Zombears Attack

Zombears Attack is a multi-player social deduction online game brimming with deceit, betrayals, accusations and hilarious memories.

As a young adult who is stuck at home during the Covid-19 pandemic, I want to stay connected with my friends by recreating our game nights while safely in our own separate homes, so that I don’t feel so isolated.

Role: UI/UX Designer

My Responsibilities:

The team consisted of two people, I took on the responsibilities of the UI/UX Designer while working with my engineer partner.

My responsibilities included conducting user research, brainstorming sessions, creating a MoSCoW map, wireframing, user flows, designing UI mockups, and usability tests.

Project Duration: 2 months

Team: 2 members: 1 UX Designer & 1 Fullstack Software Engineer

 
zombears-home.jpg

Many young people have become increasingly lonely and are experiencing a decline in mental health due to long periods of quarantine, self-isolation, and general anxiety about the COVID-19 pandemic.

My team wanted to provide a safe, meaningful, and fun social engagement for those in self-isolation during the Covid-19 pandemic.

We used an Agile process to create this game.

agile.png

Since this game was created to entertain me and my friends, I began with some simple user research by conducting a survey with my friends about their favorite games from before the pandemic. The response was overwhelmingly leaning towards social-deduction games like werewolf and mafia which we played during our game nights. I decided to build an online social-deduction game that integrates with video calls. My engineer and I brainstormed features and gameplay that were focused on recreating an environment similar to in-person game nights. After deciding on the mvp features using a MoSCoW map, we followed an Agile iteration process to design, develop, and test. I conducted 5 usability tests to test gameplay and feature functionality.

 

I conducted a survey to collect qualitative and quantitative data.

The main questions I wanted answered were :

  1. What type of game was most popular amongst my friends?

  2. What features would be required to create an environment that mimics in-person game nights?

All the brainstormed features and game play for the game were organized in a MoSCoW map.

We decided easy access to a video call invite integrated into the platform was pivotal for recreating our game nights.

Lo-fi Wireframes & User flows

 

My team faced many constraints the main one being none of us having any experience building an online game.

I also did not feel like my digital illustration skills were up to par for creating beautiful graphics for the game. I did my best in designing characters that matched the brand of the product. We also used free resources to create the games sceneries. The team overcame the challenge of having no game building experience through research, learning on the job, and a lot of usability testing and feedback.

 
Bear View.png

The final product was a success because my friends enjoyed playing it whenever we wanted to connect during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The reaction of users has been overall positive and our friends have introduced it to their friends and families. Because it is not something that we plan to monetize, we’re extremely satisfied with it just being a fun game that brings people together during a difficult time.

I also learned to become more adaptable because I had to build a product drastically different from the web apps I was used to designing. Learning about game design and development was a fun eye-opening experience.