Apologies for the radio silence! I've been busy this December, and really since late September, so I haven't had much time to write. Here's what I've been up to: View from my desk. I started a new job as a User Experience Researcher with Fidelity Investments in Boston in late September, so I've been busy learnin' and getting up to speed with a myriad of tools and methodologies. ...
This'll be a different kind of post, so bear with me here. I've started conducting user research for Idle Action Studios, the creators of Paper Shadows. After some discussion with the team, I decided to run some co-creation sessions to help make Paper Shadow's UI elements (of which there are few) more intuitive. This post is about the process and results of the co-creation study. First, ...
If you like quick puzzle games, Fingerprint Studio's Triangle180 is a game for you. Match colors to create triangles, and build up combo points by creating same-colored triangles consecutively. Triangle180 is the kind of game where you'll keep pressing the 'play again' button after each one-minute game saying, "I can do better than that!" Yet the problems I found in the preview version ...
No Pineapple Left Behind, currently in alpha, is a fun construction and management simulation (CMS) that doubles as a dark criticism of contemporary American schools. The player oversees a school and has the goal of making as much money as possible. How? By converting students into test-taking automatons, called pineapples, and essentially draining the school of any fun. Students ...
Evolve, by Turtle Rock Studios, is an asymmetrical shooter where players can either play in a team or as a terrifying monster whose goal is to eliminate all of the Heroes. Simplified, Evolve is a complex 4 v. 1 cat-and-mouse game where the monster gets stronger as the game progresses. A game published by 2K, a publishing company with dedicated user researchers, Evolve is sleek, easy ...
RPG MO by Marxnet is a free browser-based multiplayer RPG reminiscent of early Runescape. Playing the role of a nondescript fightin' man, you can explore 25 different maps, fight a variety of creatures, and craft your own weapons, jewelry, and more. RPG MO "Tutorial Island" Big-picture, RPG MO is very similar to classic Runescape in aesthetic and player activities (fishing, mining, ...
GamesCampus' Karos Returns (PC only) is a free, fantasy MMORPG which hosts an open world and PvP system. The game has not been well-received, and currently holds a 37% approval rate on Steam. Including this, and six other, "positive" reviews: Reading through the reviews, the primary complaints are that the graphics are outdated (think ~2003), the UI is clunky, and that the game offers ...
(No Steam trials this weekend, so I thought I'd review another mobile game. Thanks to Johnson 'Blue' Siau for the recommendation!) GungHo Online Entertainment's Dokuro, available on the PS Vita, PC, iOS and Android, is a cute and quirky puzzle platformer in which you play as a skeleton worker trying to save a weeping princess from marrying the Dark Lord under duress. Flip switches, ...
The Flame in the Flood, currently in beta release for Kickstarter backers, is a rogue-like, exploration-survival game that is rewarding and challenging. Within the 2 hours I've already played, I've died from dysentery, hypothermia, sepsis, wolf attacks, drowning, and starvation. Truly, I found few usability problems in TFIF: its UI is sleek and minimalist, and has one of the ...
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