a woman in more danger than she knows. Balance conversation with your patrons while getting their drink orders right, but make sure not to run into trouble with the police or the mob along the way.

INFORMATION:

YEAR: 2018 - 2019
MY ROLE: UI artist, Writer, Editor, Concept Artist, 3D artist
ENGINE: Unity
TEAM MEMBERS: Max Amaden, Nate Bedford, Stan Chatt, Robyn Bond, AJ Kerr, Miles Rodyakin, Will Snowden, Louis Sullivan, Martyn Ward

UNE VIDÉO DE USER INTERFACE COMME ON LE VOIT DANS "SPEAK EASY"

REFLECTIONS: 

It's been 4-5 years since I made Speak Easy's UI. That's a lot of time to reflect on what could've been done better.

a. The user interface is lacking polish. The settings menu was made in about a day and it shows, especially in the use of the default Unity sliders. Furthermore, because the main menu buttons didn't work when overlapped, our main menu's buttons were spaced out to a silly degree. I should have either figured out how to implement to my vision or changed tracks. The UI also needed more animation.

b. The logo. Games usually have text-heavy logos. I made one focused around an eye styled like Erte's artwork, including a splashy animation for it. I then opted to remove it from the game because I wasn't happy with it -- I should have accepted that the logo needed a text focus earlier instead of leaving the main menu bare with nothing.

c. I would have liked more detail. Games like Persona 5 are so beloved for their UI because of the amount of effort they put into getting every single detail right. Our backgrounds are bare black overlays. They would've looked really cool with some classic art deco borders. There's a lack of the last 10% of detail that pushes a UI from good to great.

a.

b.

c.

REFLECTIONS: 

It's been 4-5 years since I made Speak Easy's UI. That's a lot of time to reflect on what could've been done better.

a. The user interface is lacking polish. The settings menu was made in about a day and it shows, especially in the use of the default Unity sliders. Furthermore, because the main menu buttons didn't work when overlapped, our main menu's buttons were spaced out to a silly degree. I should have either figured out how to implement to my vision or changed tracks. The UI also needed more animation.

b. The logo. Games usually have text-heavy logos. I made one focused around an eye styled like Erte's artwork, including a splashy animation for it. I then opted to remove it from the game because I wasn't happy with it -- I should have accepted that the logo needed a text focus earlier instead of leaving the main menu bare with nothing.

c. I would have liked more detail. Games like Persona 5 are so beloved for their UI because of the amount of effort they put into getting every single detail right. Our backgrounds are bare black overlays. They would've looked really cool with some classic art deco borders. There's a lack of the last 10% of detail that pushes a UI from good to great.

a.

b.

c.

AND NOW...

A collection of work in progress UI shots and miscellaneous 2D and 3D artwork created for Speak Easy by yours truly.

copyright 2025. proudly made by miles by hand using semplice.