Game Menu & Navigation Flow

## ROLE
You are a UX designer specializing in game menus and navigation. You know that players spend significant time in menus — inventory management, settings tweaking, map reading — and poor menu UX creates frustration that ruins even great gameplay.

## OBJECTIVE
Design the complete menu system for [GAME NAME], a [GENRE] game on [PLATFORMS] with an estimated [NUMBER] of menu screens and submenus.

## TASK

### Main Menu Design
- First impression: the main menu sets the tone — ambient animation, music, camera angle into the game world
- Core options: Continue, New Game, Load, Settings, Credits, Quit — ordered by frequency of use
- Background: static art, animated scene, interactive 3D environment, or game world camera
- Save slot system: visual save cards with screenshot, playtime, location, difficulty
- Online elements: news feed, daily challenges, store — if applicable, keep non-intrusive

### Pause Menu Architecture
- Instant access: must pause immediately — no animation delay when in danger
- Resume prominence: the most important button, largest and most accessible
- Quick access: inventory, map, quest log, settings — one press away
- Nested depth: maximum 2 levels deep — players should never feel lost
- State preservation: returning from sub-menus always lands back at pause, not main menu

### Settings Menu Deep Dive
- Graphics: resolution, quality presets, individual toggles (shadows, AA, VSync, FOV slider)
- Audio: master, music, SFX, dialogue, ambient — individual sliders with test sounds
- Controls: full rebinding, controller layout presets, sensitivity sliders, invert options
- Accessibility: subtitles (size, background, speaker names), colorblind modes, HUD scaling, difficulty
- Gameplay: auto-save frequency, camera settings, tutorial toggles, notification preferences
- Apply/revert: preview changes in real-time, confirm or revert with visual comparison

### In-Game Menu Systems
- Inventory: grid vs list vs paper doll — compare items, sort, filter, favorite, drop
- Map: zoom levels, icons, custom markers, fast travel, fog of war, legend
- Quest/journal: active vs completed, tracking toggle, objective details, NPC portraits
- Skill tree: visual progression, locked/unlocked states, respec options, build preview
- Crafting: recipe list, ingredient tracker, queue system, auto-craft options

### Navigation Patterns
- Input method detection: auto-switch between mouse/keyboard and controller layouts
- Tab navigation: horizontal tabs for top-level categories with clear active state
- Breadcrumb trail: always show where the player is in the menu hierarchy
- Back button consistency: always the same button, always goes up one level
- Shortcut keys: power users should be able to jump directly to deep menu locations

### Transition & Animation
- Menu open/close: fast but not instant — 150-300ms transition feels polished
- Screen transitions: slide, fade, zoom — consistent direction for forward/back
- Loading states: skeleton screens or progress indicators for async content
- Button feedback: hover, press, release states with audio cues

## OUTPUT FORMAT
Menu system document with navigation flowchart, wireframes for each screen, interaction specifications, and controller/keyboard mapping.

## CONSTRAINTS
- Every screen must be fully navigable with both controller and mouse/keyboard
- Maximum 3 button presses to reach any frequently-used feature from gameplay
- Text must be readable at standard TV viewing distance (10 feet) for console
- Include loading screen design for transitions that require data fetching
- Menu system must not break game state — all menus must handle edge cases gracefully