This video demonstrates a critical analysis on the design of Super Mario Odyssey's Cappy mechanic, as well as relating it to another game with a similar mechanic.

Through this research, I gained an appreciation for simple design. Cappy is the core mechanic in Mario Odyssey and solves multiple design problems from movement and limited controls, puzzles and challenges faced, and the level design and interactions in the world, creating one cohesive system for all players to experience.

I was tasked to analyze good and bad puzzle designs within a game and present my findings. Through analyzing different levels I was able to conclude that good level design focuses on teaching the player 1 specific rule or mechanic and challenging their knowledge of it throughout the level. Bad puzzle design often involves "Pick a Pipe" puzzles, where players must randomly guess the correct pipe or door to enter. To fix this, the designer must include a hint as to which pipe/door is the correct one to enter to be called a puzzle.

The speaker notes can be accessed by pressing the 3 dots at the bottom left -> "Open Speaker Notes".

As a group we were tasked to play a game and analyze its UX based on the Gestalt Principles and Visual Hierarchy Principles, then make some changes using these principles as a basis. When playing the game I noticed myself dying and hitting one spike trap many times in my run, and so I thought, "There must be a reason why I'm hitting this trap constantly". It is cognitive overload, and so I increased the contrast between the ground and the spike trap to allow players to identify more clearly where the trap is while focusing on dodging the boss' attacks.

All my slides have "Lucas Zakaria" on the top left.

As a group we were tasked to analyze the UX of an online game community, compare it with a competitor, and redesign the experience to be more user-friendly. I analyzed the usability pillars and heuristics that are at play in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. One pillar where ACNH fails is minimum workload, where players are required to repeat simple actions instead of providing bulk options. I designed a re-work of their shopping system to account for this usability pattern starting on slide 19.

All my slides have "Lucas Zakaria" on the top right.

I was tasked to play the first 30 minutes of a mobile game, then fill out an onboarding plan (seen on slides 3-5) and identify the types of affordances used during the play session. 

Angry Birds 2 does an excellent job onboarding new players as they have practical tutorials that do not take long, and introduce new content without overloading information.