Client: BioWare, Electronic Arts
A Canadian video game company based out of Edmonton, Alberta. In 2007 they were purchased by Electronic Arts, but, because of the quality the brandname carries with fans, they have maintained a high degree of separation and autonomy. The brand is known for producing high quality products with riveting storytelling; every game franchise they produce has been wildly successful and highly praised by their ravenous fanbase.
Roles
User Experience Designer
Visual Designer
Workshop Facilitator
Project Brief
Roleplaying Games (RPGs) are known for their compelling story arcs that span multiple games, especially those produced by BioWare (arguably the best storytellers in RPG gaming for nearly two decades). As fans play, their decisions in-game have resounding ripple effects that alter the game’s storyline. As gamers move from one game to the next, their past decisions can have wide reaching and unknown effects into future titles. To gamers, this is the thing they cherish most: their decisions matter.
With a new generation of consoles coming to market, BioWare was faced with a dilemma: develop a game that could carry gamer decisions across consoles (e.g., from Xbox to Xbox One) or develop a game that utilized new consoles to their full visual and storytelling potential. They chose the latter, and to us to help them solve the problem of carrying gamer decisions forward, not only from one generation to the other, but across types of consoles (e.g., from Xbox to PS4).
UX Toolkit
Ideation Workshops
User Interviews
Axure Prototyping
Keynote Prototyping
Information Architecture
Information Visualizations
Ecosystem Mapping
Interaction Design
User Interface Design
Project Objectives
- Design and develop a web app that allows gamers to recreate their past choices in the cloud to bring to future platforms.
- Design a scalable, gamer-facing solution to the vast number of possible story arcs (over the first two games and expansions, there were over 300 decisions with thousands of possible permutations)
- Allow new and returning gamers to explore and create alternate story-lines they may not have found in previous games.
Fun Fact
During one of the earlier stakeholder workshops, I was the one that came up with the name for the Keep! :-)
Results
The Tapestry was resounding success! Gamers were able to see their choices from past games visualized in one concise view. New player to the franchise were able to approach the vast number of choices quickly and easily and able to quickly jump into the next game in the franchise.
Awards
Gold Communicator Award for Website Structure & Navigation
Gold Communicator Award for Web Application/Service
Gold Communicator Award for Gaming Related Website
Silver Communicator Award for Visual Appeal
Best in Category Horizon Award for Games Website
“Work at Play was absolutely instrumental. We never would’ve got to where we [did] without their involvement. The core feature of the Tapestry as a visual way to set your choices was brilliant. It really made the site what it is today.”
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