[School project] Game Design: Catan Universe on Switch

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Course

UX Research and Design for Video Games (INF2164 at iSchool of University of Toronto)

Project

Port Catan Universe from PC to Nintendo Switch, design for its new HUD and Overlay.

 

Tool

Sketch + Figma

The Original Game

The game I have chosen for this project is Catan Universe. The game is developed by Exozet Game studio, it belongs to the Strategy game genre, and the original version that I’m adapting from is on PC. I redesigned its HUD and overlay to port from PC to Nintendo Switch.

 

PC

Nintendo Switch

Mechanics

Space: 0-dimension, starts with a constraint environment.

Time: discrete, turn-based. Time-based challenge is the “race”, which in this game is the dicing and source gathering.

Objects: Different game scenarios (type) offer different numbers of opponents (some needs 3-4 players, some needs 5-6 players). All other players / NPC bots are opponents. Objects each player can collect are 5 types of cards / elements: wood, brick, sheep, wheat, stone. Different combinations of cards can trade for road, settlement, city, or chance card.

Actions: LMB (left-mouse button) to choose actions - dice, trade, select, build, etc.

Rules: 5 types of element cards are gained from dicing.

 
Resource cards

Resource cards - 5 types of resources

 
 

Cards can trade for construction of buildings or roads . Constructed elements add up to certain points and whoever reaches the top victory point is the winner.

 
rules of trade

Rules of trade

 
 

Limitations in the game is:

1) dice on 7 will give the person a chance to rob any other player for a card.

2) chance cards: chance cards can be very useful for purposes like robbery, stealing, collection of knights for strongest army card (equals 2pt) or point card (equals 1 point each).

p.s. : This game also has a physical board game version.

UI design

  • 3D+2D

  • High-contrast colours

  • Typography: treasure-hunt vibe (can’t describe exactly the font type).

  • Elements: A major shape element is the hexagon shape that’s applied on the avatar border and the final result progress page (rewards and activities). This element is mainly purposed to keep this UI element, the hexagon, a consistent element as they comply with the shape of the land cards.

Control Scheme

The New Platform

As an addicted gamer of Nintendo, the new platform I chose to port to is Nintendo Switch. It is after redesigning the UI and HUD that I realized this has a switch version already on Switch named Catan , but my designs are quite different and distinctive. Another 1 reason to port to Switch is this is a very popular board game and in a virtual decade, especially during Covid situation, the multiplayer mode makes it a perfect at-home game.

 

Differences from PC

 

Control Scheme

Nintendo Switch has a specific set of control schemes different from any other console that’s not part of the Nintendo series, and also different from other platforms. On the screen, there are small icons and text to demonstrate functions of controller buttons.

 
 

Original UI was somewhat too 3D and heavy. I made it a bit lighter with more gradient colours, less border-lines, more opacity.

HUD and Overlays

 
 

Original PC game’s main screen layout places all four player status on the top, and major player’s resources at the bottom. I moved the player status to the bottom together with resource cards and chance cards so it is more intuitive to view what the player has in hand.

Main Screen Layout

 
 
Minnie Yang