Game UX: Reaching the High Score of Game Design 

The gaming industry relies on blending seamless UX and UI design with playability and immersive playing experiences. 

Without game UX and game UI design, players wouldn’t be able to navigate, progress through, or enjoy their favorite games. For this reason, every designer should know what comprises an excellent user experience in the world of gaming. 

In today’s guide, we will reveal the components and principles of an amazingly immersive gaming experience. You’ll learn how UX game design shares commonalities with traditional UX design and how it differs from it.

What Is UX Game Design?

In the context of video game development, UX design is quite similar to traditional website or mobile app design. With UX game design, it’s still your responsibility to create an engaging, positive user experience. 

UX game designers also still have to contend with controls, navigational aids, and accessible user interfaces. 

The differences between UX game design and traditional UX design largely relate to some of its core components. In other words, UX game design also revolves around game mechanics, visuals, audial cues, and general playability. 

Additionally, where traditional UX aims to solve users’ issues, game design aims to create them. Game designers must achieve a seamless balance between challenges and rewards that enhance player experiences. 

Ultimately, the game design process encompasses every aspect of a game that will affect the immersion of the player’s experience. 

The Core Components of Game UX Design 

Relating back to the core components of game user experience design, it’s only fitting that you know what they are. So, below, we’ve discussed the components that any game, regardless of genre or platform, would need to be enjoyable and playable.

Visual & Audial Signals 

Signals convey helpful information or instructions, and in video game design, there is no difference. 

Visual or audial signals in video games communicate need-to-know information to the player. Often, these signals appear as helpful instructions, navigational aids, or warnings. 

On the visual side, these signals may appear as colors, animations, or icons, such as waypoints. A classic example is in Assassin’s Creed II when the player goes out of bounds. A bright white animation occupies the screen to warn the player that continuing in their path will result in desynchronization. 

As for audial signals, they typically indicate that a player has successfully completed a challenge or found a reward. Think of the sound effects in Tomb Raider: Legend when the player finds a relic (reward).

Responses

Of course, where there are signals that guide the player’s actions, there must also be the results of the player’s actions. This is feedback, or how the game responds to the player’s actions. 

Usually, a game will either respond positively or negatively to the player’s actions. With positive responses from the game, the player knows that they are on the right track. With negative responses, the game may discourage the player from their chosen playing strategies. 

While a game’s responses are predominantly positive or negative, some games respond neutrally to player actions. 

A good example is in Until Dawn, where the player makes a fate-defining choice that could lead to a character’s salvation or demise. To show how the game responds to these pivotal choices, a series of animated butterflies appear on the screen. 

Regardless of the type of game response, it should always be easily understandable and timely, considering the player’s actions.

Tutorials 

Every game designer needs to accommodate the needs of players who are completely new to games and their mechanics. Without a clear onboarding process, games would have a learning curve that is too steep for inexperienced players. 

Your tutorials need to be seamlessly integrated and helpful, as well as engaging. Spider-Man 2 (2004) is an excellent gaming tutorial. Consider the voiceover from Bruce Campbell, who helps and pokes fun at the player. This tutorial is as helpful as it is entertaining. 

Usability 

Usability is crucial to a game’s UX design. With games, the user interface must allow for seamless navigation and intuition. It must also reduce cognitive and physical strain as much as possible while demonstrating complete accessibility. 

But usability isn’t just about designing such user interfaces; it’s also about testing them. 

By conducting playability/usability tests, designers can observe player-game interactions and identify what is and isn’t working in the game. They can then make any necessary improvements, enhancing the player’s engagement as they do so. 

Game UX Principles You Need To Know 

Of course, just like traditional UX, game UX design principles are incredibly important to the design process. For this reason, you’ll find the most essential game UX principles below. 

1. Narrative 

Although it isn’t the game designer’s job to create the game’s narrative, it’s always worth bearing it in mind. 

A game’s narrative dictates it’s tone and themes, which a designer must consider when creating meaningful elements. The design and consistency of narrative-based elements helps to enhance the immersive qualities of the game.

2. Player-centricity 

Just like any product, a game designer must fully understand and empathize with their target players. 

User research will help game designers understand and satisfy the player’s needs, wants, and expectations. With insights from user research, game designers can tailor the game to the player’s preferences and understanding of the genre. 

Play-centricity also goes hand-in-hand with user empathy, which allows game designers to embody their player’s motivations and frustrations. 

3. Objectives & Limitations 

Every game needs clear objectives that the user can recognize and progress toward. Major or minor (like sidequests), the more defined the player’s objectives are, the better the playing experience will be. 

With every objective in your game, ask yourself: 

• What will the player gain from completing these objectives? 
• Do these objectives align with the game’s genre? 
• Do these objectives make sense within the game’s narrative and world? 

While brainstorming objectives, you also need to consider the player’s limitations. What can the players do and why? What can’t the players do and why? 

These objectives and limitations will help you create a consistent, cohesive playing experience.

4. Engagement 

Players should have one thing when playing a video game – fun. You need to keep your players engaged during the game, or they’ll likely stop playing altogether. 

A good way to maintain player engagement is to strike the right balance between rewards and challenges. 

If you create a game that’s too easy, the player won’t have nearly as much fun. If you create a game that doesn’t reward the player for overcoming challenges, the player loses their incentive to progress. 

Another way you can increase player engagement is to consider the competitive/social aspect of playing games. If appropriate, consider implementing multiplayer features that encourage players to experience the game with their friends.

5. Clarity 

Look back on our discussion of signals, responses, and tutorials. One of the most crucial qualities they should all share is clarity. 

For inexperienced and experienced players alike, these informational and navigational aids should clearly communicate how the game works. 

With a solid onboarding process and gameplay mechanics, you ensure that your players can rely primarily on their intuition. 

6. Iteration

No digital product is perfect, even after its release. You should always look to conduct frequent playtests with real players to obtain new insights and discover player pain points. 

With every iteration of your game, you’ll be able to improve gameplay mechanics, fix bugs, and enhance the game’s performance. Needless to say, these tweaks can do wonders for your game’s playability. 

7. Accessibility 

Last but certainly not least, game designers must build their games with accessibility in mind. 

Accessibility means making digital products that all users can access and enjoy, regardless of physical or cognitive limitations. Consider the experiences of players with visual, hearing, cognitive, and physical impairments. 

The last thing you want is to exclude any player from your game, so it’s best to implement customizable settings. These settings generally focus on adjustments in the game’s controls, visuals, audio, and difficulty. 

Best Game UX Design: Examples To Learn From

To be up there with the best, you need to learn from the best. For that reason, we’ve explored some of the best game UX designs out there below.

Monument Valley for Onboarding 

Monument Valley is an indie puzzle game where the player navigates and guides the main character through optical illusions. 

A game with complex optical illusions needs a solid onboarding experience and Monument Valley has it. It’s simple, short, and straightforward because the true difficulty of the game lies in the manipulation of complex architecture. 

Visual signals in the form of high-contrasting instructions appear to explain to the player how to move. They also inform the player as to how they can manipulate in-game objects. 

This brief, simple tutorial perfectly contrasts the increasing difficulty of the following levels.

Gears 5 for Accessibility 

Gears 5 is a third-person shooter and the sequel to Gears of War 4. We picked this game because of its dedication to empathetic, accessible design. 

In particular, Gears 5 nails accessible gameplay for players with hearing difficulties. The game’s subtitles are customizable, with players able to adjust the subtitles’s size for enhanced visibility. 

They also include the name of the character speaking, crucial sound effects, and excellent visual contrast. 

The player can even determine how the characters’ voices sound with helpful audial and emotional context. Beyond that, the player can also tell when the game’s music is ramping up and slowing down. 

All in all, these details make for a much more immersive playing experience for players with hearing difficulties.  

FAQs

Use Page Flows To Create Great Game UX Designs 

Hopefully, you feel ready to emerge into the gaming industry with what you’ve learned from our guide. The key takeaway is that you must always prioritize and empathize with your players during the design process. 

Speaking of prioritizing the user, why not learn how to do so from proven products? This is where you need Page Flows. We provide thousands upon thousands of inspirational resources that focus on exceptional user flows. 

From recordings to screenshots, our resources will help you learn what it looks like to master user navigation. We cover a range of industries – from music to marketing – and reputable brands like Amazon and Apple.  

Like game UX, we help our users progress through their journey. The difference? Your reward is learning how to become the designer of the next must-have products. 

Go to Page Flows now to learn how to master the art of seamless user navigation!