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Doom Lagoon (Creating an Accessible RTS)

  • StarCraft II Editor
  • 1v1 RTS
  • StarCraft II Arcade: "Doom Lagoon"
Download GDD
Download Progress Summaries
Download Test Notes
Download Research Notes
Download Survey Data
Summary
This project was my thesis topic for for my Master of Interactive Technology degree. I attempted to create an accessible version of Starcraft II that is playable by a wide range of players. I admire Blizzard's ability to create games (Heroes of the Storm, Overwatch, Hearthstone) that are fun and playable by a huge player base that may not have even played that genre of games before. Because RTS games are generally some of the most complex and difficult games to play, I was eager to try and make Starcraft II into a game that so many more people could play.
Goals
  • The game is easy to learn/play
    • The game is easier to approach, learn, and play than most RTS games​
  • The game is still strategic
    • Multiple viable strategies, players always feel like they have choices​
  • The game is fun
    • Players enjoy playing and would enjoy playing it more​
    • The game is balanced and replayable (different experiences each time)

Post-Mortem

Development

Throughout the development of this project, I examined many different games, blogs, and articles to understand what makes a game accessible yet still fun. Blizzard has shown a mastery of the ability to take an existing game type, remove the things that make it difficult and frustrating, but still have great depth.
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My research showed that there are two main areas to focus on when making Starcraft II accessible: Reducing Cognitive Load and Increasing Excitement. Reducing cognitive load involves designing the game so that everything that the player is expected to do is very manageable. Increasing excitement is to keep players engaged and interested throughout the game.
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During development of this project, reducing cognitive load was relatively straight forward. I had to reduce the player's extraneous cognitive load by reducing the amount of working memory that they were having to use at any point. Essentially this meant making things easier to learn, and reducing the number of elements that a player was having to manage constantly. This was done largely through strategically removed units/structures, and reorganizing tech trees to make them more graspable.
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Increasing excitement in the game was not as simple as reducing cognitive load. The main goal was to keep players engaged and fighting with each other throughout the game. To keep both players engaged, they both had to feel like they had the ability to win. The first thing I did was to try and remove as many snowballing aspects of the game as possible. But it got to a point where neither player could make significant progress in the game because they were locked in a stalemate, and the game dragged on for too long. Making the game not snowball but still be exciting became a balancing act between making sure that one player wouldn't get too much of an advantage and keeping the game always progressing towards its end at a fun pace.
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