A few months ago, Owen Mahoney was interviewed by GameLook as he was about to end his tenure as CEO of Nexon. In the interview, he believes that a good game development concept must focus on user experience. Also, David Guo, CEO of Top Games, Inc., claimed that when they created Evony: The King’s Return, they highlighted the importance of UX, focusing on user-oriented design and interface updates to enhance player satisfaction and engagement.
Celebrities in the gaming industry attach great importance to user experience.
Owen Mahoney:
“I mean, I think the best game development ideas don’t come from me. I think the advice is going to come from people who really care about user experience, who have their own perspective on user experience, but who also understand the core and development process.”
David Guo:
“When we create a game, the first thing we focus on is the player. In my opinion, an excellent game must be designed from the player’s perspective. Only by being truly user-oriented can we create a high-quality user experience.”
Strauss Zelnick:
“We are very concerned about the user experience of our users playing our games for a long time. We don’t want users to feel sick or tired while playing. Once they feel similar, the future of these devices in the gaming field is in jeopardy.”
Faced with user experience challenges, how should game companies respond?
As the game market becomes more and more diverse, players’ aesthetics and needs are gradually improving. David Guo believes that game companies need constant optimization and adjustment to meet the ever-changing user needs. So, what efforts has Guo’s team made at Evony: the King’s Return to improve the user experience?
David Guo’s emphasis on UX promotes Evony’s optimization
Interface optimization
Buttons and operation effects
Evony has made a series of improvements to button icons. It improves the look and feels without violating the theme background.
In addition, the interface operation special effects (such as receiving items) have also been adjusted, and the overall effect looks smoother and more advanced.
Monarch Avatar optimization & update
Under the guidance of David Guo, the Evony team also adjusted the player’s monarch avatars to enhance the player experience.
First, they modified the original Monarch Avatar for each civilization. Not only have the models become more refined, but the action special effects have also become much more delicate. Many netizens have very good comments on this. Then, they also added general skins and special collection avatars to the Monarch Avatar. Moreover, replaceable Scenes have been added. In this way, the interface of Monarch Avatar is instantly more advanced and beautiful.
Monarch Image release
The previous Monarch Image and Monarch Avatar can only be consistent. Based on user feedback, Evony recently launched the Monarch Image setting function. In this way, in addition to setting their own avatar, players can also set the image independently. The emergence of this function separates the avatar from the image, further promoting the unique experience of players.
Novice guide optimization
To ensure the experience of new users, Evony has optimized the novice guidance. On the one hand, through the integration of plot and casual gameplay, new users can quickly understand the core content of the game. On the other hand, there is also a Notice Board in the game. There are some game guides, notifications, and important updates. Players can learn in-depth gameplay and obtain recent information here.
Conclusion:
For a long time, the world of game design and development has focused on user experience. The R&D team achieves this goal through fun, playability, fluency, immersion, and other aspects. But as time goes by, the originally designed experience may no longer be able to keep up with the new needs of players. Based on this challenge, Evony chose to solve it through continuous optimization. This seems to give us a valid case. Adjustments that keep pace with the times are a permanent and required course after the game is launched.