HYENAS

MY ROLE

CREATIVE ASSEMBLY, SEGA - HORSHAM, ENGLAND

I started working at Creative Assembly and the game Hyenas in September 2019. The game's ambition and goal was to create a unique shooting experience where fast-paced fun at its core.

Hyenas was a hero shooter with distinct characters with unique abilities, weapons, and special Perks to customize the player's preferred way of playing each hero.

It was designed to be a co-op game with a big focus on playing with friends and GAAS was built into the player experience and game requirements early on.

MOCKUPS

FRONTEND SCREENS

Creating Wireframes and Mockups throuout the Frotend have shortened the time of iteration to try out Layouts, content to show on the page and potential future ideas and additions.

I then worked with UI Artists and UI Programmers to come up with a final solution that both fit the design goals, technical constrains and the desired Art direction.

LANDING PAGE

MENU & STRUCTURE

As the game developed and new features got added to the Frontend, I needed to design for flexible menus that could expand with new content or change depending on planned seasons and special events.

I designed several levelling and challenge screens that needed to be unique but also intuitively be easy to understand and use.

MY WORK

RESPONSIBILITIES

Create user flows, Menu Structures, High level Sketches, Wireframes, Mockups, details UI/UX Mockups, MVP Design, Prioritasation listing, Screen Flow mapping, Content Structure, collection of Playtest Feedback, Survey Analysis, Problem Solver, Onboarding Design, UX writing & copy, Colour Phychology across the game, Accessability & Settings list owner, Controller Button Mapping, Power Point presentations & Task/Feature owner.

I was also the creator and manager of countless Confluence pages that have kept the team up to date with the latest Screen designs, features, UI, and priorities. Using my skills in creating clear User-Flows, Mockups, writing User-Stories, and setting priorities for tasks and implementation. This allowed the design and Jira tasks to reflect what the priorities were and why across multiple teams.

EXTRA MAGIC

I have worked closely with all types and levels of Game Designers to help their vision for the design and intended player experience come through in the information and UI we communicate to the player and in what way we want to guide them to be successful in having fun playing!

As a UX Designer, I have also driven the design thinking, importance, and creating easy frameworks for making the game have an Accessibility Design built into it from the start. I have also been the owner of and driver of the ultimate Settings list with options we would have in the game so players could get the best gaming experience for them.

GAAS

BATTLEPASS

CELEBRATE PLAYER PROGRESSION

I designed the UX and screens for the progression systems to celebrate player progression and engage them in the Battlepass system that will give players new content in the GAAS (game as a service).

PROGRESSION PAGES

PLANNING FUTURE CONTENT

I focused on using images, colors, and allowing the fun rewards to engage players on the Battlepass screen.

Showing clear progression, states, timelines, and what's next to look forward to.

This Mockup state is closer to the final UI than Wireframes, because at this stage of development we were close to releasing the game so this spead up my decition making and collaboration with UI Art.

GAME START

CHARACTER SELECT

MOCKUPS

I did a lot of iteration work on the character select screen, because as the game was developed, new abilities, character options, and requirements were added.

I was inspired by what worked in other team-based shooter games, and used that for inspiration, but also not to do the exact same design as other games.

character details

MOCKUPS

As the characters were developed and expanded on, we needed better ways to showcase their specialities and abilities on the battlefield.

I created a minimalistic concept to showcase the equipped abilities and weapons on the selection screen, as well as a larger screen with more detials and giving the ability to costumize the character before the match started.

HUD PLANNING

WIREFRAME

For us to plan the amount of elements we used on the HUD across the game, I set up a document to plan the layout, UI sizing, and to easily see what elements are permanently on the HUD (in black) and what elements are only seen temporarily (in white).

I had to carefully consider the mental load for the player, because Hyenas was a very hectic and fast game, and this helped me do so. We also took a lot of inspiration from other PvP games on the market as a benchmark for out UX.

By creating MVP designs & Mockups, leading to fast playtesting and iterations needed to change and polish each feature.

GAMEPLAY HUD

MOCKUPS

I worked closely with Game Designers, VFX, Level Design and UI Art to create a clear HUD as well as a design for gameplay events and functionalities that would delight players.

4 years of development on a new IP has led to many new designs, gameplay functions and new directions. But I made sure to work closely with the team through each change improvement to make sure that the Game Designs, as well as the players will be happy with the result of how and what we communicate in the game.

Player and Team states, the competition, Weapon & Health HUD, minimap, location state and large Game Events were just a few things we needed to communicate to the players.

A SOCIAL GAME

TEAM PLAY

MAKE IT WASY TO PLAY WITH FRIENDS

As Hyenas was at its core a social game, with teams of 3 players, a big part of my work was to make it fast and easy for players to team up with friends in a party.

I designed screens to find friends, connect to them, team up, compare levels and skills, as well as Lederboards to compare your skills to your friends and the world.

email: anna.wii@hotmail.com