Investigation of Complex Strategy Games on Console: Evaluating the Potential Possibilities of One User Interface to Rule Them All Aron Nisbel Department of Applied Physics and Electronics Umeå University, Sweden [email protected] In collaboration with Paradox Interactive and Paradox Development Studio Abstract. Building complex games like Grand Strategy Games for both PC and console is a costly endeavour. Normally, two different platforms imply two different User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX) de- signs, even though it is the same game. If the game’s UI could have similar designs for both platforms, this costly obstacle could be overcome. This study aimed to take the first steps to look at “one UI to rule them all”. Due to the lack of existing research on this topic, this study had to begin from scratch. This led to a focus on existing strategy games on consoles, and an evaluation of the User Experience (UX) of these games. Con- sidering the lack of Grand Strategy Games on consoles, eleven existing strategy games on console similar to Grand Strategy Games were chosen to be investigated further with the aim to find possible best practices and/or the most important aspects of the player’s experience in these games. Through discussion with game industry experts (experienced and senior UX designers), the UI and UX of strategy games on console were broken down and grouped as specific game interactions, with emphasis on the similarity to Grand Strategy Games. By using the defined game interactions, a quantitative survey was carried out to pinpoint the game interactions with the biggest impact on the player’s experience. The analysis of the results from the 864 respondents in the quantitative survey showed the importance of console first. It could be determined by looking how well the only console first game of the survey did. Halo Wars 2 had the overall best perceived experience in five out of the eight defined game interactions. Yet the participants preferred playing Halo Wars 2 on PC to equal extent as they preferred to play it on consoles, concluding that console first seems to be the design approach to use when a game studio wants to ship a game simultaneously to both PC and consoles since it gives the overall best player experience. Furthermore, the pace, meaning the speed with which the player can ex- ecute specific in-game actions and reach their goals, was found to be a major factor to the player’s experience of the chosen strategy games on console. This led to a further developed definition of the pace through dis- cussion and workshops with industry experts. Research then continued with remote and unmoderated playtests (qualitative usability testing) of two of the chosen games being most similar to Grand Strategy Games; Stellaris and Sid Meier’s Civilization VI. These playtests aimed to find what are the most important aspects of the pace and how the pace af- fects the player’s experience. When the participants were asked to rank what they thought has the biggest impact on the pace in the game, game mechanical aspects were ranked higher than UI and UX aspects of the pace. This shows the game mechanics to be more important than the UI and UX aspects of the pace when designing the pace in a game like Stellaris and Sid Meier’s Civilization VI. Keywords UX Research, Console Game Design, UI Design, Pace, Playtests, Strategy Games, User Interfaces, Pandemic Sammanfattning Svenska (Abstract Swedish) Att bygga komplexa spel som Grand Strategy spel för både PC och konsol är en kostsam uppgift. Normalt innebär två olika plattformar två olika User Interface (UI) och User Experience (UX) designs, för ett och samma spel. Om spelets UI skulle kunna ha liknande design för båda plattformarna skulle utvecklingskost- naden bli mindre. Denna studie har som målsättning att ta de första stegen av att undersöka mörjligheterna för "ett UI för att härska dem alla". På grund av bristen på befintlig forskning inom området måste denna studie börja från grunden. Detta ledde till ett fokus på befintliga strategispel på konsol, och en utvärdering av användarupplevelsen (UX) för dessa spel. Med tanke på bristen på Grand Strategy spel på konsol valdes elva befintliga strategispel på kon- sol ut som liknar Grand Strategy spel för att undersökas vidare i syftet att hitta möjliga bästa praxis och/eller de viktigaste aspekterna av spelarens up- plevelse (UX) av dessa spel. För att hitta specifika aspekter måste aspekterna först definieras. Genom diskussion med experter inom spelindustrin (erfarna och seniora UX-designers) delades UI och UX aspekterna i strategispel på konsol upp i mindre bitar och grupperades i specifika spelinteraktioner, med betoning på deras likhet med Grand Strategy spel. Genom att utgå ifrån de definierade spelinteraktionerna genomfördes en enkätundersökning för att identifiera vilka spelinteraktionerna som har störst påverkan på spelarens upplevelse. Spelens tempo visade sig vara en viktig faktor för spelarens upplevelse av de valda strategispelen på konsol. Detta ledde till en vidareutvecklad definition av tempot genom diskussioner och workshops med branschexperter. Forskningen fortsatte sedan med omodererade speltester (kvalitativ användbarhetstestning) av två av de valda spelen som mest liknar Grand Strategy Games; Stellaris och Sid Meiers Civilization VI. Dessa speltester hade målsättningen att hitta de vik- tigaste aspekterna av tempot och hur tempot påverkar användarupplevelsen. När deltagarna ombads att rangordna vad de ansåg har störst inverkan på tempot i spelet rankades spelmekaniska aspekter högre än UI- och UX-aspekter av tempot. Detta visar att spelmekaniska aspekter är viktigare än UI- och UX-aspekter av tempot när du designar tempot i spel som Stellaris och Sid Meiers Civilization VI. Genom ytterligare analys av resultaten från de 864 respondenterna i den första kvantitativa undersökningen kunde vikten av console first bestämmas genom att se hur bra det enda console first-spelet i undersökningen rankades. Detta spel var Halo Wars 2, och det hade den övergripande bäst upplevda upplevelsen i fem av de åtta definierade spelinteraktionerna. Fastän ett högt betyg på konsolver- sionen av Halo Wars 2 så föredrog deltagarna varken PC- eller konsolversionen över den andra, vilket resulterar i slutsatsen att console first verkar vara design- metoden att använda när en spelstudio vill bygga ett spel samtidigt till både PC och konsol eftersom det ger den övergripande bästa spelarupplevelsen för båda platformarna. Acknowledgments First and foremost, I want to express my deep gratitude to everyone at Paradox Interactive and Paradox Development Studio for the warm welcome and inclu- sion they have shown me even during the COVID-19 pandemic with everyone for the most part working remotely. While I did get to work from the Stockholm office for a couple of weeks in September/October, it would have been difficult to connect and meet anyone without the warm and including working culture at the game studio. I especially want to thank Doyle Daigle and Henrik Hansson at Paradox De- velopment Studio for taking me under their arms and mentoring me through this, and including me in every meeting and discussion, making me feel part of the Paradox family. Also, for helping me grow both professionally and as a person. Additional thanks to my supervisor at Umeå University, Mattias Andersson for his active guidance and that he put up with my almost never ending discussions. Likewise, I am highly thankful for the input and feedback from Alice Risholt when peer reviewing this paper. Furthermore, I would like to send a special thanks to Mattias Hagberg and Emil Söderlind for the great input, suggestions, and lively discussions which has significantly improved the quality of this thesis. Last but not least, I want to extend my appreciation to my friends and family who encouraged me and put up with me during the most difficult and frustrating times. Table of Contents 1 Introduction...................................................1 2 Background...................................................2 2.1 User Interface (UI) & User Experience (UX).................2 2.2 PC Inputs and Screen Distances.............................2 2.3 How the Consoles Differ....................................4 2.3.1 Controllers..........................................4 2.4 One UI to Rule Them All..................................4 2.5 Paradox Interactive........................................6 3 Objective.....................................................8 3.1 Purpose..................................................8 3.2 Brief Structure............................................8 4 Theoretical Framework - Part One...............................9 4.1 Strategy Video Games.....................................9 4.2 The Four Xs (4X).........................................9 4.2.1 Grand Strategy Games............................... 10 4.3 User Experience (UX) in Video Games....................... 10 4.4 Quantitative Research Methods............................. 11 4.4.1 Likert Scales........................................ 11 4.4.2 T-test.............................................. 12 4.5 The Game Interactions..................................... 13 4.5.1 Cursor.............................................. 13 4.5.2 Indicator............................................ 14 4.5.3 Map Navigation & Control............................ 14 4.5.4 Menu Navigation.................................... 14 4.5.5 User Interface (UI) Size............................... 14 4.5.6 Font-Size..........................................