How to Improve Video Game's User Experience?
8 min read
Video games are products designed to provide entertainment. Their creation requires constant polishing of content. Sometimes even a complete rebuilding of each element is necessary in order to provide players with as much satisfaction as possible from a defeated boss, winning a race, or simply exploring prepared locations.
For this purpose, designers often use various hidden mechanisms and other tricks - to maximize the user experience.
Table of Contents:
What Is User Experience?
User Experience (UX) is the whole experience of playing our game—from important gameplay mechanics to little details in the navigation menu. This design field focuses on the psychology, thinking process, and user behavior (in this case — the player). UX always puts a user first and refers to different cognitive aspects such as functional or emotional expectations. UX knowledge helps you elevate the game's experience to the next level. That's why you should take care of it during the game development process.
Why Is UX Crucial to Make an Enjoyable Game?
Players rarely do what game developers think they will do. That's why it is essential to learn a thing or two about UX to understand how players truly think or how they will behave. Sometimes minor changes make a significant impact on the whole experience.
Good UX should be invisible; it smoothly carries the player through the story. Bad UX, on the contrary, may even spoil all the game's fun, and some players may never finish the game leaving unfavorable reviews.
How to Check If UX Is Working?
No matter how good the concept seems to be on paper, whether a game is exciting and satisfactory can only be checked by actually playing it. Even the perfect game design needs testing.
For this purpose, numerous prototypes and testers are necessary. Their responsibility is to check all the elements and list the necessary changes precisely to improve the user experience.
They should ask questions like:
All of the things mentioned above are essential aspects of good UX in a game. The lack of any of them may radically lower the overall experience and enjoyment. Big companies employ teams of testers; however, the size of a team is always adjusted to the size of a video game.
Why Are Hidden Mechanics Used in Video Games?
The goals may vary depending on the genre and objectives of the game. Most often, such mechanics serve to improve the overall user experience by:
As you can see, these points are essential to make games truly exciting and enjoyable. Game designers' job is to choose which design elements should be made better to create a truly immersive experience.
It's worth noticing that there isn't one standard, one set of rules that all game designers use. Many design decisions are motivated by a specific project, and every studio in the video game industry implements these elements slightly differently.
Video game design is not an easy job, but fortunately, there are tools and rules which are a huge help, especially for inexperienced developers.
Hidden Mechanics Improving User Experience in Video Games
Coyote Time
The term Coyote Time came from the Road Runner cartoon, where characters who ran over the edge of a cliff fell only after a moment of being suspended in the air.
In video games, the term means an additional fraction of a second to perform an action (e.g., to jump, to block an opponent's strike), which allows for greater responsiveness of controls and compensates for the imperfect reaction time. This is a particularly popular procedure in platform games.
The change may be unnoticeable when you do not know about it, but it's one of the standard game mechanics used in game development.
Higher Value of the Last Health Point
This solution is especially useful in games that focus on fast-paced action. Killing an enemy with the last health point gives the feeling of narrowly avoiding death, resulting in greater satisfaction in defeating the virtual opponent.
The conclusion is obvious: if we slightly increase the actual value of the last percent of the health bar, the player will experience such "happy twists of fate" a little more often. A similar solution is sometimes used with the damage dealt by the last bullet in the magazine of the weapon the player holds.
Weakening Off-Camera Enemies
Attacking from behind means that the player has no chance of defending himself. This is why in many games off-camera opponents deal less damage, are less accurate, or even do not attack at all - thus reducing the chance of a surprise death, which would seem to be unfair.
Overlooking this may result in a feeling of unfairness. No matter how beautiful the game is or how intriguing the plot is — there's no satisfaction in playing an unfair game.
Warning Shot
In the Bioshock games, each enemy's first shot always misses. This mechanic is designed to give the player a chance to react to an unexpected attack and quickly take action.
Contrary to appearances, it is hard to notice that such a procedure takes place at all during the actual game!
Limiting Enemies
This is a relatively common method of balancing crowd combat. Very often, despite many enemies on the screen, a maximum of two or three of them can attack simultaneously.
Not only does this make the game easier without spoiling the illusion of a significant threat, but it also strengthens the feeling that the player is controlling a character that can easily beat an entire room filled with hostiles.
Other Means of Improving User Experience In Video Games
Game design is a broad topic, so we cannot cover everything in one single article. However, there are more things that will help you and your development team create better video games.
Coherent Artistic Vision
It is a critical aspect of game design. Although in smaller studios, the artists take care of this aspect of production, the game designer's idea suggests a general direction in which the production will go.
That is why it is necessary to describe the game project as precisely as possible so that the elements of the presented world— sounds, music, surroundings, objects, and characters — fit together as well as possible.
Simplicity And Intuitiveness of the Mechanics
Just like an uneven audiovisual setting, an unnecessary complex mechanics and their number may seem daunting. If there are too many of them, they can simply overwhelm the player. The mechanics should be transparent enough to be represented with a minimal amount of visual hints.
In most cases, if something cannot be explained quickly or with minimal help of a written tutorial— it is simply not working. One of the main pillars of UX is accessibility, and every developer should keep this in mind.
Clarity of the User Interface
The clever design of the user interface is another important point. The less unnecessary interface your game has, the better - it is much easier then to immerse into the created world.
In addition, the number of information about the game you can convey using colors, distinctive elements of the environment, level of design, or dialogues is one of the signs of a well-thought-out game design and proves the high quality of your production.
User Experience and Game Design
Game developers strive to constantly improve UX in every possible field. Even the slightest change affects the final reception of the game and the feelings accompanying the gameplay.
It should be remembered that the basis of a good user experience is a solid game design - no tricks can replace it. Let's treat them just as a way to improve an already good product.
Next time you test your game, think about increasing the dodge distance or the speed of switching weapons a little bit? Perhaps such a small change will significantly improve the game's dynamics, and you will end up with a much better product!
What would you like to achieve. Our experts will answer on your all questions.
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