2024 · Warhammer 40,000 Community · Broadcast · Motion · Real-time data
Tournament broadcast for a 40,000-year-old war
A live, data-bound Twitch overlay and motion system for Warhammer 40,000 tournaments - dense information made theatrical without sacrificing legibility for the viewer at home.
- Role
- Designer & Motion Lead
- Team
- Solo design, with casters & TOs
- Duration
- Ongoing
- Discipline
- Broadcast · Motion · Real-time data
Context
Competitive 40K broadcasts have to carry an enormous amount of state at once: army lists, mission objectives, command points, secondary scores, turn timers. Most overlays either hide it or drown the player in it. Neither is good television.
The problem
How do you make 40K's grim, heraldic visual language work at 1080p, in real-time, without burying the actual game?
Approach
- 01
Designed a layered HUD system - quiet at idle, theatrical at climax - driven by live tournament data.
- 02
Built a typographic system inspired by 40K's heraldry but readable at small sizes on a stream.
- 03
Authored a motion library in GSAP for state transitions, score swings, and turn changes.
- 04
Worked directly with casters and TOs to tune density vs. drama match by match.
Outcome
- →Adopted by community casters and tournament organisers in the 40K competitive scene
- →Overlay system reused across multiple events with minimal per-event redesign
- →Praised by viewers for being legible at a glance and dramatic at the right moments
Reflection
“Broadcast design lives or dies in the silent moments. The system has to be quiet enough to disappear, and ready to roar when it matters.”