Sections
- Dwarf Fortress General Overview
- Goals for Redesign
- Research / Data
- Analysis / Hypothesis
- Re-Design
- Credits
Dwarf Fortress General Overview
Dwarf Fortress is a fantasy world simulation game where the player takes control of a dwarf or group of dwarves to either explore a randomly generated and populated world or build a fortress for a colony of dwarves to live in. The entire world is randomly generated based on a few parameters from the player. In this generation, the world is also generated its own history with many different kings and monsters of all sorts of races. The depth that the game generation goes into with these is incredible, able to make all sorts of different things that the player can then either find or hear about in the actual game. This can cause all sorts of different reactions to both the player and the dwarves they are controlling, leading this game to be one of the best examples of emergent gameplay in the industry. This all however comes at a cost of being incredibly complex and hard to both understand and read at times. The game itself originally comes in ASCII graphics and with the variety of different things you can find this makes things incredibly difficult to understand to a casual observer. The game also does very little to explain things from the beginning to the player, which is why I have done this project to redesign the new user experience for the game in hopes of making it more easily accessible and desirable to a wider audience.
Goals for Redesign
- Identify the problems players have when they first begin playing
- Find the pain points that are causing these problems
- Redesign the pain points to be clearer and more defined
- Combine like functions to lower clutter and extra space
Research / Data
To research the topic of a redesign for the new user experience for Dwarf Fortress, I wanted to get a firm grasp on what the experience was like for people who are currently playing the game. To find this out I went out into the forums and discords of fans of the game and both talked to people to discover their opinions as well as formulated a survey to send to people to get their opinions. In this survey I tried to focus on both when they started playing as well as their feeling on the various elements that confused them when they started playing. The goal of this was to see the major pain points they had with the game and see how each individual user overcame these roadblocks. In an ideal situation, the game itself would help mitigate any potential roadblocks as well as guide them through any initial areas of confusion. My data however suggested otherwise.
General Data
The general data I wanted to get a grasp on before I started involved mostly how long people had been playing, as well as their thoughts on the controls and how much they used the mouse. How long they had been playing gave me a good look at player retention over time, so that I could see the extent of how impactful any of the current problems new users face is. I wanted to get a grasp on the controls as well to see if there were any major problems there with how players felt about them, as well as seeing how much people used the mouse. Most people who responded to the survey were long time veterans of the game who had been playing quite a while, though I still did get some responses from people who had played less. It seems that overall, the controls proved easy to get used to for most players, which surprised me, but it did have a steady decrease over the responses. The last bit about the mouse didn’t surprise me, as the mouse doesn’t have too many functions in game, it seems that a lot of players don’t use the mouse or don’t use it often.
Graphics Data
One of the important things I wanted to get a feel for is the kinds of graphics people used when they first started playing. Dwarf Fortress original graphics uses a complex ASCII graphics display, which I believed could cause new players to both be off put by it as well as generally confused. This could impact a new user’s desire to stay with the game and try to figure it out. Texture packs for the game typically make the game a bit more pleasant to look at as well as defining things more and making them easier to understand. Overall, it seemed from my survey that the amount of people started playing with a texture pack was slightly less than those started playing with the original graphics, but still was relatively close to each other.
First Time Experience Data
For this section of the survey, I really wanted to understand how people understood the game when they first started playing, as the game does little to explain itself to the players. Right off the bat from the survey, I learned that none of the players learned to play the game through gameplay alone. Everyone used some sort of supplementary form of information to help them into the game, be it videos or wiki tutorials. The lack of overall direction and tutorialization in the game could be a big reason for confusion for new players and be a huge impact on its new user experience.
Another portion of this was to find out if players were using a Third-Party mod for the game called the LazyNewbPack when they first started playing. This mod helps compile a lot of useful information about the game into an easy to read Interface for the game, so the player can have a much easier time understanding and setting some parameters of the game. I was surprised that more players didn’t start using this than not, but there was still a fair amount of people who did, roughly 25%.
The last bit of the data that I looked at was elements of the game that caused the greatest amount of confusion to players newly starting out. Users could select more than one element in this section if multiple things caused them confusion. I was not surprised that one of the elements that caused the highest amount of confusion for the players was the User Interface, being very utilitarian in the game and cramming lots of elements together with little explanation. Other elements that caused the most confusion were the dwarfs themselves with their incredibly in-depth personalities and emotions, as well as the controls for the game with didn’t surprise me either for the same reason as the UI.
Another portion of this was to find out if players were using a Third-Party mod for the game called the LazyNewbPack when they first started playing. This mod helps compile a lot of useful information about the game into an easy to read Interface for the game, so the player can have a much easier time understanding and setting some parameters of the game. I was surprised that more players didn’t start using this than not, but there was still a fair amount of people who did, roughly 25%.
The last bit of the data that I looked at was elements of the game that caused the greatest amount of confusion to players newly starting out. Users could select more than one element in this section if multiple things caused them confusion. I was not surprised that one of the elements that caused the highest amount of confusion for the players was the User Interface, being very utilitarian in the game and cramming lots of elements together with little explanation. Other elements that caused the most confusion were the dwarfs themselves with their incredibly in-depth personalities and emotions, as well as the controls for the game with didn’t surprise me either for the same reason as the UI.
Analysis / Hypothesis
Analysis
From my finding, I see that a lot of the confusion that new players have from the game comes from the current UI of the game and the controls. Even though most people said that the controls were fairly easy to get used to, there was a wide spectrum of responses to that one, and half of the participants in the survey had selected the UI and the controls as their biggest confusions when first playing the game.
Another element that I had found was that many of the players weren’t using the mouse very much while playing. There currently isn’t a whole lot of uses for the mouse while playing the game, so this element was unsurprising, but it is an entire element of controls not being effectively utilized by the game.
In addition, roughly 25% of the players used a third-party mod to play the game that simplifies various elements of the game and gives more easy control over some of the game’s parameters. If this is needed by players to make it newer player accessible, that could really hurt the games marketability if potential players can’t find it.
Finally, it would also seem that none of the players who responded to the survey were able to figure out how to play simply through the game alone. All of them used some sort of supplemental information from videos to wiki / tutorials to figure out how to play when they first started. This is essentially a requirement to learn the game and could really be off putting to new players.
Another element that I had found was that many of the players weren’t using the mouse very much while playing. There currently isn’t a whole lot of uses for the mouse while playing the game, so this element was unsurprising, but it is an entire element of controls not being effectively utilized by the game.
In addition, roughly 25% of the players used a third-party mod to play the game that simplifies various elements of the game and gives more easy control over some of the game’s parameters. If this is needed by players to make it newer player accessible, that could really hurt the games marketability if potential players can’t find it.
Finally, it would also seem that none of the players who responded to the survey were able to figure out how to play simply through the game alone. All of them used some sort of supplemental information from videos to wiki / tutorials to figure out how to play when they first started. This is essentially a requirement to learn the game and could really be off putting to new players.
Hypothesis
Looking at the data, it seems the biggest problems with the game are the control scheme, the UI, and the overall lack of direction given to new players for how to play the game and what they need to do. To combat each of these issues, I will design a change to the way the game currently does it.
Control Scheme:
For the control scheme, I will focus on combining different elements of the games current controls that are like each other into their own functions. This will work to reduce the amount of clutter on the games already complicated and varied controls and bring it back to a more manageable and easier to comprehend level. In addition to this, I will utilize the mouse more and give the game both context sensitive mouse controls, and a radial menu that can be accessed through the mouse. This will help players have easy access to a simple menu for things in the game and be able to quickly do things with the use of a mouse and the new hotkeys I will be creating.
User Interface:
The current user interface is very utilitarian for the game, just being a dump of all the possible info a player could need right off the start without much organization except into sub menus. To change this, I will swap the UI from the menu on the side with all the different options to a more standard lower bar with different sections for all the different types of interactions. From there you will be able to get into the more detailed sub menus that have been cleaned up and compiled during the control scheme portion. In addition, I will add more graphics to the User Interface to make it easier to understand to a new player just looking at the game.
Lack of Direction:
While some may find the lack of direction the game initially gives players to be charming, it is something that can be incredibly off-putting to new players. What I will do for this is add in an objective’s menu for the game, showcasing various things that the player will need to get their fortress up and running. Once they finish off a series of early beginning objectives that will get them into the game, they will then have options to have more in depth objectives or not. This will allow players that don’t want more objectives or find them intrusive to opt out of them, but also give players who want or need more guidance a way to get that. In addition, players will be able to turn off any additional objectives right from the start if it is something they never want.
Control Scheme:
For the control scheme, I will focus on combining different elements of the games current controls that are like each other into their own functions. This will work to reduce the amount of clutter on the games already complicated and varied controls and bring it back to a more manageable and easier to comprehend level. In addition to this, I will utilize the mouse more and give the game both context sensitive mouse controls, and a radial menu that can be accessed through the mouse. This will help players have easy access to a simple menu for things in the game and be able to quickly do things with the use of a mouse and the new hotkeys I will be creating.
User Interface:
The current user interface is very utilitarian for the game, just being a dump of all the possible info a player could need right off the start without much organization except into sub menus. To change this, I will swap the UI from the menu on the side with all the different options to a more standard lower bar with different sections for all the different types of interactions. From there you will be able to get into the more detailed sub menus that have been cleaned up and compiled during the control scheme portion. In addition, I will add more graphics to the User Interface to make it easier to understand to a new player just looking at the game.
Lack of Direction:
While some may find the lack of direction the game initially gives players to be charming, it is something that can be incredibly off-putting to new players. What I will do for this is add in an objective’s menu for the game, showcasing various things that the player will need to get their fortress up and running. Once they finish off a series of early beginning objectives that will get them into the game, they will then have options to have more in depth objectives or not. This will allow players that don’t want more objectives or find them intrusive to opt out of them, but also give players who want or need more guidance a way to get that. In addition, players will be able to turn off any additional objectives right from the start if it is something they never want.
Re-Design
Current Layout of Standard Game
Analysis
Looking at the current layout for the UI and controls for the game, you can see along the left side of the screen there is simply just a huge menu with all the different possible controls of the game. No icons or graphics to differentiate anything, you simply must take your time to read and understand what each possibly vague control is. In addition, there is a bunch of random information scattered around the screen and not located in centralized location, such as the date being at the top right whereas the weather is the top left. As this is the first screen you hop into, with little explanation to what things are, it is not surprise that players often must seek out other methods for understanding the game. There is also no direction for the player as to what they need to be doing now that they have loaded into the game. It simply drops them off with the confusing controls and leaves the players to themselves.
Main Problems
- Lack of explanation (Either graphically or through text) as to what each command is
- Decentralized informational elements around the screen
- Lumped together controls with little to differentiate themselves from each other
- No direction for the player as to what they need to do to get started
Redesign Layout
Analysis
Taking away the old UI in its large and confusing setup, I have opted instead to go for a more standard bottom bar with the different controls and menus the players need to access within it. I worked to condense all the different controls as much as I could, having room for the different unique options I need to have at the bottom right. Players can sort through the different options using the Actions, Dwarves, Crafting, and Events tab. In addition, to give the players more options but without immediately overwhelming them with them, when a player selects an option a radial menu will show up, expanding on the different options they can do with that action. This helps keeps the depth of actions that the game had originally but gives them more space and creates less clutter. I also condensed more information into the bottom bar so that the information the player needs is closer together, leaving the weather on its own in a corner so the player can access it when they need to. Finally, I added in an objectives bar. This with a tutorial at the start of the game will help the player have more direction with the game and know what they need to do.
How it Addresses Issues
Lack of explanation as to what commands are
- Placed in a series of new icons to give players an idea of what the commands are
- Increased the size of the different commands so players can see them
- Condensed the elements around the main bar in the bottom right
- Placed information into a more standard bottom bar for the game
- Split controls into different sections that can be accessed through the different tabs in the bottom bar
- Placed more in-depth controls within a radial menu that goes after selecting an option to keep depth but not overwhelm players
- Created a bigger space for each icon and command to give more differentiation between them
- Added in an objective menu that allows players to see what they need to get started
- Planned for a tutorial for the game that will give the player some clue how to play before they get started
Credits
Game
Dwarf Fortress
Bay12Games
Icons Used
from Game-Icons.net
available on https://game-icons.net
Dwarf Fortress
Bay12Games
Icons Used
from Game-Icons.net
available on https://game-icons.net