UX Designer Leading design: Conducting interviews, paper and digital wire framing, low and high-fidelity prototyping, conducting usability studies, accounting accessibility, iterating on designs and responsive design.
At A Glance: This was a team project for my Game Design class.
​
Duration: 5 Months
A fast-paced room-decorating party game where players have five minutes to design a room based on a given theme using furniture, colors, patterns, and more. Once time is up, everyone votes on the best room. With only five minutes to decorate the perfect room, the game emphasizes originality, competition, and creativity under pressure.
Genres
Party GameBuilding/Design
Multiplayer
Casual
Creative
Competitive
Target Audience:
Primary audience is people 12-25 years old. Platform is PC.
Theme Challenges:
​
-
At the start of each round, the game presents a random theme for the room design, which can range from simple colors to abstract concepts. The theme will be showcased on the top of the screen during the round.
-
Players must use creativity and originality to ensure their design aligns with the theme and stands out in the voting phase.
Time Management:
​
-
A visible timer displays the remaining time for the decorating phase.
-
A five-minute Lo-Fi track (created by Isaak Montemayor) plays in the background, with the pace quickening in the last few seconds to alert players that time is almost up
Furniture System:
​
-
Furniture can be selected from the UI and placed into the scene. It can also be deleted by selecting the delete tool and then selecting the item on the scene.
-
Clicking and selecting a placed object will allow the player to move it to another location on the grid.
-
Room’s wallpaper, doors, and windows can also be customized through UI selections.
Voting System:
​
-
After 5 minutes, players review completed rooms and vote for their favorites using a voting interface where they can click from 1-5 stars on the screen. Stars up to the clicked one become solid to indicate the rating.
-
Players can provide feedback or comments through a chatting system.
-
After voting is concluded, the room that won first place is shown, with a leaderboard showing each player’s placement depending on the stars they received.
Ranking and Reward System:
​
-
The stars the player wins each game get added to their ranking. They are able to rank up and unlock new furniture and customization options.
-
Player will be able to “buy” new furniture using rewards, which they can use for future rounds.
​
​
-
Players have only five minutes to decorate their room according to a theme.
-
After five minutes, each player votes on each design, with 1 star being the worst rating and 5 stars being the best.
-
You cannot vote for your own room.
-
The goal is to be voted as the best room design and win first place.
-
You can only place items inside of the room.
Rules:
Player Interactions:
​
Movement ( Camera Controls)
-
WASD keys: Move the scene up, left, down, and right.
-
Q and E keys: Rotate the camera left + right to view different sides of the room (four rotations).
-
Mouse Scroll Wheel: Zoom the scene in and out to achieve a closer view.​
Interactions with Objects:
​
-
Players can click the furniture from the UI panel and place it in the room by clicking on the desired location on the grid.
-
Players can rotate items using rotation handles or keyboard shortcuts and adjust their size.
Customizing the room:
​​
-
Players can access a catalog of items through an intuitive UI panel and select items by clicking on their preview.
-
Selected items are placed in the room by clicking on the desired location on the grid. Items can be moved, rotated, deleted, and resized using on-screen controls.
-
Players can adjust item properties such as color, pattern, and size using sliders, selections, and color pickers.
Social Interactions:
​
-
Players can use in-game chat or emotes to communicate with others, share ideas, or express opinions.
-
Players can invite friends to join the game and form lobbies.
-
Players can vote on their favorite designs and provide feedback.
The game integrates various mechanics, dynamics, and aesthetics to provide a fun experience. Core mechanics (such as accessing the UI furniture catalog and positioning objects) work together to create the core dynamics (such as Furniture Placement). This interaction between mechanics and dynamics is designed to evoke the intended emotional response from the player (aesthetics) A deeper dive into the mechanics, dynamics, and aesthetics is listed below.
Mechanics:
​​
-
Camera Movement (up, down, left, right, zoom in, zoom out, rotate left or right)
-
UI Furniture Catalogue
-
Positioning Objects (Placing, moving, and rotating an object)
-
Modifying Objects (color, pattern, size)
-
Countdown Timer
-
Timer Music (that increases speed towards the end)
-
Voting 1-5 stars
-
Displaying each player’s room in the voting phase
-
Sending a message with in-game chat
-
Creating a lobby
-
Inviting Friends
-
Providing a random theme
Dynamics:
​​
-
Time Management: (Countdown Timer + Timer Music)
-
Furniture Placement: (UI Furniture Catalogue + Positioning Objects)
-
Thematic Customization: (Theme + Modifying Objects)
-
Voting System and Competition: (Displaying Rooms + Voting 1-5 Stars)
-
Multiplayer: (Creating a Lobby + Inviting Friends + Sending a message)
Aesthetics:
​​
-
Sensation: The countdown timer, different customization options, and winning against other players evokes a sense of urgency, pleasure and stimulation.
-
Challenge: The time limit and limited furniture and customization options evokes competitiveness as players strive to be at the top of the leaderboard.
-
Fellowship: The voting system, in-game chat and shared experience of decorating encourage social interaction, competition, and collaboration.
-
Expression: Players can creatively express their design preferences and style through the customization options available, making each room a unique reflection of their originality.
-
Submission: The game also offers a relaxing and enjoyable pastime, allowing players to unwind and have fun with room decoration without intense pressure.
For the Figma prototype, I created sketches of ideas I had in regards to the games layout. I then completed a deep competitive audit of similar design games such as Redecor, Dream Room Makeover on Girlsgogames.com, and Home Design Star.
This is where I came up with the idea of having an inventory bar. I moved onto Figma, where I turned my sketches into lo-fi wireframes. After creating a solid blueprint my next task was to find clip art that would match our games aesthetic. I used websites like Unsplash and Google to find simple clip art, with transparent backgrounds.
I began crafting each section of the inventory bar and applied proper clip art. After that I began creating each room, being mindful of the different variations of room colors.
Overall, it was really interesting seeing the game come together. After designing all rooms and applying clip art, I had to prototype many screens to different buttons.
Prototype Next Steps:
​
-
Create a functioning 5 minute countdown
-
Add more inventory
-
Add an inventory store so that players can unlock more furniture with their rewards from winning matches
-
Implement a multiplayer mode
We conducted 2 rounds of usability testing to ensure that the game told the right story. There were 7 participants. Ranging from ages 18-35+. This usability study allowed me to understand the game from a users perspective, which is critical when designing. I wanted to hit every pain point. We also asked for feedback on what can be improved.
