Project Cygni
Genre: 4X/strategy
What it was: Project Cygni was an ambitious-yet-unreleased science fiction 4X game with strong narrative elements
What I was responsible for: Layout, flow, iconography, playtesting, player research, prototyping, wireframing, some game + systems design, UI and brand visual design, and more as the team's lone UI+UX designer
1. Research Screen
Process 1: Experimental flows produced to help the team in understanding the complex fit and finish of the various systems we were developing - helping designers understand dynamics and engineers work out structure
Process 2: "Yeah, that sounds about right"
Process 3: Developing visual structure, both as an input to UI, but also to work usability, ergonomics, and early validation for the stickiness of systems as they were being developed
Process 4: After some internal and external playtesting and validation, work began on structure + interaction details
Demo Layout
Having settled on a working game design, I began the work of bringing the visual design into line with the overall design system + experience. This involved thinking even more deeply about interaction states and the various communication pathways required to connect and communicate with players.
2. Leader Select Screen
Process 1: Simple concept map to help align the team around the psychological nuts n' bolts of the design
Process 2: Experimenting with dataviz approaches, balancing clarity with the evolving crunchiness of the designs being developed
Process 3: Imagining alternate ways to structure + frame player decision-making, getting a sense of look + feel possibilities
Process 4: Coalescing around an initial layout
Demo Layout
After prototyping, playtesting, and extensive team conversation we landed on a streamlined leader-focused design for our internal demo/vertical slice.
3. Assorted Screens
City Info Screen
Build Menu
Research Complete Modal
Proposed "Chronometer" system, to help alleviate a common 4X player problem of remaining grounded in the play sequence (and the related problem of the unstructured 'soft middle' of big strategy games)
Fun Team Activity: Get the team into Figma and have everyone make their own 'bento box' of how they imagine the HUD should look
Icon pile! This being such a sociopolitically-minded game, we wanted to take care with what idioms we were invoking throughout the design
"Narrative Cadance" Chart: Intended to help align team on understanding of narrative structure
4. Research
Out of sensitivity to privacy needs, there's much of the many and myriad team activities, playtests, research sessions, surveys, etc. that I led which can't be shown here - but here's a small taste to give a sense of process and player-focused thinking.
"Design Kunai" - Extended from the 'double diamond' divergence-convergence model of design process. Shared mental models are incredibly important for a team! "All models are wrong, some are useful"
Finding early playtest categories - 'playing tall' and 'playing wide' are well-known patterns of play in 4X games. This shows us attempting to build a sense of player motivation
Persona Development: As an output of playtesting and player interview, I decided that our personae should be behavior and motivation-driven rather than demographic, i.e. engaging with complex systems is less about who you are and more about what you need
5. Branding Gallery
In addition to UX, UI, research, and other design tasks, I also headed Threshold Game's branding initiative, from name and voice brainstorming through to the production of brand assets and style guides.
