Default tutorials for offline players are scattered accross the place. They attrack the player’s attention through animations that add to the ambiance of the game. Bloodbornes tutorials are fully integrated and add to the experience rather than disrupting it.
Continue reading Bloodborne’s optional step by step tutorials empower players
Character creation screens are usually complex. The one of Bloodborne is also complicated.
Despite generally implementing usable features and shortcuts for players, the character creation screen is somehow awkward. The screens are very cluttered with many different unrelated settings. Some things are grouped together, others separated. For example, I’ve seen players get really annoyed by face presets changing the skin color of their character.
Continue reading Bloodborne’s character creation remains quite complicated
Players somtimes confuse natural lighting with iteraction cues but interactive items are easy to identify
Light effects are very effective to draw the player’s attention on objects. In Bloodborne, the lighting tends to attrack the player to decoration that isn’t interactive. It soon becomes easy to make the difference between “natural light” and actual items to pick up thanks to a shiny dot and a highlight in the dark that is active even without a torch.
People reaction times vary depending upon the type of cue they recieve : visual or auditory. Getting the timing right requires to give clear information on the moment it can be performed. Depending upon the mastery level required and the type of interactions, cues for timings will be more or less evident.
Continue reading Bloodborne : It’s all about timing the actions right
Usability is about removing un-necessary actions to support a user’s activity. In games, this means reducing repetitive and boring tasks that don’t add value to the gameplay. Typically, while the gameplay loops include some difficulty, the interaction design of menus, controls and interfaces should be straightforward. Players need to focus on how to solve riddles, beat a boss or master a level, not struggle with menus or try to start up the game. Only few games like octodad can justify that struggling with movement is the fun part of the game. In most cases, it isn’t.
Continue reading Usability for core games and Bloodborne’s first time experience
