Games User Research is a field that aims to understand what motivates players and how their actions can be explained or predicted. The data that is collected about players is used to help game design.

As part of a workshop we conducted a small scale user test on a f2p mobile deckbuilding game called Harvest101, taking in efficiency, aesthetic, consistency and error prevention as considerations. It was deducted that the controls and UI were easy enough to read and that the goal of the game was clear (make enough bread by the end of the game week).

The game does a good job of guiding the player at the beginning with on-screen text instructions, however, the main problem was that the mechanics were not explained well enough therefore making the gameplay confusing, for example: allowing the player to make bread by using a Stone Sculptor card. I found it difficult to see when the deckbuilding really starts since cards seemed to always be randomised. It was clear that there are more ideal combinations of cards but it is difficult to know which one’s to use when the player isn’t sure of what the cards are used for e.g. Empty Field card.

The issues then needed to be categorised in order of severity: minor, serious, critical. Minor issues that may be a slight inconvencience but nothing awful or destructive and critical being issues that frustrate and completely ruin the game for players making them give up early. I fell victim to giving up early on, before I had even finished the first level.

Improvements

• More visual feedback or textual clarification of what actions were doing
• Events had seemingly no results or purpose to gameplay
• Some cards seem to have no real use, making them redundant
• Cards given to the player at the beginning of the game could be more interesting/useful to gain more user retention
• Game loop could be better simplified and made more interesting to avoid reptitive and mundane gameplay