✏️ reflections
Edge Cases:
Something that I wish I would've considered more heavily are edge cases. Considering such things as: if the player selects the "NEW" filter and they exit the menu and later returns to the same menu, would they still see everything under the same "NEW" filter? Edge cases are an important consideration the UX gaming world, as it allows transparency in what potential possibilities the players might encounter and how might we, as designers, accommodate and react to those actions to provide the smoothest and best gaming experiences possible.
Long story short, I am a new player in the world of Fromsoftware's amazing line of games, and they are known to be EXTREMELY difficult games (Dark Souls series). After spending about 100 hours playing and beating the game, I found myself reflecting on all the positive and negative aspects of the game. My two world collided, UX and gaming, and I decided to focus on researching and designing aspects that might improve the overall game!
Empathy matters:
Coming into this case study project, my goal was to sit down and find ways to make this amazing game even better. As a new player to the genre, I found it rather difficult to use the menu system. Watching youtube guides and reading online articles has informed me that player's attitudes towards the designs were rather laxed, most have stated the following, “that’s just classic Dark Souls” and "It's always been like that".
However, I believe that it's important to understand the developer's the creator's vision when designing Elden Rings. It was an utmost importance to me that I approached this case study project with an empathetic and understanding approach of all player bases as well as the intentions of the game's design.