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UI/UX Designer/Technical Artist
Snapimals & Jurassic GO
Platform
Mobile
Deliverables
Moderating design sprints
User Experience
Low fidelity wireframes
High/Low fidelity prototypes
High fidelity mockup
BebopBee is a small mobile game startup with a big impact in the gaming world. Their games like "Snapimals" and "Jurassic GO" won various gaming awards and have been featured under the "Best New Games" and "Best Games" category on the AppStore and Google Play store.
THE CHALLENGE
The mobile game category is the most competitive categories on the App Store. With over 200 new games submitted to the market every day. As a UI/UX 3D designer, I had the responsibility to help design a visually stunning game, that can keep players engaged and produce a profitable product. I faced many hurdles during the production cycle of the games, which can be categorized into three main categories.
Gameplay and progression
As a user/player experience designer, this is the crux of the game. To develop a progression flow which seems exciting without giving away too many game features. It's a unique balance to get players engaged and addicted to the gameplay. With the attention span of players reducing by the day, it is very important to keep them engaged at all times, otherwise, we risk the players losing interest.
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Virality
With social media at the forefront of any successful product, it is utmost important to have a viral feature in the game which players would want to share within their network. This is a difficult task, as it requires a strong motivation for the players to promote the app willingly.
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Marketing and recognition
Getting positive publicity and being featured on the app stores, media and blogs are highly dependent on the success and appeal of the product. Effective and efficient marketing strategy is required to move ahead of the crowd.
DESIGN CONTRIBUTION
3D Contribution
My primary tasks at BebopBee was to create 3D models and incorporate a digital skeleton system into the characters, through a process called rigging. Furthermore, I coded a python based tool to automate the character rigging process. Using this automation tool I was able to create 80 unique animal and human character for the games Snapimals and Jurassic GO.
A sample of game characters
UI Configuration
Next, I built wireframes for the game user interface to get a sense of user flow. Beyond this, I created a low-fidelity mock of the UI system in the 3D game engine, Unity. I then created UI prototypes using Invision and delivered the framework to the engineering team using in-house CMS. Additionally, I helped the UI/UX team to add animation and effects to the enhance the final design.
Concept sketche of the core UI loop
UI framework examples
KEY CONTRIBUTIONS
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Player Experience design and workflow
As an experience designer, my next role was to make sure the game was fun, engaging and most importantly set up to earn revenue. I contributed to developing and testing the core loop of the game, which is really important in retaining new users.
Core loop workflow
Player engagement
I played a key role in formulating and designing the two most engaging features in the game. Both these features analytically proved to be the deciding factor in keeping high DAU (Daily active users).
Quest
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I took initiative and help formulate a quest based system for the player onboarding. Quests were designed with an intention to give players direction and to keep players engaged via interesting puzzles and upgrades. They also motivated players by rewarding them with in-game currencies upon completion of each quest. Furthermore, I automated Daily quests using spreadsheets and JSON configurations and further incentivized the quests.
Quest feature to engage players
Achievements
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Achievements are the rewards that players receive once they complete a certain number of small goals. If quests are considered as short-term goals, then achievements are long-term goals with greater rewards. This feature enabled the user to foresee what lies ahead in the game and eventually gave them the motivation to keep playing.
Achievement feature to provide players with long-term goals.
In-App Purchase
The goal of any app is its ability to utilize the in-app purchase features for greater revenue. My contribution for this feature was to design weekly sale events, creating purchase bundles and implementation of the in-app purchase UI.
In-app marketing to boost app revenue
Virality
My contribution in the social aspect of the game enabled players to invite other friends from Facebook and share unique pictures from the game. I also took initiative and planned a seasonal twitter competition where players with a unique picture were rewarded big in-game currencies. This turned out to be a great success as many of the pictures were shared through word of mouth and the new players got introduced to the game.
Virality feature to share quirky animal pictures
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
My understanding of the game from its initial stages of development was a huge factor in the success of the product. I lead the research process by conduction player testing, unit testing, and refining through analytics. I was even part of the research and development phase of the game, which entailed a Virtual Reality version of the app that I represented at the LA VR Game conference.
Represented the game at LA VR Game Conference
Analytics
Post soft launch and release of the game in Canada and Australia, I analyzed the user data by using the traffic analytics software called Amplitude. I then helped tweaked game mechanics to prepare the game for global launch.
Product Launch
Post-launch helped the studio with game promotion by attending popular game conferences and by reaching out to game bloggers, influencers, and media personnel.
Foundation research
Researched areas related to the genre of the game, game progression, demographics and design aspects.
Competetive research
Conducted research to understand the competition. Playtested these games to understand the key features.
Formulated primary goals like leaderboards and quests which became an integral part of the game.
Workflow
Conducted A/B testing to understand the correct flow of the game, based on factors like attention span, fun, motivation, and narrative. Beyond this, I create a logical workflow to determine the core game loop.
Unit Testing
Lead a team of testing team in India, who were responsible for unit testing of the game and opening bug reports. I was responsible for providing guidance to the testing team as well as assign bug tickets to the responsible team members. Quality assurance was a big aspect of this stage.
User Story mapping
Analyzed conclusion based on playtests conducted by organized players. I was responsible for setting testing requirements like demographics, country, language, and devices. Furthermore, I suggested creative functionalities based on player test analysis.
IMPACT
The game on global launch was a huge success with over a Million downloads in the first few months. The app got multiple features under different categories, including the "Best New Games" and "Games We Love" category on AppStore. The game received similar recognition on the Google PlayStore and Amazon store.
Snapimals featured on the Apple AppStore
The app reviews confirmed that the game was a huge success and people loved the game globally. The reviews and suggestions from players indicated that they wanted a paid version of the game, which would have no free-to-play friction. This gave me an opportunity to lead studio's second game called, Jurassic GO The game was a great success as well and received an overwhelming response and high praise. In the following months both the games were featured on the various news, gaming blogs, and by Youtube influencers.
Reviews on the Apple AppStore
Reviews on the Google Play store
Media
My contribution as a User Experience designer, Technical Director and as an artist was noticed by various gaming blogs and media websites.
My interview with AdWeek. Read the article HERE
My interview with Gamasutra a leading game blog. Read the article HERE
Download the games
To download the game please follow the links below.
Snapimals AppStore
Jurassic GO AppStore
Snapimals Google Store
Jurassic GO Google Store
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