Hi, I'm Tendisai. I'm the UX/UI designer for Protectress VR. I've thoroughly enjoyed taking on this role, which represents my first foray into the UX, gaming, and immersive space. 

At the initial stage of the design process, while Valerie and Sharrae--our narrative design and writing team--worked away on the script and Derek started thinking about sound design, music, and hiring voice and motion capture actors, I started to conduct research. I learned some of the basic principles of game design, player psychology and how the industry conducts player research. 

I then created a survey,  based on player psychology concepts/theories, so that potential players can evaluate our game concept. I divided it into two parts: the first part consisted of questions about player archetypes, while the second part focused on evaluating the project. We sent the survey to individuals with varying levels of gaming and virtual reality experience and received valuable feedback from 13 respondents, which informed our design process. 

Using the Bartle taxonomy of player types, the majority of respondents self-identified as “explorers” (driven to discover the unknown) followed “achievers” (desires to achieve goals quickly and completely).

Going further into gamer motivation, respondents are primarily motivated by entertainment,  followed by the desire to experience a compelling story or character. Also having an immersive experience, learning something new, discovery and embarking on a journey were identified as important. 

The majority of the respondents rated our game concept quite high which was very encouraging! We also received great feedback on ways to improve our the experience.

These are just some of the insights gleaned from the survey responses which have helped to inform our design decision. After synthesizing the data, I created two user personas. Here's one:

On other aspects of the game, I made user-centred suggestions including:

• Suggesting a script revision that resulted in more inclusive, gender-neutral language
• Advocating for less scripted content and more game play time so that user can feel engaged
• Suggesting design elements to ensure the user would be stimulated and engaged throughout

I have been working closely with our developer to conceptualize the game mechanics. I also did the  VR controller mapping and created detailed flow charts of the entire experience.  I worked with a graphic designer to create the UI assets that will be used within the virtual environment to help orient the user. She also designed the promotional graphics (first image). We're going into playtesting this week and we're looking forward to see how people respond to the game!