Give Me An “A”
Give Me An “A” is a web-based game that was made for 2023 Global Game Jam. We were given 48 hours to create a game with the theme “Root”.
YEAR
February 2023
TEAM
Programmers: Donny Wu, Andy Wu, Alvin Ho
Character Artist: Jeremy Ho
Background Artist: Mike Ko
UX/UI: Reina Kim
Music: Abby Hoekstra
Click the button below go to the game page on itch.io 🡫
Project Summary.
PROJECT TASK
To create a a web-based game in 48 hours with the theme “Root”
MY ROLE
To manage the user experience of the game by communicating with the programmers and designing/creating the user interface objects
Ideation.
IDEA DEVELOPMENT
We held a brainstorming session before the Game Jam about what kind of game we would like to create. Once the theme of the game was released, we choose to interpret the game in the context of “I am ROOTing for you”. We then spent about 5 hours discussing what the game play would look like and decided to make a game where the players can adjust limbs of cheerleaders to create a set of letters of the alphabet that creates a message.
A character illustration drawn by teammate Jeremy. Each body limbs were drawn on a separate layer in order to allow separate configuration.
UX/UI Design.
INTERACTIVITY DESIGN
As a UX designer, I was tasked with making the decision of how the players will interact with the game. The original idea pitched from the programmers was to make limb selection with keyboard and move the selected limb using arrow keys. I found that this would create a confusion because once the limbs are collapsed, it would be hard to distinguish which limb is selected. It would also create an awkward experience of having to roll through a set of limbs in a preset order while trying to find the exact piece the player wants to control. Going in and out of editing mode and selecting mode also seemed less intuitive.
A solution to this user experience issue that I proposed was to use mouse interactions instead of keyboard.
This is the final interaction guideline our team settled with:
Left Click: Twist a body part
Right Click: Move the whole body
Space: Go to the next Cheerleader
Using double space instead of single space was proposed by me to minimize interaction error, but this was not implemented due to time constraints of the Game Jam.
A user instruction created by me. It would display as an interface element when the player is on the first stage.
USER INTERFACE DESIGN
Creating the interface of the game that is both aesthetically pleasing and easy to interact with was my main goal of this project. I utilized online resources to create a mock UI layout. This process helped me communicate my idea to the programmers and artists.
LOGO and START SCREEN
I created the logo of the game and made the elements needed for the start screen using Photoshop.
Final UI Prototype.
The final UI prototype was created on Photoshop using illustration files created by the art team. I added progress boxes to allow the users to see how many letters they have left. Icons on the bottom were removed due to development time constraints.
The background image was drawn by teammate Mike. I used the hand illustration made by teammate Jeremy to create an image of a hand holding a stopwatch. The stopwatch illustration was made by me using Illustrator.
The instruction guidelines and tutorial box was made using Photoshop.
Progress Photos.
Here are some photos of my team working on the game during the 48 hours crunch session. We worked on the game together in-person at teammate Alvin’s house. The submission and presentation for the Game Jam was done online.
Reflection.
CHALLENGES
Working in a tight schedule of 48 hours was easily one of the most stressful working environment I was in. Many teammates stayed up the entire night to finish their tasks. Choosing what to develop in such a narrow time frame became very important because not everything we wanted could be made within 48 hours. As a user experience designer it was my role to make such decisions. I made careful considerations to decide on the scope of the project and tasks we decide to implement.
POSSIBLE FUTURE ITERATIONS
There are many features we wanted to implement but could not due to time constraints such as adding animation for the start screen and making the first-level timer infinite. Fixing user errors and programming bugs that are reported after the public release would be important as well. Publishing the game so that it is playable on mobile devices is also something I want to work on in terms of game usability on different devices which would require me to design new ways to interact with the game.