Forest Fires: A Usability Post-Mortem of Root | Joshua Yearsley
33Root is an acclaimed asymmetric strategy board game—so let's talk about all its mistakes! Joshua Yearsley, Root's usability developer, will tell some stories of Root's development gone right and wrong, and what game developers can learn from his mistakes in rules writing, graphic and component design, user experience research, and more. He will raise questions about how user research practices in board games can inform those in video games, especially as video games and board games continue to draw inspiration from each other, and about how we can foster healthy communities when creating games that draw from both mixes of hardcore and mainstream audiences. This talk is suitable for both newer practitioners (since it contains plenty of rookie mistakes!) and veterans alike, especially those with limited exposure to tabletop game UX work.
Speaker:
Joshua Yearsley (Leder Games) is a developer and editor who has worked in tabletop games for eight years. He has contributed to over a hundred games, including the Leder Games hits Root, Vast, Fort, and Oath, as well as many others from top studios including Asmodee, Fantasy Flight Games, and IDW. Before becoming a developer, he was a published scientist. Bringing together his scientific background and love for games, he is equally at home working on articles about modulating Fermi level pinning at metal–oxide interfaces and on games about noir investigations and druidic magick.
Sections
Introduction: 0:00
Description of Root and Talk: 0:12
Icon Testing: 1:36
Storytelling & Feedback: 6:57
Affordances: 13:21
Context: 21:53
Context Part II: 26:42
Cognitive Load: 36:01
About #gamesUR Conference
Games User Research focuses on players’ psychology and their behavior via techniques such as playtesting, analytics, expert analysis, and others. Game User Researchers aim to help game developers deliver players the best gaming experience possible.
The #gamesUR Conference is a biannual gathering of the world's top professionals in games user research. For more information visit www.gamesurconf.com.