Serpent Showdown (2019-2020)

Role: Usability Lead

Responsibilities:

• Conducting Playtests

  • Much of this game’s production took place during the pandemic, which effectively removed the team’s ability to host in person playtests, especially considering our game was exclusively local multiplayer. So I devised a system to use Parsec, an open source tool that allows couch co-op games to be played online to connect playtesters with each other and us from the safety of our homes during the lockdown.

• Interviewing playtesters

  • We had the opportunity to playtest at a middle school and in our post playtest survey we asked all the students to rank the cuteness of the snakes from 1-10, the snakes averaged an 8.5 from 50 responses. I used this data to demonstrate to our faculty advisors that snakes could, in fact, be cute. The faculty had raised concerns about making a snake-themed children’s game on this basis and I wanted a simple, clear metric that I could use to demonstrate how perception of snakes has changed.

  • Snakes are cute, I will die on this hill.

• Analyzing data produced by our internal metrics gathering tools and using that data to provide recommendations to the design team

  • One of my favorite examples of this was when our data demonstrated that players blocking less frequently than any other action, but that they were trying to block based on our analysis of their inputs and videos we took of their hands. So I worked with the designers to simplify the input and use of the block increased by 60%.

Memorable Moment: Hosting our underground announcement stream during USC Games Expo 2020

Two tails enter, one tail leaves. You and a friend go head-to-head. It is time to don your … cardboard armor and grab your trusty crayon? And guess what, it turns out you’re a snake. Strike, slither and slash your way to victory in this entertaining couch-competitive arena fighter.