Designing for Interaction

Intro to Designing for Interaction

Week 1

Fable: The Lost Chapters HUD

As part of the first week's task we were to pick a game we are familiar with and analyse its HUD (heads-up display).
For game I choose Fable: The Lost Chapters (2005), not only because it is a game I really enjoyed when I was younger but also because the UI of the game had an overhaul for its Anniversary Edition (Fable Anniversary, 2014), is it is worth comparing the differences between the different HUD's and how it affects gameplay.

Figure 1: Fable: The Lost Chapters HUD (Fable: The Lost Chapters, Steam, no date).

The HUD in Fable: The Lost Chapters (FTLC) gives the player vital information about the character's status in an organised manner.

I have separated the HUD elements into sections and identified the main components in each section (see Figures 1 and 2).

Specific actions and interactions have dedicated icons, and there is more than one context sensitive interaction button.

Section 1

Health Bar - Shows the player's current health pool and health level. Commonly represented as a red bar.

Mana Bar - Shows the player's current mana pool and mana level, the player requires mana to activate/cast spells.

Lives - Shows how many resurrect vials the player has, once the health level reaches 0, 1 resurrect vial is consumed to revive the player. The lives having the symbolic heart for its visual representation.

Section 2

Combat multiplier - Multiplier that multiplies the amount of experience obtained, the multiplier rises by continuous successful hits/damage to enemy NPCs. If the player is unable to damage an enemy within a certain period of time the multiplier resets. If the player is damaged this number drops to half its value.

Experience Obtained - Shows the amount of experience gained. The Icon will change depending on the type of experience obtained, which varies depending on how the player eliminated the enemy NPCs (using melee, ranged or magic).

Section 3

Visibility - Shows how many NPC's are able to see the player, if no NPC's are able to see the player the eye will appear closed. In case the player is within sight of Enemy NPC's the iris of the eye will appear red.

Mini Map - Show a map of the area, the player location in the map, NPC's, shops among other points of interest.

Time of day - Shows the current time of day, allowing the player to also know how far they are from the next night/day cycle.

Figure 2: HUD Section Details

Section 4

Quick Actions - These actions are dependent on player status, can be activated by using F1, F3 and F3 buttons. For example, during combat, the first slot action is based on the player's health, the game will suggest an item to be used to recover health, it can be potions or food items. If the player has full health no action is suggested. Outside of combat, when having an NPC as the main focus the game will suggest social expressions/actions.

Guild Seal - Visual representation of the teleporter item, if the player holds the button G they will be taken to a screen that allows them to pick locations they can teleport to. If the player has enough experience to upgrade a skill this icon will cycle between the seal and the general experience icon.

Section 5

Quickslots - Slots the player can customise, spells, consumables, items and expressions can be placed here. these can be activated/cast/used by pressing the numerical keys from 1 to 9.

Section 6

Sheathe/Unsheathe Weapon - Shows the status of the player weapons, indicates which type is currently unsheathed, also indicates which key to press to change weapon type. There is different icon representations for the state of the weapon.

Spell list - Shows slots of a spell list the player can customise, the active spells can be changed by holding LShift and scrolling using the mouse wheel.

Tab/Mouse Button Actions - Tab is main interaction button, depending on the object in focus the icon representative of the action changes. The mouse buttons can have different functions based on whether the LShift Button is pressed down or not, there is an icon for visual representation of the action associated with the mouse buttons.

The layout is intuitive and user-friendly making it easier to track the status of the player character. Indicative elements of the HUD are situated on top (health, mini map, visibility) while action elements are located on the bottom half of the screen.

It feels intuitive having the mouse actions located on the right bottom side of the screen as it would coincide with most players hand positioning in relation to the game screen. The same logic can be applied to the quick actions and quickslots elements.

With FTLC having a somewhat complex interaction system with many different items, expressions, spells a player can use, it really benefits having different recognisable icons distinct from each other.

Set actions that cannot be performed will have an X overlay over them as well as greyed out gives a fast indication to the player of which can still be used.

The game makes it also so that the player does not have to constantly remember the controls by having a visual representation on its HUD of which button is associated with each active slot. A slot that does not have a performable action does not have visual button association also helping visual navigation on its HUD. The readable and concise font also makes assists in pulling information from the HUD.

Fable Anniversary

Figure 3: Fable Anniversary HUD (Jenny Brewer, 2016).

Fable Anniversary (2014) had its HUD re-designed (see Figure 3). The layout was mainly maintained but the HUD elements were drawn anew (Fable Anniversary - HUD, no date).

HUD elements were redrawn at higher resolutions, some were simplified (Guild Seal, Section 4), drawn closer together including removing other elements (see Section 6 in Figure 4)

Figure 4: Side by Side, Fable The Lost Chapters and Fable Anniversary.

In comparison, in the Anniversary version the minimap was redrawn with bolder outlines and better contrast making it easier to navigate than the mini map in the FTLC version.

The general outlook of the HUD in the Anniversary edition looks flatter, specially in the section 1, there is a lack of colour weight variation. The fact that it looks flatter makes it so it does not blend so well with the in game aspect, it is potentially distracting to players as the art concept does not feel as unified.

In the Anniversary edition all the slots, including unused slots have the corresponding button associated with it.
The icons and fond in the HUD seem much smaller in relation to the HUD elements making it harder to read and taking longer to pull information from.

Despite the general graphical improvement the updated HUD in Fable Anniversary slightly harder to read and less consistent.

References

Fable Anniversary. (2014). Windows [Game]. Microsoft Studios: Redmond, Washington.

Fable Anniversary - HUD (no date) Jenny Brewer - UI Art & Illustration. Available at: https://www.missjenart.com/uiart/fable-anniversary-hud (Accessed: 3 March 2023).

Fable: The Lost Chapters. (2005). Windows [Game]. Microsoft Game Studios: Redmond, Washington.

Fable: The Lost Chapters, Steam (no date) Instant-Gaming.com. Available at: https://www.instant-gaming.com/en/394-buy-fable-the-lost-chapters-pc-game-steam/ (Accessed: 3 March 2023).

Jenny Brewer (2016) Fable Anniversary - HUD UI. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kds6f-IclNc (Accessed: 3 March 2023).

Title of game, edition or version. (Year). Platform [Game]. Publisher: Place of publication.

Pyschology of User Experience

Week 2

Cyberpunk 2077's open-world design issues

Cyberpunk 2077 is an action role-playing video game developed and published by CD Projekt Red (2020). The game is set in a dystopian future in the year 2077, in a fictional city called Night City, located in the Free State of California. Players take on the role of V, a mercenary who can be customized in terms of gender, appearance, skills, and backstory.

The game features a mix of first-person shooter and role-playing elements, allowing players to explore a vast open world, interact with non-playable characters, complete quests and missions, and engage in combat using a variety of weapons and abilities.

Cyberpunk is a game I have spent a significant amount of hours playing, in my opinion its main story was very well crafted and engaging, however, the game failed in its open-world design.

It features a vast and visually beautiful game world but fails to engage the player in it.

The content can be described as shallow and repetitive with few meaningful choices and consequences. The game's "gig" system often consisted of going to a location, get a small debriefing, eliminating a few enemies and collecting a reward, many of the choices presented to the player also had little to no impact on the overall story and world.

The "NCPD Hustles" distributed all over the map were also generally a handful of enemies to eliminate.

Many elements of the game world, such as shops and buildings, lacked interactivity and felt empty rather than dynamic and immersive. Most objects in the game world were not destructible or interactive in a meaningful way, for example, some games give the player the choice to sit on various chairs and benches, whereas in the game the player is only able to so when prompted during some mission's dialogue.

Non-playable characters (NPCs) had limited behaviour and often repeated the same actions, which made the world feel less alive and dynamic. Outside of mission context, major NPC's regardless of time of day would be in the exact same spot and position when encountered in their home locations.

These issues together are some of the factors that contributed to create a world that felt less immersive and less engaging.

How Gestalt Laws can be used to improve the experience

The Gestalt's law of simplicity could be applied to make the game world feel less cluttered and overwhelming, the amount of minor side quests could be reduced in order to create more engaging experiences. Quality over quantity would make the game feel more polished and satisfying.

Applying the law of common fate can be used to create a more cohesive and immersive experience.

By making the game feel more responsive to the player's actions would create a stronger sense of common fate between the world and the player, for example, allowing the player to perform contextual actions such as sitting at any of the bars open to the player.

Even making more of the objects destructible depending on the medium used to impact them, including destroying weak walls/doors to create new pathways.

Also having NPC's reactive to the time of day with contextual actions on top of more varied reactions to player action.

I would purpose adding events sensitive to player action, if the player were to eliminate many members of one of the gang factions it could generate a revenge event where many members of the faction band to take out the player as the player is just travelling through the world. Since the player is able to knock out enemies it could give the player a choice to not "step on their toes".

Other faction related events due to player eliminations could include the neighbour factions to take part of the weakened faction's territory and faction conflict events.

Overall a more engaging and immersive experience can be obtained by adding dynamism to the game world.

References

Cyberpunk 2077. (2020). Microsoft Windows [Game]. CD Projekt Red: Warsaw, Poland

Mental Models and Implementation Models

Week 3

Interaction Map

For this week we were tasked to create and interaction map.

I used Figma to make mine, I made a website type that would showcase projects.

The general layout with a header containing a Title text for the entity's name, a star representing the entity's logo and a back button which functions as a return to previous page button.

Clicking the title and/or logo would return the user to the Home Page.

In the Home Page I made 3 buttons for 3 different pages, a Projects page, About page and Contacts page.

On the side I made an indication for an area where either a welcome image or a welcome text can be placed/written.

The About Page would include information about the entity, including who are the main contributors of the entity (I only added an indication for one person in this draft)

The Contacts Page was to contain every method available in which an user can contact the entity. This would include email addresses, social medias and a physical address as well as a Google Maps embed with the location pinned.

In the Projects Page it would show at least 3 different projects the entity has worked on, a small sneak peak in the contents of each of the projects in the form of images (with a possibility to add a small abstract on them).

The user can click in each of the project images which would send the user to the project specific page of one website.

Figma project

https://www.figma.com/file/p9w1gl86rJQMFNhdHpHXQA/Week-3-DI?node-id=0%3A1&t=eCagMKrQimXy0fPu-1

Pyschology of User Experience

Week 4

For this week we had to make a User Persona for the group game we are developing for the Experimental Games module.

Together with my group we came up with Sharon "Karen" McKlein.

Our game is conceptually a voiced controlled escape room type of game with some horror elements to it. The platform would be on PC (Windows).

Being on PC the user would need to have the time to assess a PC and engage with the game, so Sharon is the type of user that has that time.

Also the game being a puzzle horror type, it goes more specific into the type of things the user enjoys. So Sharon enjoys games/activities that stimulate her brain as well as being a fan of the horror genre, hence the Clive Barker's books in her influences.

Interaction Frameworks

Week 5

For this week we were to use figma and create the user flow for a game or application. It was suggested that we could do the user flow for the game we were doing in Experimental Games.

Since the game we were making has some influences from Phasmophobia (2020), I wanted to make the intro section similar.

Menu wise our game is much more simple.

Phasmophobia intro screen shots

Experimental Game actual intro section

Like Phasmophobia I made a 3 part intro section starting with the name of the game, followed by the disclaimer and the last part being the requirements.

Given the game's nature the requirements were a microphone and recommending the use of headphones.

The icons were obtained from iconpacks.net, I inverted the colour from black to white in Photoshop for it to be visible with the intro's black background.

User flow between the game screens

The main menu I planned to have 4 buttons:

Start, which would bring the user to the game scene;
How to Play, to bring up in the menu scene a panel with important information to the user on how to play the game;
Options, to bring up in the menu scene a panel with audio and video options;
Quit, to exit the game/application.

Then during game play there would be 3 possible screens:

Game Screen, where the user interacts with the game world;
Journal Screen, by saying "Open Journal" or clicking the journal at the bottom right corner of the screen it would bring out a journal page. The Journal page contains a small paragraph of text (to roughly tell the user what is going on), options to turn on/off the voices sound (as they could potentially be disturbing to the user), the necessary voice commands the user needs to use (and what they do) and lastly an inventory (which would show the names of items the user has picked up throughout the game);
Pause Screen, by pressing ESC button or saying "Pause" this screen would show up, from here the user can resume game, return to the main menu or Exit game.

Lastly once the user has completed the game they would be presented with the ending screen.

giving the user 3 buttons

Restart, to restart the game scene;
Main Menu, to go back to the main menu screen;
Quit, to exit the game

User flow prototype on Figma

Resources

Microphone image: https://www.iconpacks.net/free-icon/microphone-342.html

Headphones image: https://www.iconpacks.net/free-icon/headphone-1402.html

Title font: https://www.dafont.com/old-london.font

References

Phasmophobia. (2020). Microsoft Windows [Game]. Kinetic Games: UK

Audio Design for Interaction

Week 6

This week we talked about audio design in interaction, the weekly task is to talk about how I am providing feedback to the user when they interact with the game I am making for Experimental Games.

Being a voice controlled game, there are various forms of feedback that needs to get to the user.

Voice controls wise I am mainly sending visual feedback to the user.

1 - On the top right corner of the game screen I have a mic icon and bars that change based on how loud the sound being picked up by the mic. if no bars are being shown this would indicate that no sound is being picked up. One bar (the smallest) indicating low loudness and three bars indicating loud sound.

2 - As the game recognises a valid voice control a green check mark will show up underneath the mic icon for one second, this is to tell the player that the game is recognising the commands.

3 - since the user is NOT the protagonist character in the game, I planed for this character to respond to user commands depending on the circumstances, these responses take form of text phrases on the lower half of the screen. For example when the user is commanding the protagonist to use an item on an object that they are not able to use the item then a "I can't do that" response is shown to the player.

I also have included some forms of audio feedback.

When the protagonist is moving, the user can hear their footsteps;
Picking up items produces a sound, the audio differs depending on the item's material;
Successfully using items, such as when using a hammer to break the window will cause a glass breaking audio to play.

Tangible Devices, Feedback & Fonts

Week 7

For this week we were to select a couple of fonts that would fit the concept of the Experimental Games prototype.

The game concept is horror themed, an escape room where the room is meant to look from an old asylum.

I had already selected a font for the title (Old London), a font type to reflect the older time period where the game events take place.

Old London font example

I wanted to include a handwritten style of font that would be readable and that would still fit in with the theme.

As the protagonist is in an asylum, I considered a sharp style of handwritten font as if the writing could have ben done by them. I have tested some with on the User Flow Prototype to see how well it would work as menu fonts and settled for the font "Travelling".

Travelling Font example

As for a readable font, given the context I looked into scans of old medical records/documents online as well as the text printing methods used in the 1800's. When looking specifically at fonts of these times a lot of stylised fonts come up, since I wanted something for the more readable old newspaper font styles seemed the more efficient in those terms.

Old Newspaper Types font example

User Flow Prototype updated with chosen fonts

Resources

Old London font: https://www.dafont.com/old-london.font

Travelling font: https://www.1001fonts.com/travelling-font.html

Old Newspaper Types font: https://www.dafont.com/oldnewspapertypes.font

Navigation Structures and Systems

Week 8

This week we were to make an interactable component and its different states.

I decided to make a button with a pressed and on hover variant.

I made the button in Photoshop while following a tutorial by David Raskin (2022) as the basis and keeping the candy style for the button.

Button Progress

I started by making a rounded rectangle, then on free transform I used the wrap function to change the shape a bit.
Afterwards on the blending options/layer styles I added a gradient overlay between a bright and darker shade of blue, then to give dimensionality to the shape I added strokes with a gradient fill type keeping the same pattern of blue shades. I have added more strokes styles so the outer shape would look more 3 dimensional.

For the inner button added inner shadows from different angles and adjusting the shade accordingly to make it pop as well as making new shapes to simulate the shine of a light source.

After being satisfied with the general out look of the button I made 2 variations, these were obtained by adding a satin.

For the "on hover" state I wanted a brighter tone of blue and for the button pressed state a darker tone.

Finally I imported the button and variations into Figma to test the button how well the variations worked together with the normal button.

Button Interaction test

References

David Raskin (2022) Easy Button Design for beginners | Photoshop tutorial. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCH-ImjzZzo (Accessed: 3 April 2023).

Aesthetics in User Interface

Week 9

For this week we were to create a low fidelity grey box for our second project of Experimental Games

I am working on a VR game that utilises hand tracking, in the game the player will have to use their hands to slice objects coming at them.

Description

As soon as the player boots the game there will be a table with a floating semi transparent HUD displaying a timer, score and a highscore.

The table in front of the player has 2 buttons, a green start button with a semi transparent hud display with the text “Start” and a similar Red button with a hud display saying Stop.

The Start button can be interacted with the player’s index finger in order to press it and start the game.

The Stop button can be interacted with to stop the game at any time.

To the left of the player, there will be a type of control panel with buttons the player can interact to adjust game settings, I wanted to give the player the options to customize the experience to their liking.
The options would include an object move speed setting, time settings among others.

On the right side of the player there will be table with sample objects and a display with instructions on how to play the game.

Since it is a VR game I thought I could play with the UI as a manner of being more physically interactive to the player.

And as part of the "experimental" aspect of the game prototype is also a manner of experimenting with UI in a VR setting, as well as making pushing buttons in VR being part of the experience.

VR Slicer Interaction greybox

Fonts

Game title (wip)

VR Slicer

Hand Tracking Edition

As for font choices, for the title game (currently a work in progress) I picked a font called slice-n-dice by Manuel Viergutz. The font portrays well what the main game mechanic is, which is slicing objects.

And on the subtitle, button names and other screen titles I picked the font Quicksilver by Darrell Flood. Screen titles and subtitles I chose to use the italic version of the font while keeping the sharp bold regular font for the other elements.

As for readable font for other more wordy text I chose to use the Alte haas grotesk font by Yann Le Coroller. The font itself "is typeface that look like an helvetica printed in an old Muller-Brockmann Book".
I chose it for its readability as well as having a little something different to it.

Font styles

Slice-n-dice

quicksilver Italic

quicksilver Regular

Alte Haas Grotesk Bold

Alte Haas Grotesk Regular

Resources

Slice-n-dice font: https://www.dafont.com/slice-n-dice.font

Quicksilver font: https://www.dafont.com/quicksilver-3.font

Alte haas grotesk font: https://www.dafont.com/alte-haas-grotesk.font

Usability and Accessibility

Week 10

Designing for Usability and Accessibility

A crucial aspect of game design is Usability and Accessibility, they are integral to creating inclusive and engaging gaming experiences. Usability refers to how easy and enjoyable it is for players to interact with the game and focuses on aspects like user-friendly controls, clear visuals, and the overall experience of playing the game (Pinelle, Wong & Stach, 2008). On the other hand, Accessibility refers to making games accessible to a wide range of players, including those with disabilities or impairments. It ensures that individuals with visual, auditory, motor, or cognitive limitations can fully participate in and enjoy the game. accessibility involves designing features and options that accommodate different needs, such as adjustable difficulty levels, customizable controls, subtitles or captions for hearing-impaired players, and colourblind-friendly visuals. (Torre & Khaliq, 2019).

The goal of usability and accessibility in game design is to create an inclusive and enjoyable experience for all players, regardless of their abilities. By considering usability, designers strive to make the game intuitive, easy to navigate, and immersive. Accessibility considerations aim to remove barriers and provide equal opportunities for individuals with disabilities to fully engage with the game content.

Despite great advancements when it comes to accessibility in video games, it has been reported that two- thirds (66%) of gamers with impairments or conditions, encounter obstacles or challenges in relation to gaming (Scope, no date). Scope further reported that the main obstacle being the high cost of obtaining appropriate assistive or adapted technology, as well as 40% of disabled gamers were not able to play a game that they have bought due insufficient accessibility features.

In terms of designing for usability and accessibility designers face a variety of challenges, some of the most common ones being:

Complex User Interfaces

Some games often feature intricate interfaces with many menus, buttons, and icons, which can be overwhelming for players. Simplifying the user interface without compromising the depth of the gameplay can pose a significant challenge.

Visual Design and Colour Contrast

Insufficient colour contrast or reliance on colour alone to convey information can create difficulties for players with visual impairments or colour blindness. Finding a balance between aesthetics and accessibility is crucial.

Text Size and Font Choices

Small text sizes and non-accessible font choices can pose challenges for players with visual impairments or reading difficulties. Ensuring adjustable text sizes and using clear, legible fonts is essential for readability.

Some ways to tackle these challenges include:

User-Centred Design
Chung has argued that a common mistake is “Not involving users with disabilities in the testing process.” (2022). By incorporate user research and testing throughout the game design process to gather feedback from players with diverse abilities. This approach allows designers to identify pain points and iteratively improve the design based on user needs.

Clear Feedback and Alternative Cues
Provide clear visual, auditory, or haptic feedback to ensure players understand the consequences of their actions. Incorporating alternative cues, such as sound effects or visual indicators, can enhance accessibility for players with different abilities.

Customization Options
Introduce customization features that allow players to adjust settings such as text size, colour schemes, sound levels, or control schemes. Providing flexibility empowers players to tailor the game to their specific needs and enhances accessibility.

In recent years there have been a few games that have overcome accessibility by incorporating extensive features and enabling the player to customize their own experience based on their personal needs.

One example is The Last of Us Part II (Naughty Dog, 2020), a game that offers a comprehensive suite of accessibility options, including customizable controls, high contrast mode, extensive subtitle options and HUD scaling. It also includes various accessibility pre-sets for vision, hearing, or motor accessibility (Accessibility options for The Last of Us Part II, no date). The features cater to a wide range of players, ensuring an inclusive and enjoyable experience.

Overall, The Last of Us Part II stands out as one of the most accessible games because of its dedication to providing a wide range of customizable features that cater to players with diverse abilities. The game's extensive accessibility options have set a new standard for inclusivity in the gaming industry, making it a benchmark for future game developers to strive towards.

God of War Ragnarök (Santa Monica Studio, 2022) showcases accessibility right from the start, ensuring players are aware of the available options. Examples are provided for most accessibility settings, giving players a clear understanding of how their experience will be affected. The game offers features like larger text sizes, colourblind options, high-contrast settings, and audio-related settings that are relayed through the speakers. Small touches in the game design, such as automatic pickup of health pickups or items, help reduce finger and joint fatigue during long play sessions. The game also allows for full control remapping, offering players the flexibility to customize controls according to their needs (Peeples, 2023).

When designing a video game, designing with a focus on usability and accessibility involves considering the needs of players with diverse abilities and creating features and options that accommodate those needs. By incorporating user-centred design, clear feedback and cues, customization options, and learning from successful examples like The Last of Us Part II and God of War Ragnarök, game designers can create inclusive and enjoyable gaming experiences to accommodate all players.

References

Accessibility in gaming report | Disability charity Scope UK (no date) Scope. Available at: https://www.scope.org.uk/campaigns/research-policy/accessibility-in-gaming/ (Accessed: 19 May 2023).

Accessibility options for The Last of Us Part II (no date) PlayStation. Available at: https://www.playstation.com/en-gb/games/the-last-of-us-part-ii/accessibility/ (Accessed: 19 May 2023).

Chung, E. (2022) Common accessibility testing mistakes designers are making, Medium. Available at: https://uxdesign.cc/the-importance-of-accessibility-testing-in-the-design-process-3f8c7f821880 (Accessed: 19 May 2023).

Naughty Dog (2020) The Last of Us Part II [Video game]. Sony Interactive Entertainment.

Peeples, J. (2023) Diamond Award 2022: God of War Ragnarök, Can I Play That? Available at: https://caniplaythat.com/2023/05/18/diamond-award-2022-god-of-war-ragnarok/ (Accessed: 19 May 2023).

Pinelle, D., Wong, N. and Stach, T. (2008, April) Heuristic evaluation for games: usability principles for video game design. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems (pp. 1453-1462).

Santa Monica Studio (2022) God of War Ragnarök [Video game]. Sony Interactive Entertainment.

Torre, I.D. and Khaliq, I. (2019, June) A Study on Accessibility in Games for the Visually Impaired. In 2019 IEEE Games, Entertainment, Media Conference (GEM) (pp. 1-7). IEEE.

Designing User Research

Week 11

For this week we were to design a user questionnaire and feedback form for one of our game projects of Experimental games.

I created a questionnaire using google forms with questions regarding the mechanics of the game, with a focus on the voice control system.

User Questionnaire form

https://forms.gle/GG8eT3m6xXZfZYA68

In the introduction I included a link to where the users could download the game and play it, encouraging at least 5 minutes of play time.

I wanted to access first whether users were able to complete the level and included a question where they could describe what kept them from doing so.

This would allow me to identify any game breaking issues.

I then wanted to access the ease of use of the voice commands, as they are the main method of movement and interaction in the game.

I further inquired about the voice commands in case any of the users had encountered any issues during their play through as well as the accuracy of the voice commands. As the game responds to specific keywords this would be critical information in order to make the voice commands more natural to use.

Other questions were with regards to the experience the user had when interacting with the game, for how the game felt and its level of challenge.

Survey Results

The game prototype Asylum Escape is a voice controlled escape room experience where the player needs to use their voice to direct the protagonist character to move, search for and use the right tools in order to escape. The player has access to a "Journal" where the voice commands are displayed along with an inventory section which shows the names of available items/tools the player can instruct the protagonist to use.

At the time of this blog post, 5 users have played the game and completed the form.

60% of the players successfully completed the game level with 40% not being able to.

Of the users that were not able to complete the level, half of the users reported not being able to complete the level has they were unable to move away from a certain point while the other half reported not figuring how to use the tools.

Regarding the voice commands, most players found them easy to understand and use, although a couple of players experienced delays or difficulties with the voice recognition. One player mentioned that their voice had to be deeper for the game to understand, and another player noted that the "walk/move" command did not always work.

In terms of accuracy, some players mentioned that the voice commands accurately reflected their intended actions, while others mentioned issues with the "stop/hold" command not being in time or the need for specific keywords for movement commands.

The overall experience was engaging and immersive for most players. Some players expressed a desire for a combination of voice commands and keys for better navigation, while others enjoyed the "escape room" vibes and the challenge of finding items and progressing in the game.

A few players mentioned feeling stuck or unsure of what to do at certain moments, particularly when voice commands didn't react in time or when they were unsure where to search for items. Additionally, one player mentioned a bug after the door section that prevented progress.

In terms of challenge, most players seemed satisfied with the level of difficulty, although one player mentioned it was too easy, and another player couldn't do anything, possibly due to a bug.

Recommendation Rating:

20% of respondents rated their likelihood to recommend the game as 3 out of 5.
20% of respondents rated their likelihood to recommend the game as 4 out of 5.
60% of respondents rated their likelihood to recommend the game as 5 out of 5.

Additional Comments and Feedback:

Players found the game innovative, fun, and engaging.
Some players mentioned that the game felt like it was trolling them and enjoyed the immersive experience.
One player mentioned not being able to solve the level, indicating a need for clearer instructions or guidance.
There was appreciation for the game being developed by someone known to one of the respondents, challenging stereotypes of game developers.
Suggestions were made to extend the game, fix delayed response bugs, add a co-op mode for multiplayer, and incorporate keyboard commands as an alternative to voice commands for better accessibility.

Overall, the majority of respondents had a positive experience with the game and were likely to recommend it, particularly with improvements and additions mentioned in the feedback.

Areas of improvement

Based on the feedback received there are various improvements that can be considered for the game.

The movement commands can be enhanced to address movement issues, while de delay when using fully voiced commands cannot be fully eliminated, better and more accurate voice commands can be added.
Clearer instructions and/or hints can be provided to players after a period of time when these are unaware of what do to, perhaps de addition of a tutorial level to teach the player how to interact with the game.
Address bugs that prevent player progression.
Consider adding keyboard commands as an alternative control method for better accessibility.
Extend the game to provide more content and levels, taking into account the positive feedback and desire for continued gameplay.

Additionally, incorporating a co-op mode for multiplayer can enhance the social aspect and enjoyment of the game.

By incorporating the suggestions and addressing the areas of improvement the game can be refined to deliver a more enjoyable and seamless experience.