'Round The Valley
“I had the opportunity to do this project with multiple roles. From UX & UR designer to Sound designer of the whole project. The game is a narrative-driven train driving game. I’ll tell you more about what i have done.”
Context
Collaborators:
Tristan Loumont - Producer
Léo Abbaz - Game design
Solenn Ripoteau - Art
Danny Vu - Programming
External help:
FrancisRave - Soundtrack
Project duration:
From march 2023 to june 2023
(4 months)
Link:
This project is done as part of my master’s degree first year. We done it during the last four month of the scholar year. I work closely with the rest of the team to define core features, and integrate UX processes as early as possible during the different production states. We were 5 persons on this project.
My missions were:
- Define project scope with the team.
- Define user target & game flows
- Define the UX needs of this project
- Playtest and give feedback to the teams
- Define sound direction and inspirations
- Make the sounds of the game
- Integrate the sounds in engine
- Facilitate teams communication with good documentation
Process
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Define project scope
Who are we designing the game for ? What concurrent games do ? How are we original from theses games ?
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Define user stories
What can players do ? What are their needs ? Do we have different paths ?
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Discuss the needs
Ask the team what they want to be answered regarding the player experience with the game in order to conduct a playtest.
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Prepare and do playtests
Plan, recruit and do the playtests. We need to test our flows and game elements.
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Follow-up & iteration
Write and present the playtests results. Discuss and change games elements and direction to better suit flows/players needs for the game.
My work
This is a selection of the different things i done on this project. First, you will see some of my UX/UR works and lastly some of my sound design works.
All i did for this project on UX was :
- Benchmark (5 games in total)
- Engines of play methodology (5 domains of play & PENS model combined)
- Persona
- Survey about players experience of narrative games
- Empathy map workshop
- Playtests (3 in total)
Empathy map Workshop
To help me define the user stories for this project. I decided to try a methodology i didn’t know at the time. I prepare the board, tape a wall in our working space, take several post-it notes color.
And then i organize a moment with the team to be able to do together this workshop. After explaining how we do it and why we do it, we take the time to wrote notes and stick them on the different sections on the wall.
This help me and my team understand the players profiles a lot better, and define the project user stories.
Playtests
For this project, i did three playtests in total. The first one to see how players interact with our game. We had several decisions with the team we didn’t want to conclude before testing them.
Like forcing the train to stop at each stations or no. If the players use railway switches. If they go at full speed all the time despite the choice to slow down, etc… Because we were working on the pre-production and didn’t have any prototype, i had to adapt the game design in a paper form to be able to do the tests.
The second playtests we did was about the same questions but in game prototype form. Because we want to be sure, in a digital form, the questions we’re asking have the same answers or not. This playtest session help us ensure our decisions and feel confidents with theses decisions.
The third and last playtest was about our player’s immersion. We wanted to know if the game, who is carried a lot by his story and characters, immerse the players in the role of our main character Amina. Because if the game has good immersion, the final choice will be more impactful on players and they will finish the game on an emotional point.
Sound-design
Doing the sound design for our game was a such an amazing experience !
I loved taking time to find references, try to combine existing sounds in a way resemble what i wanted to convey to the players.
Working with FMOD was challenging at first and then, it was just a pleasure. I had the feedbacks of a classmate specialized in sound design for this project. He gave me great advices when we were reviewing my work together to get his feedbacks.
Having such an opportunity like this was something i really cherish. I loved doing sound design in addition to UX, he gives joy to my heart !
04
The challenges
Doing two important roles on one project at the same time
After falling in love with sound design, i decided for this project to challenge me. Searching the sound design art direction and defining our target players at the same time was difficult. I had to juggle between theses two roles through the project. It requires a lot of organisation and knowledge on how many time something will take me.
Strangely, i loved this experience i got. Its was really pleasant, it was the most exciting thing to do. With time, my organization was rolling on tracks. This feeling is really pleasant.
Directing alone the UX of a whole project
Because before, i only did small projects of one week. And i did more than just UX design, i was scared of my capabilities to have the major UX role on this project. Beside the fact i had two major roles (with audio directing). Doing this made me apprehend a lot.
You don’t have anyone to rely on about UX in your team, you need to know the methodologies needed at the moment to help build the UX of the project. Maybe you will need to also help a lot on the UI. This role come with a lot of interrogations. With time, i was quite reassured and think i did a good job, not perfect (as i saw it today making this portfolio, i see a lot of room to improve on).
05
See it with today’s eyes
Update and modify the original persona for this project
As today, i think this persona is not good. I should have made multiples personas, one for each user story. I think basing my persona content on the survey is good and realistic. But it doesn’t help clarify what player’s want and how they will play. This is how I change the original persona to make it representative of one of the game user stories (Having a relaxing game experience).
Better utilize and present certain methodologies
Some of the methodologies i did during this project were used or not. For example, the benchmarks i did were used during the team meetings.
Its a good thing, but i didn’t do a global presentation of my benchmarks to the team.
I didn’t precise my conclusions with theses games. The results of my benchmarks were available freely and i indicate were they are to the team to let them read it.
Change my playtest results presentations
My playtests results presentations for this project are good, but i didn’t make a conclusion slide with a recap of the insights actionable for my team. The way i present my results force my coworkers to take my results as they understand them. It makes a difference between the conclusions i want to give and the ones my coworkers might understand.
