MyKZ - Community Engagement
OVERVIEW
MyKZ is a mobile companion app designed for the game series Killzone, developed by Guerrilla Games and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. The mobile app aims to keep Killzone players engaged with redeeming in-game currency (Valor), customizing loadouts, viewing leaderboards, and news.
PLATFORM
Mobile iOS
TOOLS
Photoshop, Illustrator, Sketch, Figma
SCOPE
12 Weeks
ROLE
UX UI Designer
The Problem
Killzone is a well-established game series developed by Guerrilla Games.
AAA game development has seen an increase in costs over each game console generation.
A big component is their multiplayer game services.
Keeping players engaged on the platform and game is the challenge.
While there are more competitive titles in established regions, developing markets are latching on to the Killzone series.
The Solution
MyKZ is a mobile app that allows gamers to see and track their multiplayer statistics compared through all titles in the Killzone universe. Along with statistical comparison with friends and clan members. With the introduction of Killzone: Mercenary came the in-game currency of Valor. Valor is used in Killzone Shadow Fall in the form of purchasing upgrades during matches. Users could redeem their Valor collected to access upgrades in advance, before returning to the console game.
Research and Process
Myself being a fan of the Killzone series, I conducted some of my user research in the game. I engaged in brief conversations with users within the multiplayer modes of mostly Killzone: Shadow Fall and Killzone Mercenary. The dialogue centred around their favourite class, load outs, and how often they spent their Valor. It was kept to a general discussion as we were focused mostly on playing with the game.
Not too recently it was announced by PlayStation that the game servers for Killzone 2 and 3 for the PlayStation 3 would be going offline permanently. I figured it would be a perfect time to revisit the game, as I still had my copy. Logging into the game servers I was surprised how many people were still actively playing, considering most people were on to PlayStation 4 playing Killzone: Shadow Fall. Unfortunately, I kept getting paired with either Europe or South American server. Most of my game sessions involved with me listening to people talk who didn’t know English. Even if I talked about the game, I would get the occasional one-word answers.
I then searched for online groups dedicated to Killzone on Facebook. I was able to gain more input and deploy polls and surveys to gauge the current fanbase. I wanted to hear how they felt about the Killzone series, and what would keep them playing.
Wireframes
The first set of wireframes for MyKZ. I originally sketched them out in my sketchbook and then started placing them in Sketch. Simple shapes and text to block out the focused areas where the content would go.
High Fidelity Screens
Originally I wanted to go with some actual images from the Killzone games. I instead opted to go with more flat colours and gradients similar to menu UI used in Killzone Mercenary, and the game cutscenes.
Prototype
At the time I only focused on crafting a few of the high fidelity screens of MyKZ. I composed these mockups to give a sense of how it would look in operation. My plan is to craft a working prototype of MyKZ. I was exploring Adobe XD and Figma at the time, to see which to bring MyKZ over to prototype in.
Update - Figma Prototype
I decided to revisit this section of the case study of MyKZ. I opted to go with Figma as I wanted to learn more about the application and put some practice into it. Many designers in the UX and UI community I’ve chatted with praise the use of the application.
Working on the prototype, gave me a chance to look over original design concepts, and consider some new revisions. It’s made me realize I should have done more iterations during the wireframing phase. If I do revisit the MyKZ prototype, I would like to practice more on the interaction design components. Using Figma allowed me to also develop a design system. It was a good reminder to not stray off too far from the original visual design I had crafted.
Conclusion
Takeaways
Blackjack
During my user research, I asked if gamers would like a passive mini-game for Valor embedded with MyKZ. By using the character Blackjack introduced in Killzone: Mercenary, a simple rebranding game of the card game classic would be a great idea. A fun way to collect Valor on the go on your mobile device.
Prototype & Usability Testing
I would like to send out a build of the MyKZ prototype to the Killzone community to try out and get more feedback. I am also considering reaching out to members of the development team at Guerrilla Games to have their feedback.
It’s been an interesting challenge revisiting this case study. Since the release of the game, the online gaming landscape has changed drastically.
Premium Currency - Games like Fortnite and Rainbow Six: Siege and Call of Duty have introduced premium currency. Instead of playing the game for multiple hours to achieve in-game currency, the option to pay for premium in-game currency to purchase desired items.
Season Passes - The creation of season passes / battle passes have provided players a more solid roadmap to what the game developers have planned for the year. A more solid idea of when game content will be put in rotation.
New IP - Guerrilla Games have since moved on from the Killzone series to create the new series Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West.
New Killzone - The PlayStation community is still waiting for the return of a new Killzone entry. With recent gaming acquisitions and exclusive deals causing uncertainty; Killzone could see a resurgence. With the PlayStation 5 slow-release, there’s a large user base of 100 million PlayStation 4 sold. It was reported in December 2021, that the current level of PlayStation Plus subscribers totalled 48 million.
