10 Heuristics: Snow Way in Hell

Eric Harris, Jonathan Gonzalez, Lisa Lee, Ron Smith, and Shawn Neal

Team Assignment 1Full Sail University

Game SummaryThe game is a platformer title and the objective of the game is to navigate through the levels before the player melts away. To defend yourself from enemies, the player may throw snowballs. Once the enemy is hit with a snowball, the player can collect them and regain their level of “Frozeness”. The “Frozeness” bar also doubles as the player’s health bar. As the game progresses the “Frozeness” bar depletes gradually and when receiving damage. Once the player’s “Frozeness” bar is depleted they will die and have to start from the last checkpoint. There are 9 levels the player has to go through before completing the game.

Problem No Health Alerts/Game Updates

Rating Important

Description The bar is located on the top left the screen that displays “Frozeness” that is constantly decreasing. The player doesn’t realize that it is a health bar until the bar depletes and the player dies. Even when the bar is around 10% there isn’t any alerts that lets the player know that they are about to die. The player doesn’t know if they receive any damage unless they constantly look at the bar because there isn’t clear feedback letting the player know if they received any damage (Ex. No Sound Effect).

Solution Fix the health bar by giving it a border to indicate how much health you have compared to 100% health. Let the player know that they are losing health gradually by possibly putting a status ailment icon or in a simple message (Ex. Poison) under the bar. Provide feedback like a sound effect to indicate damage received. Have the health bar fade in/out or blinking in red indicated low health status.

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Visibility of System Status

Problem Misleading/Inaccurate Information, Missing Information

Rating Important

Description In the game there are misleading and inaccurate information such as the health bar itself. Instead of Health, it is recognized as “Frozeness” and a white bar instead of a usual red or green bar to indicate health. There is also missing information such as what the time means as there isn’t any indication of it. There is also missing information in regards to bosses, sometimes there is a “Health Bar” for a boss and sometimes there isn’t. It also doesn’t provide any information if it is related to the boss (Ex. Boss Name).

Solution Correct the term “Frozeness” with Health and change the color of the white health bar to red or green. Put the terms “Time Remaining” or just “Time” to indicate how much time left or how much it passed above the numbers. Fix the boss health meter, make it consistent throughout the game and display information that is related to the boss such as name of the enemy or just the term “Boss” above the health meter.

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Match Between System and The Real World

Problem How can a snowman melt in snow?

Rating Little Importance.

Description On the fourth playable level of the demo for SWIH, the snowman continues to lose health gradually over a course of time while they are running through a blizzard. Naturally you would think the blizzard would help the snowman stay in tack but the opposite occurs during gameplay. This is more of a cosmetic issue that defies the rules of nature. It has very little impact on the game itself.

Solution During this level the player could have infinite health at certain points or the designers of the game could include some kind of constant effect on the character which would cause health loss.

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Match Between System and The Real World cont.

Problem No Direction Input/How to

Rating Important

Description There isn’t any directional input on the screen when game is played. The player has to figure out what controls are used to play. On the screen, there isn’t a button for the player to click on to get out of the current screen. The ESC key can be pressed to choose to exit, but there is nothing saying that, so it was found by hitting keys until it was identified as the exit key.

Solution Create a user control button on the screen that stays on the screen at all times that lets the player click on it to exit the current screen. A main menu button can be a button can be a button that can be used.

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User Control And Freedom

Problem Game Combat System misleading/ Inaccurate

Rating Important

Description In the game, the character has a combat system of shooting out snowballs at enemies. The character’s aim isn’t consistent every time. The player can click to throw a snowball at the enemy, but the snowball doesn’t hit the enemy every time even when you are right on the enemy.

Solution Create a more concise and accurate weapon firing system by making the aim have more accuracy. When the character throws the snowball at the enemy, the snowball should hit the enemy the first time if you are close to the enemy.

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Consistency And Standards

Problem When quitting a level, the player is never warned that quitting will cause the player to lose all progress they have made within the game.

Rating Very Important

Description When selecting quit from the pause menu the player is not warned that they will lose all the progress they have made in the level.

Solution A simple second prompt would correct this problem completely. Asking the player if they are sure they want to quit, and warning them they will lose all progress is the easiest solution..

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Error Prevention

Problem Instruction not easily visible at any point in game, or easily retrievable to view when appropriate.

Rating Very Important

Description At no point in the game is the player given any instructions on how to play the game. They are left to figure out even the basic controls without any prompt from the game. Enemies, dangers, and more advanced mechanics are never explained. Which leave the player to figure these things out on their own. In the screenshot below the player must fire a snowball at the flame to create steam to move upwards. This is an example of a more advanced mechanics that is never explained.

Solution A prompt at the beginning of the game on basic controls for a short period of time would give the player most of the needed information. A selection in the Main and Pause menus would allow the player to reexamine the instructions would correct this error even further.

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Recognition Rather Than Recall

Problem Player Controls

Rating Important

Description There is also no instructional area for controls but there to inform the player on how to play. The player is forced to fiddle with keys to figure out how to play. A player who fiddles long enough will find there are multiple ways to move and jump but only one way to throw snowballs.

Solution Creating a menu panel that includes input controls for the player to find out how to play. This can either be accessed from the pause menu or the main menu.

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Flexibility and Efficiency of Use

Problem Lack of Contrast between UI and background.

Rating Important

Description There is a lack of contrast between the button text in the start menu panels, and during gameplay the lack of contrast between the HUD text and the background. make it hard for the player see all the information on the screen.

Solution Changing the button text to black would make the options significantly easier to see. Making the HUD text larger with a solid border would allow for the player to have an easier time seeing the HUD.

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Aesthetic and Minimalist Design

Problem Players may lack the understanding that “frozeness” is the players health and how it is affected

Rating Very Important.

Description When the game launches and the first level is loaded the player starts out with a full “frozeness” bar. Over the course of time the bar depletes and once completely gone the player will die. Without an explanation that this bar indicates the player’s health, inexperienced players may not consider the correlation between health and “frozeness.” Keeping track of the player’s level of health is crucial to the gameplay experience.

Solution Considering that the consistent normal for the player’s life is health, if the designers wanted to change the name to cater to the theme of the game they should explain that the player melts away (loses life) as the player receives damage and over a slow period of time.

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Help User Recognize, Diagnose and Recover from Errors

Problem Players do not have a sense of direction. No objectives for the player to fulfill are mentioned in the game

Rating Important

Description While playing Snow Way In Hell, players lack direction or objectives. From the start of the game you are confronted by thorns and may wander aimlessly through the level before you realize that certain objectives need to be met before you can proceed through the level. Inexperienced players may become frustrated with the lack of information provided to the player. Players can still play the game but may run into instances of frustration for not being able to return to certain areas and fully explore the level unless they restart the game.

Solution The designers of the game may include a translucent mini-map the player may toggle between in order to get a sense of where to go. Another way to solve this problem would be to inform the player of what needs to be accomplished before they can proceed (directional arrow that points to the finish or next objective).

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Help User Recognize, Diagnose and Recover from Errors cont.

Problem Some enemies you can pass through and some enemies you bump into but they all do damage!

Rating Extremely important

Description As the player is venturing through the level you come across animated entities that can harm you. Some of these villains pass straight through the player and some of them prevent you from passing. Although you can pass through some of these enemies at times they still inflict damage on the player. When trying to destroy these enemies the snowball defense does not affect them until countless attempts to hit them in the face. This issue can be quite problematic to the usability of the game. This should be a priority to fix in the game prior to release because it affects the mechanics of the game.

Solution Consistency with the enemies nature must remain constant. On various levels if the designers wanted the actions of the enemies to change they should alter the color or physical appearance to indicate that this new enemy will act differently than the enemies you previously encountered.

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Help User Recognize, Diagnose and Recover from Errors cont.

Problem Players lack the knowledge of the game controls

Rating High Importance

Description In any new game players always seek to know how to do things. SWIH does not explain the player’s controls and leaves them stranded on a level to figure out how to jump, throw snowballs, pause the game, or aim. With this problem it is imperative to give the player a sense of understanding to the player’s abilities in game. Otherwise the game can’t be played properly or the experience will not be as fulfilling.

Solution This issue can easily be solved in the options menu. Create another menu for the players to review their controls or include an instructions manual if the game is sold physically.

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Help and Documentation

Problem Targeting and use of snowballs

Rating Important

Description During gameplay the player may attempt to hit enemies with snowballs. However the distance of the throw is not determined by conventional means such as holding down the action button for a further toss or aiming further away from the character to get some range under the toss. This problem was addressed by developing moment before attempting to throw a snowball. Not a solid solution in various situations such as standing on a narrow surface. A vital game mechanic that needs to be further explained before asking players to effectively play the game.

Solution This issue can fixed by allowing the player to have more control over the distance of the snowball tossed. The designers of the game can either include a strength meter or allow the player to throw snowballs at the location where the cursor is placed on the screen.

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Help and Documentation cont.

ReferencesNielsen, J. (1995, January 1). Nielsen Norman Group. Retrieved March 8, 2015, from http://www.nngroup.com/articles/ten-usability-heuristics/

Isbister, K., & Schaffer, N. (2008). Game usability: Advice from the experts for advancing the player experience (p. 80). San Francisco, Calif.: Morgan Kaufmann ;.

Neil, T. (2009, May 17). 6 Tips for a Great Flex UX: Part 5. Retrieved March 8, 2015, from http://designingwebinterfaces.com/6-tips-for-a-great-flex-ux-part-5