Red Dust - Indie Game

competitive analysis

The success stories are the best teacher for the existing mental model.

The three most relevant successful games that align with this genre are Oxygen Not Included, RimWorld, and Space Haven.

While gameplay design is the ultimate driver for success, the UX of the interface and the initial interactions also play a significant role in guiding the player to discover all that the game has to offer

understanding the niche

Watching streamers play - a view from the user’s perspective

I picked 3 streamers for each of the 3 competitors that played the games for the first time.

The objective is to see how the players interact with the UI, what are the pain points and struggles, how they perceive the experience.

key takeaways

What I learned from all the research.

Cognitive affordances are essential, especially in a devoted niche.

None of the first-time players understood that the 'dice' button indicated character randomization. They assumed that the inability to customize the characters was an intended limitation."

Competitor’s better approach:
A separate button with text communicating exactly what it does is a much better approach.

Exploiting the already established mental model with its signifiers is a must.

Innovating can be exciting, but when it comes to such complex games with often steep learning curves, making the navigation familiar is important. The tabs are: Map, Crew Management, Systems, Attack, Overview and Data logs.

Competitor’s better approach:
Clear tabs, with descriptive text.

Strive for recognition instead of recall.

Two players needed to open the same tutorial hint more than twice in order to recall the indicated location of the item they needed. Make tab names relevant, with as little steps to follow as possible.

Competitor’s better approach:
The player has less to remember in order to accomplish the task, the menu is easier to navigate.
Another improvement might be highlighting the tab where the player needs to find the instructed object.

Cognitive load is important, the visual hierarchy of the UI should reflect that.

There is no hierarchy, and no feedback on what tab is opened.

Competitor’s better approach:
All the routine tasks can be accomplished using on-screen tabs/buttons. Also, there is a great hierarchy from big buttons for tools to the smaller ones for overlays.

Who is the user

With a specific genre, comes a specific player.

After infiltrating through Reddit comments, Steam reviews, Twitch streams, watching Youtube videos of people playing and enjoying the genre i came to understand that there are two types of players:

1. “The Engineer typology” - pro player

- like autonomous discovery of game mechanics
- already have mental models to guide them though the game
- like structured information, subtle guidance
- high tolerance to failure

“ Each time your colony fails you learn a new lesson and survive just a bit longer. Eventually you get comfortable enough to not check food/oxygen/heat/power every few minutes... Then one of those runs out/fails... I really enjoy the puzzle and I am slowly getting better and better at it. Once you start automating things the game gets really interesting! Lots of Depth and Logical Thinking. ”
- Oxygen Not Included

“ The game guides players in part via its research tree, which is quite vast and allows significant player choice in terms of research order. “
- Oxygen Not Included

2. “The Hobbyist typology” - casual player

- like slower paced gameplay
- needs guidance
- lower tolerance to frustration
- easily overwhelmed

“ The game is extremely hostile to new comers. And this isn't the welcomed hostility of "discover this on your own". This is the bad hostility, of: this game was built up with the community and you came too late to pick it all up. Branching research tree? forget about that, let's just give you all the technology possiblities at once so you can bet on what looks important even thought you don't know anything. ”
- Oxygen Not Included

“ More like "Instructions Not Included. Didn't seem remotely interested in telling me how to play once they had my money. Tutorials are so busy being artsy and cute, they forget to provide you with any context. Maybe it's just too much game for what I was looking for, but the learning curve is a perpendicular line. ”
- Oxygen Not Included

Red Dust’s target user is the Engineer , as this typology makes most of the devoted genre consumer.

ideation

Focusing on the main screen, merging the expectations with the product’s needs.

The main screen menu component requirements:

1. Tools - mine, cancel, destruct, priority
2. Building - base, power, oxygen, furniture, stations, food
3. Time- speed management, current time
4. Colony Management - schedule, priority,
5. Overlays - rooms, comfort, light, power, temperature, oxygen, co2, toxicity3D
6. Overlays - 3 variants
+ Alerts
+ Tutorials

Specific considerations:

- Determine and exploit the existing mental model
- Use already established icons and language conventions
- Description on hover are used often
- Keep in mind game-play hierarchy needs

Together with the product owner/ software engineer, we ideated the design for the main screen. I took the two best designs back in Figma and made them a mid-level fidelity wireframe, in order to visualize them better.

Why we designed this way? See below the reasonings:
‍
- The main layout follows the structure of the most successful competitor ;
- The bottom is allocated to the most frequently used tabs, as it is the most accessible;
- The two overlays (Overlay and X-Ray) are grouped together, as the law of proximity requires;
- The time menu is also very important, but from the research, I found that a lot of the players use the “SPACE” shortcut in order to pause/start the time in the game. This is why a very accessible position can be compromised.

Cristina Atzberger

Red Dust - an indie game in development.

Company

Role

Timeline

Team

Problem Statement

How might we guide the player through an immersive adventure tailored to the niche?