Last update on October 16, 2023

CYGNUS
ENTERPRISES

SINGLE PLAYER | RPG | SANDBOX | STRATEGY

INTRODUCTION

Cygnus Enterprises was released at the end of 2022 as a single-player sci-fi sandbox game for PC. The game puts the player in charge of an outpost on an alien planet. I have been working on this project since 2020 when the game was in its pre-production stage.

Role: UI Lead

Team: 4 UX designers + 3 UX interns (+me)

Timeline: 09/2020 - 02/2023

Tools: Figma, XD, Photoshop, Unity, Fork, etc.

(Game trailer)

My ROLE and RESPONSIBILITIES

SUPERVISE

Overseeing the overall user experience.
Supervising the design system.
Reviewing UX design works.
Pushing the team members' potential.
Managing work planning schedule.

UX DESIGN

Writing UX design documents.
Designing prototypes with Figma.
Creating High-fidelity mockups.
Setup UI assets in Unity.

XFN PEERS

UX researchers
PM / Designers
Engineers / QA team / Artists
Marketing
Localization

MENTORING

Creating an onboarding program for new team members.
Mentoring internship students.
Providing new UX methods to the team.

MAIN CHALLENGES

I have been dedicated to this project for years. Given the vast number of challenges encountered during this time, it would be unrealistic to detail every single one here.

Therefore, let's focus on the most significant ones :

PREVENT DESIGN DEBIT

Avoid the accumulation of design related issues by addressing them early stage in the development process.

UNDERSTAND PLAYER

Gain deeper insights into player behavior, preferences, and needs during the early stages when we lacked access to real players.

CROSS-FUNCTIONAL

ALIGNMENT

Limit information gap between different departments and increase implementation efficiency.

PREVENT DESIGN DEBIT

Reviewing the work of my team members, I have observed the following issues:

By adding more and more design features it's hard to maintain a coherency on the overall UX design.
Without a strong, consistently applied design system or style guide, design decisions are often fragmented.
Inconsistencies were accumulated, leading to a high time cost in redesigning and polishing previous works for designers and programmers.
When we want to integrate new game design features with the old system results options are limited.

To address these, I have proposed creating a Design System. This helps ensure all our designs align, boosting our overall efficiency.

Below is the presentation of the Design System that I have proposed.

(Slides: Design System proposal presentation, PowerPoint)

Based on the guidelines outlined in the presentation, I built the first Design Library document in an Excel-shared file as the guide for the rest of the team for future ongoing updates.

The attached screenshots below are from the very beginning stage of the Design Library.

This file was detailed and informative, but it came with a significant issue: frequent updates were time-consuming and detracted from the designers' main responsibilities. Hiring a dedicated individual for these updates was contemplated but proved impractical due to budget limitations.

Moreover, at the beginning of the project, gaining a clear understanding of the overall game mechanics and structure was particularly challenging because the game designers were still in the process of refining them. This ambiguity made it difficult to design the design system and accurately categorize UI assets.

Consequently, we switched to using Figma, which building an interactive UX library in Figma enhances collaboration, ensures design consistency, and speeds up workflows by providing reusable, up-to-date components. It enables realistic prototyping for better user testing, reduces repetitive tasks, and supports scalability as the product evolves.

Additionally, it streamlines onboarding and knowledge sharing, making the UX team more efficient and aligned with development.

(Screenshot: Design Library, Figma)

KEY FINDINGS

Focus on Shared Knowledge: When building a UX library for a small team, the priority shouldn't be exhaustive detail but ensuring that crucial shared knowledge is documented. Highlight the information team members frequently forget or need to search for during their workflow.

Big Picture Over Perfection: The goal is not to create a flawless or overly comprehensive document but to establish a clear and functional overview that supports the team's needs.

Ease of Use: The primary aim of the library is to simplify the team's work, reducing time spent searching for information and preventing confusion.

Design System as a UX Product: Treat the design system as a UX product, with the team members as its users. Address their pain points, particularly around information search, by providing practical and easily accessible solutions.

UNDERSTAND PLAYER

PHASE #1 - INTERNAL SURVEY

In the early stage of development, when we didn't have real players to observe their gameplay behavior, it presented a challenge for UX designers in our work, we used to design only based on our personal experience. To address this, I took the initiative to organize internal gameplay tests.

(Slides: Internal Team Survey Report, PowerPoint)

Furthermore, I reached out to the Research department to analyze similar cases for inspiration. Despite having a dedicated research team that provides us with reports, it remains a disadvantage for UX designers not to engage directly with end-users.

KEY FINDINGS:

The survey should be as brief and concise as possible to align with our design objectives, given that people prefer not to spend excessive time on it.

A brief test may not suffice for those wishing to provide detailed explanations in response to my inquiries during the test. Often, some colleagues find it challenging to reveal specific details about the game.

Internal tests may consistently exhibit the same biases, stemming from our involvement in the project's development.

PHASE #2 - FEEDBACK SYSTEM

Later on, when our game was completed above 90%, I started to design a Feedback System to gather players' feedback and comments.

This system involves collecting player's comments and feelings by sending us screenshots from the gameplay. Initially, this system was used mostly by our QA team members.

(Screenshot: In-game Feedback System flow, Figma)

Designing the UX flow for this feedback system wasn't difficult, the challenge was collaborating with QA team and Programmers to structure the database of all the collected data.

This system enabled us to gather over 3,000 feedbacks in the first week alone, making the collection and storage of this data a significant issue. Consequently, this experience also led me to gain knowledge about GDPR, particularly concerning server locations and data protection laws.

(GUI mockup: Feedback modal panel, Photoshop)

PHASE #3 - TELEMETRY SYSTEM

At the end, as we neared the game's launch, I proactively established a Telemetry System to gather valuable data on player gameplay behavior. I also took on the responsibility of overseeing the User Terms & Conditions and User Privacy terms, collaborating closely with the Legal department to ensure that the data we collected wouldn't pose any legal challenges for the team. Subsequently, I worked with programmers to design and implement an internal data usage plan, enabling us to create a robust database that served the needs of various project stakeholders, including QA, artists, project managers, designers, marketing, etc.

(Screenshot: Data legal requirements guide)

This legal requirements document aims to provide comprehensive guidance to the legal team to assist them in the formulation of essential privacy terms and policies.

In my capacity, I have assumed the principal responsibility of guaranteeing that our server abstains from collecting any data that could potentially expose our company to legal risks across different jurisdictions due to varying global GDPR regulations.

(Screenshot: Data dictionary. This document is intended to provide programmers with guidance for the effective development of the system.)

Cross-functional team efficiency boosts results from the Telemetry System:

For PM: With real-time data on how players behave, our PM uses it to prioritize features, adjust balancing, and plan updates based on what players actually need, not just guesses.

For QA: Telemetry does the heavy lifting by flagging crashes, performance issues, or weird gameplay patterns automatically. It cut down on manual testing and helped us focus on fixing real problems faster.

For Programmers: Debugging was easier with detailed logs and metrics. Telemetry points right to bottlenecks or bugs.

For UX: We get to see exactly where players are struggling or dropping off, so we can tweak the design to make the experience smoother and more fun, all based on actual player behavior.

Hands-on UX Design

#1 - Documentation

As a UX designer, I naturally dived into UX design for this project. One example is my work on key binding settings.

The challenging part of this work was designing command keys that balance UX-friendly gameplay experience for players while revolving less obvious conflicts. The attached UX document represents the final version, refined through three prior implementation stages.

Hands-on UX Design

#2 - Interactions

In Cygnus, we have successfully implemented AI NPC technology, and I was responsible for creating the corresponding UX interactions. For more information and details, please visit the following link:

How NetEase integrated Inworld AI in Cygnus Enterprises, Part 1

(UX prototype: AI Settings, Figma)

Hands-on UX Design

#3 - High Fidelity Prototype

Sometimes to minimize communication costs with programmers, the VFX team, etc., I also create high-fidelity UX prototypes in Figma. See the video rec below of the World Map interaction prototype for reference.