DESC
Designed for original platformer game with a focus on accessibility for children (Global Game Jam 2022).
ROLE
UX/UI Designer
TEAM
Game Designer - Max Zlochiver
2D Artist - Gabby Aidam
Writer - Martha Gamy
Developer - Noah Young
VIDEO GAME DESIGN
2022
Cursed Mountain
VIDEO GAME DESIGN
2022
Cursed Mountain
Developed the UI/UX for an original platformer game with a focus on accessibility for Global Game Jam 2022.
DESC
01 / PROBLEM BACKGROUND
ABOUT
Cursed Mountain is a multiplayer platformer game about two souls (a monster and a human) stuck in one body that journey to meet a witch who can undo their curse. The players switch between their characters to overcome obstacles.
How might we reinforce the game’s theme of collaboration between players while seamlessly guiding the player in and out of gameplay?
GOAL
My objective was to create an UI/UX experience reflecting how different forces can be complementary and even interdependent to their success while fulfilling the accessibility needs of children for an intuitive game experience.
Target Audience
I created a persona to help represent and focus our target gamers’ needs and potential frustrations.
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02 / NEEDS & OPPORTUNITIES
Pain Points: Inaccessible & Detached
Journey Map
I defined the gamer's journey (based on assumptions and personal experience playing games with my younger siblings), to build user empathy and identify pain points and design opportunities.
I identified pain points hindering game accessibility in our Global Game Jam original screens, and redesigned them with the following key points from our secondary research in mind: (1) children have a lower working memory and (2) lower attention span than the average adult.
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GOALS
I converted the user pain points into campaign goals that would guide my process.
Accessible
Child gamers have different visual and cognitive strengths, and needs. Design with accessibility and customization in mind allows players to interact with the game in a comfortable way seamlessly. Customization includes optional hints, controls, and cursor and subtitle size.
Cohesive
For gamers to immerse and empathize with the characters, fantasy world, and story of Cursed Mountain, I worked alongside 2D artists to create a united visual language within the pixelated fantasy aesthetic.
03 / ACCESSIBILITY
Design for Visual & Cognitive Impairments
Colorblind-Safe Palette
Up to eight percent of boys have some degree of color blindness, and less than one percent of girls do. To open the door for our 8-12 aged audience, I focused on creating a color-blind safe palette.
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Accessibility Callouts: Gameplay HUD Screen
I considered visual and cognitive differences in attention, memory, and learning challenges when designing the interface to mitigate barriers from the gamer's experience.
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04 / USER TESTING
Collaborative Player Selection
STEP 1
For the player selection page, I initially designed it in a way where players choose their characters one at a time.
After testing this design with others, including an Interaction Designer from Rockstar Games, I realized one player would have to wait idly while the other chooses, interrupting that player's flow state.
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Through iterations, I redesigned the character selection process so that both players are being productive and engaged while collaborating even before gameplay begins.
STEP 2
I explored ways to present character abilities in a way that communicated they are fixed and built-in.
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STEP 3
I explored ways to inform the user of their character status to help them understand how far they are from completing the character selection process and to create overall trust in the user interface.
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PROTOTYPE
The finalized character selection process makes the players work together by choosing their characters simultaneously to ensure player engagement and collaboration pre-gameplay.
05 / USER FLOW
User Experience Research
INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
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USER FLOW
Below is a flow chart displaying the onboarding process to gameplay.
06 / FINAL DESIGNS
Cursed Mountain Screens
Click through the slideshow to explore all final screens!
06 / Design System
Component-Based Design System
07 / CONCLUSION
Reflection
I learned to collaborate closely with the artists and developers to ensure that the interfaces matched the visual fantasy world of the game and were easily applicable in Unreal Engine (especially since the game had to be submitted by the deadline). I got my work critiqued after the weekend-long Game Jam, allowing me to iterate and gain insight into incorporating a visual accessibility focus.
LESSONS
My next step would be to test these interfaces with child gamers in an unmoderated usability testing session (possibly while screen recording to analyze their navigation behavior) to collect qualitative data on how kids interact with the game and with each other. I'd keep an eye out for any moments of friction or interruption that would cause the players to sit idly, as well as what they do to compensate. I would devise ways to not only mitigate those slow periods (such as a game file loading) but also to use them as opportunities to add pleasure.
NEXT STEPS
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