Speedometer Gauges

Designing a Killer Dashboard For Games

The dashboard is the most vital aspect of a gaming software since it is through a dashboard that a gamer can monitor vital information such as the score, available lives, time spent, ammunition reserve, speed etc. Balancing the functionality, size and aesthetics of a gaming dashboard is a challenge to every game developer. Hence, a significant amount of a developer’s time is spent in designing a gaming dashboard.

Essentially, gaming dashboards help in data visualization. So, game developers can save a lot of time if they implement commercially available tools to enable  visualization of data. Modern data visualization tools are very advanced and they can easily be integrated with all programing technologies. So, no matter what development platform you’re working on, you can easily acquire the right tool for building your dashboard.

The elements that constitute a gaming dashboard, can be classified into following categories; linear gauges, angular gauges, and indicators. Angular gauges are widely used in racing games to simulate a speedometer. Linear gauges are available in many varieties, they can be horizontal or vertical and use either a slider or LED type lights to indicate the value. Vertical linear gauge with slider indicators can be used as a fuel gauge for racing games. While horizontal gauges are ideal for showing the status of overall progress. Some data visualization tools offer a bulb gauge which can be customized to create indicators for showing things like available lives or remaining ammo supplies. So, a comprehensive suite of real-time data visualization tools is all you need for developing a killer dashboard.

While sourcing a data visualization suite for your gaming dashboard you should ensure that it offers a wide variety of customizable gauges. And, it is very important that the gauges have support for real-time update because they’ll have to display up to date information.

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To check out some examples of real-time gauges which can be used in dashboards visit http://www.fusioncharts.com/widgets/Gallery.asp

Stewart Warner Gauges