A Mystery Unfolded
Overview
What is it?
​An origami puzzle platformer cosy game in which you are a pig detective solving the central mystery of who stole artwork before an exhibition.
Skills used
User research
Digital field research
Commercial / Marketing research
Teamworking
Agile sprints and iterative processes
Miro
HackNPlan
Timeline
10 weeks
Group Project
Main role UX Researcher
Secondary role level and sound designer
Group work
We were five person team consisting of two game developers, two ux researchers and one visual (including UI) designer and our supervisor, together we made up Pixel Cirkus.
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My role was primarily as a UX researcher, looking into who our audience would be and how we would position ourselves in the games market. I also enjoyed dabbling in the puzzle / level and sound design that went into the game as this was a chance to try something completely new!
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We worked as a remote, digital team with a flat hierarchy approach and used several digital tools such as Miro, MS Teams and HackNPlan to keep ourselves aligned on the team mission. We worked with very short sprints, sometimes two in a week as we had biweekly meetings and were trying to complete tasks between them. At times the workload was a bit overwhelming but understanding what each member was bringing to the team fostered trust. Initially, communication challenges and role clarity issues caused friction, but over time, the team learned to collaborate more effectively and trust each other.​
Research
Our game was a cosy puzzle platform game – cosy games and puzzle games are highly popular genres that appeal to a large age range and demographic. Due also to the unique combination of game mechanics (puzzle, detective, story-focused, cosy, platformer, origami art style), lack of available channels for direct contact with cosy gamers and time pressure – direct user behaviour data was scarce. Instead, I did some digital field research and focused on player motivations and the context they operate in rather than a specific demographic or user group. This understanding of our gamers could also give insight into guiding the marketing strategy.
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This was done through a variety of methods: reading about cosy games, spending time on a cosy game Discord server (Wholesome Games) to observe how people behave, researching player motivations to understand what brings gamers back to a game time and time again and looking into the market position of puzzle and cosy games.
INSIGHTS
Immersion and creativity are strong motivators for players with elements such as design, story, fantasy and discovery/exploration within the game pulling people back. This game should work to make itself known to players who enjoy low-stress task completion, rich storytelling and solo play.
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Cosy games define themselves by player emotions rather than specific mechanics, requiring a design that fosters safety, inclusivity, engagement and authenticity both from the game and for the players. The marketing and communication should also be inclusive to foster a sense of community, especially as more gender non-conforming people occupy these spaces.
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Cosy gamers value personal expression and a sense of belonging.
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Whilst cosy game designers do not design games with a demographic in mind, these kinds of games have historically been skewed towards and have more uptake with a female audience due to targeted ads.
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Gamers operate as a tight-knit community that rely heavily on word-of-mouth for recommendations. Tapping into spaces such as the Wholesome Game conference and other online cosy gaming communities will foster organic growth and interest in the game.
Outcomes
The research findings shaped the game’s design and guided other teammates’ decisions:
The visual designer knew to focus on soft aesthetics and natural elements to link to safety and authenticity.​
The story designer knew to create strong NPC personalities to enhance the storytelling and immersion. As well as we explored personal self-expression through different hats for the main character that would unlock as the story progressed.​
The level design was done in such a way that no puzzle was impossible and the player always got as many chances as required to complete the puzzle. They could also simply ignore the main puzzle and explore the world without it affecting them negatively, there were mini games embedded into the game and the space was created to be pleasant and encourage exploration linking back to discovery and immersion.
The sound design also followed these principles and was created using only natural materials to reflect the importance of authenticity.
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As a joint effort with other user research that team mates has conducted, we created the below main gamer persona to guide our game development.
The planned release strategy includes:
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Leveraging online spaces that the cosy community operate in like the Wholesome Games conference and social media (Instagram, Tiktok, Youtube and Twitch).
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Using inclusive language to align with the values of the cosy gaming community.
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Releasing on PC and Switch as PC is a natural home of puzzles (ESA 2022), and the Switch has become a community favourite for cosy gamers since the astronomical success of Animal Crossing: New Horizons during the pandemic.
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Expanding out into merchandise which is in-keeping with cosy game principles and the game itself of soft pillows, origami sets of the characters and sticky notes and bookmarks.
Setbacks and challenges
Working as remote team with a flat hierarchy was at times difficult because there was time pressure whilst people were very conscious not to step on each other’s toes and so decisions could take a while to make, if we could do it again I would either propose for there to be a team leader or else a less ambitious project as the workload got to a few team members.
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Not being able to work with cosy gamers directly was also a challenge, but learning to find useful information even without contact with our intended audience is a useful skill to develop that will come in handy again in the future.
Takeaways
If time is short, having a pre-approved team leader that people trust can make everything work more smoothly.
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Also, even though direct contact with users is the richest source of information, there are lots of opportunities to glean secondary information through digital field research too.
References
ESA. 2022. ‘2022 Essential Facts About the Video Game Industry’ [report]. Available at: https://www.theesa.com/resource/2022-essential-facts-about-the-video-game-industry/ [Accessed: 11th July 2023]
SHORT X Tanya, Anthony ORDON, Dan HURD, Chelsea HOWE, Jake FORBES, Squirrel EISERLOH, Joshua DIAZ and Daniel COOK. 2017. ‘Coziness in Games:An Exploration of Safety, Softness, and Satisfied Needs’. Report compiled as part of The Twelfth Annual Game Design Think Tank Project Horseshoe 2017. San Antonio, Texas, 2017. Available at: https://www.projecthorseshoe.com/reports/featured/ph17r3.htm [accessed 11th July 2023]
WHOLESOME GAMES DISCORD COMMUNITY. 2023. [website invite to join the discord server associated to the Wholesome Games conference]. Available at: https://discord.com/invite/hCfc37p [accessed 11th July 2023]
YEE, Nick. 2020. ‘Player Segments Based on Gaming Motivations’. Quantic Foundry [online]. Available at: https://quanticfoundry.com/2020/08/17/player-segments/ [accessed 12th July 2023]