Kaijuice Wingsuit Event
Case Study
Summary
I conducted a targeted heuristic analysis to identify usability issues with the wingsuit in The Heist and The Hazardous DLC. To address these issues, I recommended context-sensitive tutorials, clarified event pathways, and balanced difficulty levels. These design improvements helped enhance player engagement and interaction with the wingsuit mechanic, aligning the gameplay with the initial design intentions and improving the overall player experience.
Situation
We got word from our publisher that players were not engaging with the wingsuit mechanic as intended in the overworld. This underutilization suggested a disconnect between the design, player interaction, and comprehension. It prompted the Missions team to develop a 5-sequence event to encourage its use during the Heist and The Hazardous DLC release.
Tasks
My goal was to evaluate the default usability of the wingsuit mechanic to enhance the in-game onboarding and tutorial sequences and better facilitate player understanding and engagement. Given various constraints, I determined that a targeted heuristic analysis was the most effective approach for identifying usability issues and guiding the necessary design adjustments.
Actions
I conducted a game-specific, customized heuristic analysis with a research colleague from GamesLab. This approach ensured a comprehensive evaluation from multiple perspectives.
Our analysis uncovered several significant usability challenges: the event's pathway was confusing with no clear endpoint, the difficulty levels spiked unpredictably, the wingsuit mechanics were inconsistently applied, and the instructions provided were too vague.
I compiled these insights into a detailed report that outlined the "5 biggest issues" and "5 solid wins," providing the product team with specific recommendations for improvement.
The original start of the wingsuit challenge. The mission was designed to take around 1 minute to complete, but I couldn't even finish it in three hours!
Results
The heuristic analysis illuminated critical design flaws that significantly hindered player engagement and understanding, particularly highlighting the overly complex and unclear pathway, difficulty, mechanics, and instructions.
Outcomes
The product team quickly implemented the recommended changes, significantly enhancing the player's onboarding experience and overall interaction with the wingsuit mechanic. This swift action resulted in:
Clear and intuitive event pathways with defined endpoints to guide players.
Tutorials seamlessly integrated into the game context to offer players timely and relevant guidance.
Smooth difficulty progression across the events, providing a more consistent challenge level that ramped up appropriately.
These improvements led to a more engaging and enjoyable player experience with the wingsuit mechanic, aligning with the original design intentions and encouraging greater utilization in the game's overworld.
After the changes were implemented (and, of course, polished for release).