ALTERNATE REALITY GAME DESIGN
Provide excellent Alternate Reality Experience with user experience design
Project Abstract
This project is about creating an Alternate Reality Game(ARG) which is an interactive networked narrative that uses the real world as a platform and transmedia storytelling to deliver a full story that may later be altered by the players' actions and ideas. The game requires players to engage in a collaborative storytelling, interact with character, other players and storyline elements to solve clues and unlock information to win the game. With a team of 3 designers, we have conducted a series of user research such as creating scenarios and usability tests. This has allowed us to later enhance the overall player experience resulting in increased user engagement.
ABOUT THE ARG GAME
PROBLEM STATEMENT
The purpose of this project was to design an alternate reality game(ARG) that has a playful, engaging and believable narrative with providing highly usable and accessible multi platform experience. Our goal was not just providing excellent ARG experience but also wanting to promote the game and increase the user engagement through our user based research.
USERS & AUDIENCE
Our primary target users are the people who enjoy puzzle games or multimedia interactive games and they are called the players. However, players are typically divided into two groups: experienced players seeking for fresh content, and newcomers who may know nothing about the ARG game.
ROLES & RESPONSIBILITY
The team consisted of three interaction design students and my role was mainly focused on the game development and user interface/experience design while others are cooperatively in charge of creating interesting narrative and user experience design. We usually gathered together and worked on the project on a weekly routine to make sure everything was on the schedules.
Initial planning phase
Alternate Reality Games use complex stories told across multiple media formats. Each element, activity, technical component and media artifacts are evaluated by how it impacts the gameplay experience and interaction between the players. We needed to carefully plan out the development tactics and methodology. We started by defining our goals, objectives, and preliminary schedule and then we prepared for a series of user research in order to understand our target users.
Building the game flow
The flow of the game is designed as a story timeline that has a start and different possible events and actions can be triggered by the players. Designing a game is very much about keeping players in the flow and eventually being able to finish the game. If a game has bad flow, players will often get stuck or lost during the game because they have lost the clues that telling them what to do next. Creating a user scenario would give us a better understanding of how the players would interact with the story and the game in order to effectively plan our storyline. In the meanwhile, we also wanted to encourage the collaboration and interaction between all players. A good gameplay experience can be contributed by a smooth storyline and the game flow.
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Developing the game interface
The game consisted of two parts: examine the real-world object with interactable media artifacts and 3D scenario simulation running on digital devices. I have spent the most part in creating the interface of the 3D scenario with the game engine Unity. Usability or the playability is the primary concern in the design. To create an interface that aligns with user behavior, I have conducted research to know what the style or interface most of the players have already adapted in other games.
Launching the game for feedback/usability test
After the game is ready to play, we decided to launch the game to the public and receive feedback from players. This would help us to address some of the potential problems that existed but was not obvious to us as game developers. The game was out and we have received useful feedback and gained insights about how we could improve the gameplay to make it more accessible to all players.