Microsoft’s Xbox platform and Xbox One gaming console have become truer parts of Microsoft’s ecosystem with the New Xbox One Experience update, NXOE for short, that began rolling out to the general public just about a week ago. This update, as we covered upon its arrival, includes an updated Windows 10-based OS that enables new features, specifically the ability to play Xbox 360 games through an inbuilt emulator. The update also includes a vastly updated and completely redesigned gaming-centric home interface to allow players to get from game to chat and back to game quickly and easily.
Another of the other significant additions in the NXOE was the inclusion of the new Guide feature. The home screen is mainly populated by a player’s game titles and the online marketplace, with a Windows 10-esque sidebar on the left edge of the home screen. If a player in Forza 6 is finishing their victory lap, then wants to check to see if their friends are online, a double-press of the Xbox button brings up a semi-transparent overlay of friends as well as what they’re playing. With the game paused after finishing a Forza race or hitting a checkpoint in Halo 5: Guardians, players double-press the Xbox button and the Guide slides over the game content from the left edge, just like it would on the home menu to show online friends, parties, messages, missed notifications, settings, as well as app snapping.
The Guide itself is extremely useful for both navigating to different parts of the Xbox social gaming experience and chatting with friends mid-game. Thanks in part to Andrew Moroney, who is a designer on the Xbox team, the new Guide experience now offers a seamless transition animation when initiating the new feature.
Moroney, while not the only developer working on the Guide, put his knowledge of graphic design and animation to use in creating what players are seeing with the New Xbox One Experience. Moroney has been into graphics and animation for years, with art being part of his life all the way back into childhood. Moroney’s passion for design drove him to pursue a degree in art and eventually as a profession, which landed him at Microsoft’s Xbox division as an animation designer.
Microsoft’s NXOE update began installing on consoles last week, and as players begin to utilize the new Guide within Xbox One, the animation that Andrew Moroney created for the feature is both the first and last thing players see when taking advantage of Xbox One’s newest features.
