https://stephencleland.me/thoughts daily 0.75 2021-09-28 https://stephencleland.me/thoughts/design-explorations monthly 0.5 2021-09-28 https://stephencleland.me/home daily 1.0 2021-09-30 https://stephencleland.me/my-approach daily 0.75 2021-09-28 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/614c0ad963774563b5f352a4/t/6150c437786cf06741475c63/1632686798172/Process-Chart.png My Approach https://stephencleland.me/work daily 0.75 2021-09-28 https://stephencleland.me/work/eon-altar-ux monthly 0.5 2021-09-28 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/614c0ad963774563b5f352a4/t/6152b1d27c3cb34be41a58f3/1632810812959/eon-group.jpg Work - The UX of Eon Altar - A Different Approach I was brought on to help shape a new version of the game that better captured the vision of a unique shared social game, and to provide an experience that would really engage players. To do this, I made a few suggestions: The usage of mobile phones needed to be more prevalent in the control, management, and interaction of characters. This would help the phone be an integral part of the experience, and not a distraction. The combat and exploration needed a more real time element to it. Active controls using the mobile phone had to take advantage of the medium's touch capabilities, it wasn't good enough to simply create a virtual game-pad (which always feels poor on touch devices, due to the lack of tactile feedback and precise control.) It was vital that this was intuitive enough that a player's attention could remain on the central device during active segments. In addition, at this time a decision was made to move away from the central touch PC or iPad to a more standard couch based experience in front of a television. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/614c0ad963774563b5f352a4/t/6152b32ce84d71050c1e1fbf/1632810820246/Handsets_Characters_720.png Work - The UX of Eon Altar - Mobile Devices Are Central To The Experience In order to make the phone a central piece, it was first important that we move away from simply seeing it as a character sheet. The phone would be the place where all interactions with your character would take place. This included: Direct control in exploration and combat More on this later Inventory management Including options to trade gear and items with other players Hero progression Skill trees that provided players with multiple upgrade paths that they could follow Dialogue/conversations Dialogue cues are presented on each device, with players encouraged to speak the lines out loud (when speaking to a group.) Players can give their characters whatever style of voice or inflection that they wish, and it helps add a fun element to the experience that gives player's more agency over their character. This also added the option for players to be able to have secret conversations with NPCs and other players. Leaving it up to the player to decide whether to share this information with the group or keep it a secret. This created more freedom for players to role play characters however they wanted. Lore encyclopedia Unlocked as players discovered things in the environment https://static1.squarespace.com/static/614c0ad963774563b5f352a4/t/6152b45c52e9905ea40c0f40/1632810829080/eon-combat1-720.png Work - The UX of Eon Altar https://static1.squarespace.com/static/614c0ad963774563b5f352a4/t/6152b475a2d99223e18c96b8/1632810836436/eon-combat2-720.png Work - The UX of Eon Altar https://stephencleland.me/work/eon-altar-ui monthly 0.5 2021-09-28 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/614c0ad963774563b5f352a4/6150cc243b4d06469d92b4a1/6152a97c0820b1592312ffc8/1632807292953/Character-Selection-Handset-850.jpg Work - Eon Altar UI https://static1.squarespace.com/static/614c0ad963774563b5f352a4/6150cc243b4d06469d92b4a1/6152a992707a7756294d95b1/1632807314964/Campaign-Connection-Handset-850.jpg Work - Eon Altar UI https://static1.squarespace.com/static/614c0ad963774563b5f352a4/6150cc243b4d06469d92b4a1/6152a9a0b856ea1d0701943b/1632807328841/Action-Selection-Handset-850.jpg Work - Eon Altar UI https://stephencleland.me/work/gears-5-ux monthly 0.5 2021-09-28 https://stephencleland.me/work/interface-concept monthly 0.5 2021-09-28 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/614c0ad963774563b5f352a4/t/6152a7871a985a15cdfe5296/1632806804200/HWSB-UI-concept-minimized-720p.jpg Work - Interface Concept The Default/Minimalist View https://static1.squarespace.com/static/614c0ad963774563b5f352a4/t/6152a79c8084ea44d2c36ca3/1632806820954/HWSB-UI-concept-maximized-720p.jpg Work - Interface Concept An Expanded View