In this expansion we introduced players to Struggles, a new system that allows players to be immersed in long lasting regional conflicts. We used the system to recreate the conflict between faiths and cultures that happened in Iberia, and led to the Reconquista.
My Responsibilities as UX Designer for Crusader Kings III
Design Research & Workshops
Research of the aesthetics we want the players to experience and how to embody them through features. I also explore how other media has approached similar features and use mood boards to map the design space.
Persona Analysis & User Flows
Analyzing different personas and their motivations to map how they will interact with the features. I worked on creating user flows to make sure we had every step of the player journey in mind when designing the features.
Framing & MVP Definition
I worked with Game Direction, and Leads to define which features are needed to deliver the desired experience to the players. I set the minimum requirements to guarantee a usable, inclusive and enjoyable end-product.
Implementation Plan
Design how players will perceive and interact with the features, creating an implementation plan for all disciplines. This is done with wireframes, design breakdowns, prototypes, among other resources.
Designing the Struggle system
Here I can share the design process of creating the Struggle System. I was in charge of designing the user experience (UX) to deliver a clear implementation plan for the Code, Art, and Audio teams.
Materializing Struggles
Design exploration on immersive conflicts and player agency
As the main feature of the release, we wanted to create an immersive system that delivered on the player fantasy of dealing with prolonged regional conflicts.
I worked with Game Direction on documenting what we wanted the features to be and how the player would interact with each part of the conflict. During this process, a few things were clear: Players would go through phases and their actions would escalate or deescalate the conflict. With that in mind, we had to make sure players knew the following:
- What is currently happening in the conflict.
- How can they affect the conflict.
- The effects of escalating or deescalating the conflict.
- What actions they can take to end the conflict.
Information Structure Vs Detailed Wireframes
Information Structure
After we identified the key information the players needed and the main interactions, I created a visual representation of all the elements, starting with the map of the region, and the information. I organized workshops to determine the hierarchy of the information and how it should flow.
Wireframe Iterations
On later stages, I worked on a more refined wireframe that depicted examples of the information players would need to play through struggles. It was crucial to communicate that all involved characters can affect the Struggle, not just the player.
Onboarding
teaching players how to access and use the new features
Once the design of the features was defined I worked with the team on how to make them usable and accessible. This means adding, removing elements to the game design and in some cases reworking the features together. In the end we ended up with clear flows of how players would organically discover the features in their playthrough.
We planned several tactics for player guidance, starting with a Struggle onboarding event that introduces not only the theme of the Struggle but also key concepts and interactions. After this first contact with the feature, we added optional tutorials and player aids to make sure they could find and understand what is a struggle, why they should interact with it, and how to do so.
Affordances & Documentation
Documenting UX for implementation
Adding new features also means that players have more things to keep tabs of, which can lead to player exhaustion or sensory overload. To make sure that the Struggles were fun and usable I worked with the Code and Audio teams to define how the game and interfaces would behave and sound.
We added visual affordances accompanied with sound effects for the new Struggle indicator to have all the information about the conflict centralized. This design also helped make sure that players could tell when something was happening in the struggle that required their attention.
Another layer necessary to make sure players could easily get an overview of the struggle were the tooltips. We created now Tooltip widgets and behaviors so players could find the right information with just a mouse hover.
