Isekai Entertainment is a game studio founded in 2018. We are based in Seattle, WA, USA. We are a small indie team dedicated to bringing a first of its kind authentic JRPG experience to VR. Sword Reverie Early Access will launch in Spring 2021 . We are a small indie team dedicated to bringing a first of its kind authentic JRPG experience to VR. The team have spent 2 years working on Sword Reverie. We plan to start a Kickstarter which will allow us to engage even more with our passionate supporters and give us the funding we need to get across the finish line. To get more attention and optimized the game. The designer's task is to use a human-centered design process to improve the game experience and meet a successful Kickstarter in September.
Context
During my internship, we plan to launch a Kickstarter to engage with our passionate supporters and acquire funding. In order to launch a successful Kickstarter, as a designer, my task is to use a human-centered design approach to improve the game's current experience to attract the most funding.
Research
Survey
With thousands of users signing up for the playtests by joining our mailing list, we created an online survey to better understand and validate who our target user was.We already have information about the player's age and gender from Facebook, but we wanted to learn more about their gaming and anime experience as well as their motivations to be interested in Sword Reverie.
Synthesize Data
Sword Reverie aims to appeal to the achievement player type based on Bartel's and Quantic Foundries player model. However, since we are still in development and the progression system is not available yet, it was crucial to understanding what other player types exist in our users. Based on our research of what games our users played on VR, what anime and JRPG games they enjoy, and what excites them the most when they viewed our trailers we also identified the action and immersion type gamers
.We synthesized three key points in direct response to our proposed problem statement. This will guide our design process moving forward.
How might we
A successful Kickstarter requires funding from all our potential target audiences. With their interest narrowed down, the challenge of our team is to iterate and improve our current game into a version that would be the most appealing to them in a limited time.
Analysis
User Persona
To ensure we were designing for the right person (potential player, backer), we created these user personas generated from our research data. We constructed three types of players, who will be our potential Kickstarter backer.
The first user persona is based on the immersive player type.
The second user persona is based on the action player type.
The third user persona is based on the creativity and immersion player type.
Design Principle
To achieve the goal of our Kickstarter, these principles are especially crucial for us to follow for this project. We want to keep the community involved and ensure all design decisions were testable. Finally, we wanted to inspire our user base across the world with an anime-inspired story and gameplay they hope to see.
Design Requirements
We created our design requirements based on design principles to meet a better game experience and show up in our final Kickstarter deliverable.
<combat> </combat> 1 Show diversity combat in physic combat and elemental skills. <story, character=""></story,> 2 English CV for introducing characters and exploring plots. <immersive> </immersive> 3 Expanding world map and polishing the main scenes. <diversity> </diversity> 4 Show diverse gameplay by adding crafting and progression system in game. <inclusive> </inclusive> 5 Add Chinese and Japanese version of game and kickstarter deliverable.
Prototyping
Storyboard The final storyboard experience reflects how our final deliverable will directly solve the problem statement. Each of the six scenes will be a key moment of the users' play that should be prominently featured in trailers and marketing material.
Environment Design
Vertical slices of different environments also had to be built for play testing. Only environments users reported to enjoy playing in or wanted to see more of will be built out in detail for the final deliverable.
A tutorial process was also needed as an on-boarding process for new users, a bare boned version was created for internal testing, and future playtesting. We kept fidelity low so we have room for redesign and iterations.
Playtesting
Playtester Selection
We analyzed all 1066 playtesters in-depth for research purposes. Furthermore, we split the playtesters into various groups based on multiple variables such as VR hardware, gaming experience, excitement level, player type, CPU & GPU performance, etc., so we can create a stratified sample and be able to compare the different feedback from different groups.
Stakeholder Play Testing
From our filtered groups we found 25 steam VR playtesters and 25 oculus playtesters. They were then divided into 5 smaller comparison groups to understand how different player types with the same hardware and different hardware respond. How do players of the same hardware but different player types respond etc. With control groups established and set up, not only will we have painted a bigger picture of what we need to improve， but also a better understanding of which user personas reacted most positively or most negatively to our designs.
Expert Play Testing
It was also important to let professionals, ie other VR developers, try and critique the game. Since they might offer criticisms completely different from stakeholders. We had an opportunity to be invited by Oculus to test with six other VR developers, each developer responded in writing a report consisting of positive aspects, and aspects need improving, below are their synthesized responses.
After two weeks of in-depth testing from both stakeholders and professionals, four key points were identified. Flimsy sword combat, AI, and the combat system were too easy, the placeholder voice-over breaks immersion and too many technical bugs.
Optimization
Based on our user testing feedback, we optimized these features by redesign(excepted technical bugs).
Sword Weight Redesign
The current design of slowing the perceived sword swing and the controller was received extremely negatively by both stakeholders and professionals. However, the sword weight exists so that players can't just swing their arms around aimlessly. After multiple iterations, we realized the key is to make the physics feel good, rather than feel real. Therefore we proposed the redesign below.
Combat Redesign
With the sword weight redesigned, the combat system was next that needed an overhaul. The fundamental flaw of the combat system was that it lacked order and rules, without rules its hard to be strategic and hard to feel a sense of good vs bad. The new system creates limitations and rules which offers challenge and a sense of mastery.
Voice Acting & Sound Design
Based on the testing feedback, for our anime fans, story, and character lovers, we managed to appeal to them with our original cast of engaging characters. In the new demo, you will get to adventure with Magnus and learn the story behind the elemental invasion. These characters are fully voiced in order to keep the immersive player types satisfied.
Stella English CV - Kira Buckland English CV for 2B from Nier Automata and Reimi from Jojo, and more.
For our immersion driven player base, I was in this mixed reality trailer to showcase a world of action and excitement.
For our achievement players, a glimpse of our weapon progression system is here to inspire our backers of what is to come.
For our anime fans, story, and character lovers, we managed to appeal to them with our original cast of engaging characters. In the new demo, player will fight alongside Magnus and Stella in this epic adventure. Magnus will teach you the ropes of combat and abilities, while Stella will join you in the fight against the Elemental invasion. Stella will also be counting on your help to uncover the truth behind her parents’ death as your adventure unfolds.
Sword Reverie has a wide range of breathtaking environments to explore. These environments will draw interest from our immersive gamer types, who look forward to being the pioneers in exploring this fantasy realm.
Final Kickstarter Page (Fully Funded)
Kickstarter does not support an inclusive translating feature; we designed it around by building a fully translated and actionable copy of the Kickstarter page in Chinese and Japanese.
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