Since I’ve had maps on the mind, I figured I’d talk through it more from a graphics and usability standpoint! We’ve not gone through usability testing for written components (mainly the rulebook) yet, however there is heavy consideration of component usability throughout the development process of our games.
A large concern that I had as the maps had gone through different iterations was the clarity of all the information we were trying to convey. Even without the art, the voice in the back of my mind was saying, “There’s so much green inherently in a backyard. How do we make these tiles colorblind friendly?”
Talking through it with our artist, Kyle Armstrong, and our graphic designer, Jody Henning, we were met with a few options.
Version 1: When we first saw the maps come to life we were ecstatic. It opened up a world of possibilities for what each of the yards could potentially look like. However, when viewed under a color blindness simulator, the colors were still too similar. Additionally, when printed out it did not read clearly. Once the art moves to a physical medium, you start to consider other factors that don't show up digitally like lighting, the type of paper, and even type of ink the printer uses. All of these things in combination can provide a lot of muddiness to the product as a whole when laid out on a table in front of you. There was also some confusion in regards to what terrain the hexes represented (particularly the hexes that have a mix of terrain artistically).
These early drafts were also very helpful in informing the perspective of the art as well. You can see that from the angled perspective, in image 1, there’s too much overlap between the different terrains in terms of “flare and whimsy” but not enough functionality. Compare that to image 2 where we considered the terrain type to fully sit within the hex with some of the fun art sitting on top of the border. But that was not clear enough to play on either. Eventually we landed on a top down perspective on the art, choosing to prioritize clarity over an artistic approach we may have liked more.
Version 2: There was a suggestion that maybe the borders of the hexes needed to be visually distinct from one another. There are various other instances in games where patterns in combination with color can be used as an accessibility tool to convey rules or guidelines to the players. Once they were placed on the map it was very overwhelming to the eye and wasn't quite what we were looking for. Since the base layer of art was already so detailed we did not want to take away from the personality the yards provided with these custom borders.
Version 3: One step closer towards the border we like! This is the version we’ve played with the most in our tests. It seems to call more attention to what the terrain types are. Jody even added in the borders on the sides of the maps to give them more personality and help the map pop on the table. She also added in the square symbols to signal to players that they needed to alternate tiles during setup. This was important to the map layout since we wanted to have the control icons on the left and right sides of each yard (hence squares and triangles on the borders!). Alternating which side the control icons were placed ensured that there wasn’t a big advantage in staying on a straight path. Some newer players were still having a bit of trouble parsing the hexes but we were getting closer! You can see the example below of the worry I had with all of the green in the game.
Version 4: Sometime in July, Jody made icons for each of the terrain type! This was huge. It not only helped those for accessibility reasons but was extremely helpful for those with typical vision as well! In comparison to version 2 of the borders, the icons made more impact on readability versus the literal terrain representations. Even after all of the time we’ve spent with these maps, we had some trouble differentiating what terrain our karts were on at different times. But these icons on the borders were a step in the right direction and weren’t too busy to the eye.
It is really surreal to look back on how far the team has come with the creation and development of the game. Iteration is never a straight line and we are constantly revisiting previous ideas and concepts that may or may not stick, but that’s the fun part of design and development.
We definitely have a bit more work to do but are eager to see the response to Kart! We’re launching Kart on Kickstarter here next Tuesday, September 15th so please keep an eye out!