Working off of Feedback
In my previous blog I discussed the feedback we received during the UI/UX pitch from Incendiary Blue and after receiving this feedback the team got together to discuss the feedback and try to work out what we needed to do next to take on the feedback given from IB and how we could turn our already existing system into something that was more User friendly and simple to use.
What made the cut?
So after some discussion with the team we decided on what elements we were going to try and keep from our existing system for selecting magic, and what we were going to drop. The first thing that the team unanimously decided on was that we were going to keep the idea of somehow using elemental crystals to allow the players to select their power and having the power run out on those crystals after the player expends the use of the crystal.
We decided however that the biggest problem that needed cut was the whole idea of taking the crystal out of your hand and placing it just above the hand as upon further reflection the team as a whole thought it was just too many steps that the player had to take in order to simply cast magic. So I took a step back and began developing a new system.
The new magic selection system
When it came to my own thought process for designing this new system I wanted to try and see what I could salvage from the previous system but still use to improve and simplify the system as a whole. So these were the main elements I kept:
- Elemental Crystals
- Magical Circle
- Draining Mana/Magic System
From these three elements that I was able to salvage I then went to work brainstorming ideas for creating a magic selection system that wasn't as complicated as the previous. The first idea I had in my head was to try and work with a more linear menu system that would still be diegetic but all the ideas and designs that I came up with were too generic/boring to use in concept. A few days after the pitch however while I was on sketching ideas on the train home from University, I felt I hit a good middle ground of simplicity and complexity.
The above image was what I had sketched on the train, When I was sketching it I was trying to re-do an old sketch that I had done back in the early stages of development and when I had finished I looked at the image and had the idea that it almost looked like a weapon wheel.
Taking an idea forward
This then sparked a whole host of ideas for how it could be used but it was only one answer to a two part equation as I had got a general idea for the choosing which magic the player wanted to use however I still had to tackle the problem of how the player would then choose to activate that power.
I honestly can't recall exactly what triggered the idea however the idea of when the player was holding the crystal after choosing it and crushing it or absorbing it into their hand felt like the perfect idea as the whole process had been simplified and it felt like a much more fluid system from a player standpoint as there wasn't as many physical motions that the player had to perform in order to activate the magic.
After the idea was in its first draft I told the team that I would have some XD documentation ready for our next weekly developer update presentation, so that we could show how we took on the main critical feedback that was given to us during our pitch and how we worked to better our project. So after a day of creating these wireframes I presented the idea to the team and the feedback was all around a success, we were all in agreement that the system had been improved from what it once was.
(Above is a video showing how it translated to being in game - Holly Boyle)
The feedback we received from the pitch really did go on to help improve our overall product as sometimes you need a fresh pair of eyes to see what is wrong with something and having that pitch was the eye opener that we needed to understand how the team needed to progress.
The team as a whole did an incredible job when it came to taking on this feedback and implementing it into a new design entirely as I know that it was something that would have been hard for Josh as he had spent such a long amount of time trying to get the first system to work only to have to have it changed, but he bounced back really well from it. The whole team did...
Comentarios