STARR Method: Level menu wireframes + Tutorial level design
Situation: During week 15 the designers and the team lead decided that the games explanations needed a change. The problem was that it was "too much" at once for a new player to take in. This resulted in confused players and made it impossible to play the game. Therefore the solution we came up with was: divide the possible player actions into very small steps. We hope that this will fix the issue of the game feeling overwhelming and hard to understand.
Activities: I worked on a wireframe for the level menu that was needed because of the new solution. For this I did research into different layouts and menu techniques (which can be found at the bottom of the post). Creating a solution for the issue of the overwhelming information for players resulted in testing and more testing. I ended up creating one base level which kept its base but changed so the player can see each necessity, house and road option and use one by one.
Research Method: Design Thinking
Empathize: I figured that there are 4 players types, and our game will mainly have achievers there needed to be a drastic change. Since we would like to target as many people as possible I wanted to try and create a solution that makes it possible for any new achiever to play and understand (maybe even enjoy ;) ) the game.
Define: Whilst building levels and testing I figured that the game in its current state was to difficult to understand. The fact that it was already hard for the game designers to see/understand what was going on was not a good sign. The conclusion is that the user needs a very easy to understand tutorial that "shows" what can be done and needs to be done.
Ideate: This issue needed a fix, during the level design for the tutorial I got an idea when brainstorming with our team lead. This idea will help players understand what they can do and what they should to achieve their goals.
Prototype:
Test:
Implement:
Result:
Reflection:
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