“Snow Way in Hell”10 Heuristic Problems

Jeff Houchens, Dakota Daugherty, Jonathan Capps, Kyle Devlin

Controller Trollers Assignment 1Full Sail University

Game Summary

Snow Way In Hell is a side-scrolling, action/adventure game that is targeting a Teen+ audience. In the game, the player is a giant snowball that can run, jump and throw snowballs. The player’s goal is to make it out of Hell before they melt. There is no set time limit to make it through each level. The player simply has to manage their health by freezing and running into enemies to replenish it.

Problem No notification that platform(s) are causing damage to player.

Rating Moderate

Description When the player is standing on surfaces that may be harmful, there are no warnings or notification functions that the surface(s) are lowering the player’s health.

Solution The screen could either flash red, make a sound alarming the player, or the health bar could be highlighted showing it is being reduced at an increased rate.

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Visibility of System Status

Match Between System and the Real World

Problem Character enlarging has no obvious benefits.

Rating Minor

Description When the character gets larger there are no immediately noticeable benefits to the player.

Solution Remove the enlargement mechanic.

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User Control and Freedom

Problem There are no options in the escape menu options to restart level or from previous checkpoint.

Rating Important

Description If (when) a player gets stuck or wants to reset the level/checkpoint, their only option is to wait

to die, but even that does not allow for a full level reset. The only death option is previous

checkpoint.

Solution Add a “Restart from last checkpoint” or “Restart Level” to the ESC menu.

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Consistency and Standards

Problem Inconsistent projectile distance.

Rating Moderate

Description The throwing snowball mechanic does not match standard side-scrolling game shooting

mechanics. Typically, the shooting mechanics travel in a straight line. In this game, the

shooting mechanic is based on the mouse position and avatar movement. The distance of

snowball travel was randomized somehow and was frustratingly inconsistent.

Solution(s) Make the shooting mechanic not randomized and make the mechanics more consistent with

other similar games in the genre.

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Error Prevention

Problem Avatar can fall through spaces in level and falling indefinitely.

Rating Critical

Description On the third level, after the player walks next to the second switch, the switch does not active and the platform disappears to the right. When the player walks off the ledge to where he started, the avatar falls through the floor into a black area, but does not die. The player then has to wait until the health bar completely depletes before starting over. When the player starts over, he’s at the top of the area instead of starting at the beginning.

Solution There are several places in multiple levels where respawn zones aren’t working properly,

these need to be addressed before release.

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Recognition Rather Than Recall

Problem There are no way to see where the player has been within a level.

Rating Minor

Description When a player respawns, they have to remember if they’ve been. Most visuals within a level

look alike, which adds to confusion. There is no mapping system to show a player where they’

ve been.

Solution Add a minimap to track where the player is within the level space.

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Flexibility & Efficiency of Use

Problem No advanced user customization.

Rating Important

Description There are no options in any menu to increase or decrease difficulty levels. There are also no

ways to customize the UI to tailor to specific needs of players on different resolutions.

Solution Add “Level Difficulty”, “Resolution” and “Controller Options” to the “Options” menu on the

login screen.

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Aesthetic & Minimalist Design

Problem The clock timer is not visible in certain instances and may not be relevant to game play.

Rating Minor

Description At times the clock and other text UI can be difficult to read against the background. The timer

clock is not essential, as it has no bearing on completion, which makes it unnecessary clutter

to the UI.

Solution Place a UI Panel behind the Clock and/or Health Bar areas. Make the timer clock toggleable in

the options menu, so advanced(speedrun) players could use it if they desired.

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Help Users Recognize, Diagnose, and Recover From errors

Problem There are no error or warning messages within the game.

Rating Critical

Description During the second level, the screen flickered briefly, then the camera switched to a first-person camera view. There were no warnings or error messages that explained to the player what had happened. The player is unable to diagnose the error. There weren’t any indications from damage directions.

Solution Create an error log that explains the errors that are happening and how to fix them. In this case, the player had to start the game over again so the error message could state that the game has received a critical error and needs to be restarted.

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Help and Documentation

Problem There is no easily accessible game documentation.

Rating Critical

Description There is no supporting documentation for story, controls(tips), or objectives within the game.

The player has no way to know what the controls are without reading the GDD first. They are

also not informed anywhere in-game about the storyline or any objectives to complete.

Solution Add a “Help” feature to the in-game ESC menu. Add a “Controls & Tips” section to the main

menu on the title screen. Have an intro cinematic explaining the basics of the story to the

player, giving them a sense of purpose within the game itself.

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References● Isbister, K., & Schaffer, N. (2008). 6, 7, 12. Game Usability: Advice from the

Experts for Advancing the Player Experience. Burlington, MA: Morgan Kaufmann.

● Nielson, J. (1995). 10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design. Retrieved

November 1, 2015.

● Nielson, J. (1995). Characteristics of Usability Problems Found by Heuristic

Evaluation. Retrieved November 1, 2015.

● Whildin, J., West, K., Patterson, L., Mangold, M., & Gill, T. (2012). Snow Way in

Hell Game Design Document Version 4.0 (p. 43). Full Sail University.