I Deleted Most of the UI… and the Game Got Better.

Cutting the UI Down to the Bone

The last two weeks were all about UI/UX cleanup.
WorldLattice’s core systems finally behave, so it was time to make the whole thing actually usable. Because… let’s be honest: the old UI was painful. Functional, yes. Pleasant? Absolutely not.

Townscaper is one of my favorite references — it’s almost pure screen-space beauty with barely any UI. WorldLattice can’t go that minimal because my mechanics need a bit of scaffolding, but I realized I definitely didn’t need as much UI as I had.

So I did something brutal:
I hid everything.

Then I slowly brought elements back only when I absolutely needed them to play.
If I could operate without a button, it didn’t come back.

The difference is night and day. It still needs more passes, but now it finally feels like the game is trying to help you rather than fight you.

Phase Preview Ate My Week Alive

I added a new feature called Phase Preview, and wow… I underestimated how chaotic it would be.

Phase Preview = a tiny thumbnail of the other phase
→ When you’re Painting, you see a tiny preview of your last Generated world.
→ When you’re Generating, you see a tiny preview of your painted layout.
(Like the little image in the bottom-right of the screenshot below.)

Simple idea.
Painful execution.

Everything that could break… did.
Camera issues, wrong roots, grid lines rendering instead of tiles, timing problems — it all went south.
It ate days I did not plan to spend.

Phase Preview Wasn’t the UX Savior I Imagine

I expected Phase Preview to be a huge clarity booster, but after playtesting, I noticed something funny:

It helped, but…
not nearly as much as I imagined.

Turns out players already mentally keep track of what phase they’re in.
Phase Preview is useful, but not a dramatic UX revolution.
(Still worth keeping though — it adds a nice sense of continuity between phases.)

Time to Stop Hiding and Start Sharing

I think WorldLattice is finally at a point where I can start sharing tiny bits of it publicly — short GIFs, small clips, little posts.

And yes… I’m scared.
(Which is exactly why I should probably do it.)

So… here’s me practicing in my little safe bubble before I face the real world —
just here, on my devlog.

Be Brutal: Is This UI Idea Dumb?

Do you think "Phase Preview" actually makes sense visually when you see it?
Would you want a clearer indicator between the two phases?
Or is this enough?

If you have ideas, feedback, or just wanna say "Hi!" — come join the WorldLattice Discord.
It’s small, cozy, and I’m always there. Email works too!

— Hani Jahan
WorldLattice Project