Touching funny words, nonsense and games every day, ghost things, new things.
Photo/Xiao Luo
I've heard the saying early on: "Good design should be intuitive and don't burden the user with too much thinking." ”
In particular, interaction design should minimize the use of text to convey information, and whether it can be easily used by users without text is even one of the criteria to test the quality of the design. But I recently experienced a beginner's guide to a Japanese game, and realized that this was a necessary but not a sufficient condition.
This game is called "Open Space", and it is a two-dimensional box garden exploration RPG produced by NetEase. Since it is currently only available on Japanese servers, and there are no language options other than Japanese, before the official start of playing, I was worried that I would not understand the game due to the language barrier. However, after the current experience, in addition to not understanding the plot, the overall gameplay experience is quite "smooth", but it is far from being "silky".
I really didn't need to know Japanese during the whole process of being a newbie. Follow the non-textual visual guidance - highlights, red dots, stars and other collection targets - etc., and you can easily walk through the teaching process; When doing tasks, you don't have to worry about not being able to find a place to hand over tasks, the game provides routes intimately; As for the system modules such as malls and activities, as well as basic gameplay such as 3D jumping, fighting, and cultivation, they are also not difficult to understand because they give people a very strong "sense of déjà vu" - after completing the opening teaching level in just a few minutes, it ushered in the familiar gacha interface......
Familiar taste......
This made me realize that in fact, many Chinese mobile games I have played before seem to be able to understand most of the functions without reading the text at the beginning of the game, and from this point of view, those novice guides have completed their mission, but are they all good designs?
The answer should be no. I briefly thought back to my past gaming experiences, and there didn't seem to be many products that could really be intuitive. In this dimension, there are two games that impress me more: the PS5 "Cosmic Robot Wireless Controller User Guide" and the "Rhythm Lightsaber" on the VR platform.
It's a rare game to be able to combine fun and instructional guidance
The former is a game that aptly names as a game to help players familiarize themselves with the controls and features of the PS5 controller, but it doesn't prevent it from providing a fun and silky experience based on the classic 3D jumping gameplay with clever level design and pacing - it even made my grandmother watch it with relish; And the latter, not only is it the only reason I've turned on VR once in a while, but it's also my go-to weapon for dealing with my relative's bear kids — no matter how noisy a child is, he can spend just 1 minute learning the basics of the game and be able to play in his room for hours.
Both games have one thing in common - they make it intuitive and fun for people who don't have similar game experience, unlike many games that are easy to pick up, but because people have been domesticated by similar gameplay or features, and some designs don't need to be thought about.
To take an extreme example, I once downloaded a well-known "legendary" mobile game out of curiosity. Contrary to the two games above, this is a game that requires no thought and is no fun (at least for me), with auto-propulsion open at a very early stage, and the corresponding gameplay experience is like watching an ancient flash animation for unknown reasons...... It is hard to imagine that a person who has no interest in the "legendary" genre would be able to endure such an experience.
It's hard to expect every product on the market to be able to do something and surprise at the same time, but it's always a good thing to have expectations.