UX and rhythm in video game onboarding: Grey's Anatomy
- rigesklaine
- 3 oct 2019
- 8 Min. de lectura
Pick up your popcorn and take a seat. Today, we are dealing with the real drama.
We are talking about Grey’s anatomy! No, not the show. Yes, there is a video game. No, it is not weird that you didn’t hear of it. Yes, I also don’t know who was the decision to make.
And why should we talk about it? Because there is a lot to talk about, and thus, to learn about this game. In this article we will go thoroughly through the first minutes of the gameplay, where all the main mechanics are shown, and analyze what went wrong as far as UX is concerned. A gameplay by Tori M. is used as reference for screenshots and to facilitate first sight information to the reader.
The game is quite straightforward. Each arc is made of various scenes. Scenes follow a different character each and consist in a series of cutscenes challenged by brief gameplay moments. It is a sort of TV episode with some minigames involved in it. There are three types of gameplay:
1. Choices: We decide how does the character react between two options. The decision is made by completing a puzzle.
2. Challenges: Described by the game as “happen when the character needs help with a single goal”. Ambiguous as it is, they normally consist of different minigames in which we collect/avoid feelings needed to do something, though many times is just gameplay for the sake of it.
3. Surgery: Medical procedures converted to simple minigame steps.
If the player fails any of these, a failure screen pops up and shows current lives (1 to 5 hearts). Losing all of them would mean replaying the whole scene. By the end every scene there is a rating screen which gives a score depending only on the remaining lives.
And that is all you need to know beforehand. Now, let’s get into matter.
FAILURE & RATING
First of all, let’s talk about these two. The game pays almost no importance at all to them and it is a pity, because doing so will help the experience a lot helping the player understand short- and long-term goals.
1. Lack of failure introduction: There is no mentioning of the lives/hearts mechanic until the player fails a minigame, which could be long into the game, as they are not that hard, especially during the beginning. These affects the UX in two main ways: first, every scene ends with a rating based on your lives and provided that you haven’t been explained about those hearts, the rating system will be foreign to you. Secondly, failure states are a fundamental part of the user experience and understanding how to fail is part of understanding success and goals. Getting the player to know about the hearts since the very beginning will establish a chore mechanic that will anchor the player during the various and different minigames.
2. Forcing the player to memorize current lives: There is no way for the player to know how many lives have been lost during the scene and how many are left. They should appear on screen during the minigames or at least when being explained. The less we force our players to memorize, the better.
3. Visual issues with the failure screen: There are two main issues with the failures screen: the first and most important is that the very first heart you lose is very difficult to see. Look at the picture above, there is a black heart on the right, placed over a black background. This could be easily avoided just using a bright trace or glow. The second one only happens the very first time you fail a minigame, though it is remarkable as it shows a pattern in the game. Text appears, explaining the lives mechanic but it is fragmented and you have to click three times and load three texts before being able to try again. In following sections, we will see how the game is constantly elongating explanations into many steps and interrupting the gameplay.
4. Binary rating and absence of challenge: The rating system is only based on remaining lives. Players need to pass all minigames to move forward, so the rating now is only a reminder of their failures and their only motivation during the minigames, to not fail, because they will be stuck. Why not adding the timer to the equation and motivate the player by rating his execution? This would also add a sense of replay value and provide the player with a further goal.
CHOICES
The pictures below show the screen flow of the very first choice the game offers you when starting the game. This is the first time you really play actively and the very first contact with game mechanics. Let’s analyze some issues that the UX is showing:
1. Screen as a hotchpotch: In picture 1, the text above is an inner thought of the character and the text below, a gameplay explanation. These have completely different content and purpose, though they look really similar and are not separated at all. It makes difficult for the user to understand what is happening in the screen and which is the current goal of the character.
2. Difficulty to relate with the choice: These are weirdly described as two ways of getting the same thing and there is a stress in the “no wrong answer” scheme so… why is the outcome of the choice? Why should I care?
3. Mechanic poorly introduced: The order of the screens creates confusion. In picture 2, the player thinks that the choice is being made that moment, when clicking in either one or the other picture. When clicked, the screen changes to picture 3, in which suddenly the player is told about a goal, but… wasn’t the choice the goal? Out of the blue, now there is a puzzle to be completed!
4. Asynchrony between player impulses and the game’s rhythm: Player is told that time matters and that there is a timer for every choice and challenge. Picture 4 encourages you to click, but no! It is not time yet, another text appears (Picture 5), explaining again that you have to click, and only then you can start solving the puzzle.
5. Vague instructions: “Click to place?” Does it mean that I have to click the piece and then place it where it corresponds or is it placed automatically? And remember! There is a timer!
CHALLENGES
Challenges are varied and mostly unpredictable. These are the most common gameplay moments, specially during the very first act, and still they are showing similar issues as the ones mentioned in the choices section. Pictures will show now different moments of different challenges according with the specific issue.
1. Screen as a hotchpotch: Once again, all the gameplay falls into a little white cornered box where there is no separation between inner thoughts of a character, gameplay explanations, automatic animations and actions meant to be done by the player.
2. Inconsistency in explanations: There way minigames are explained varies every time: once you are meant to simulate the mechanic beforehand (first picture), others it is show with an automatic animation (second), some are only explained with text and pictures (third), a few take various screens to be explained, and there are moments where there is no explanation at all about what is going to happen.
3. Difficulty to relate with the game: Some of the challenges have an in-game meaning, for example literally gathering courage or dissipating doubts, but others have no meaning at all and therefore, make the experience shallow for the player. It is also difficult to link what is happening during the minigames, which all happen in the same inner limbo with what is happening in the game. You will suddenly find yourself unfolding paper balls with pictures of your boss in order to… speak with him?
4. Non predictable gameplay: This is a continuation of the one before. It is not only that the experience is shallow, it is the fact that most of the time, there is no way for you to know when a challenge is coming up and let alone guess what it is going to be about. Sometimes even when you are in it, there is no explanation and you are thrown with some random commands. The picture below is the previous and allegedly explanation to a challenge. Try to guess what is it going to be about.
5. Vague instructions: There are many times in which the instructions are not as clear as could be or turn out to be confusing. The problem are not only the instructions by themselves, but the fact that those combined with all the problems above, hinders their interpretation. The series of pictures below show the flow of one of the most confusing challenges: your goal in pictures 2 and 3 is vague, then in picture 4 there is an excess of information for the player, motivating to click any corner (which is not possible), then picture number 5 actually shows which corner should the player click, forces the player to unfold that specific picture and it is eventually the correct one.
So… there was no challenge at all, we do not know which other options there were and we only followed up a settled path.
SURGERY
Before starting the surgery, an introductory board appears and titles the following. Each surgery is divided in consecutive steps and parts (not consecutive play segments).
1. Non fluid gameplay: Before each step, your cursor turns into a tool and a title appears and the pattern of your movement is shown. Then the tool disappears and becomes a cursor again, while an explanation of the step appears. Finally, the explanation disappears and you can start operating.
2. Repetitive instructions: Remember vague instructions? The problem is prominent now that every step is described as click and drag. Using those same words every time break the illusion the gameplay is trying to create.
3. Absence of context: Sometimes the title of the action does not appear and it is not that clear for the player to understand what is going on. That means taking out the player of the experience.
4. Unknown completion of goals: The board says how many steps contains the part of the operation you are going to play, but it does not state how many parts does the operation consist of. That and the fact that after completing the steps, the board shows a “Procedure complete” message makes impossible and thus frustrating for the player, as your goals and achievements are neither known nor celebrated.
In summary, being a surgeon is hard, but it should not be this hard. The problems with the UX mainly fall in two categories: confusion due to uncertainty of what is going to happen or vague information on screen, and interruption provoked by the game itself that is constantly stopping the player from playing. Both problems combined make the game feel arrhythmic. Cutscenes could lead to gameplay at any moment, transitions are not fluid nor predictable, it is difficult to relate both cutscenes and gameplay segments and these segments need constant explanations which can be redundant or demand different things from the player.
Good news is that we learn from these issues. Understanding how does a game make the player feels, analyzing the user experience, is vital to create a fluid and entertaining game. This is a reference, a story of a game that fell into oblivion. It happened because of the players, due to their difficulties to connect with it and go with the flow.
Unfortunately this time, not even the hospital with the hottest and sassiest doctors could help it.
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