JeongIn Theo
Lee
Everythingmart is a multiplayer co-op horror comedy game where players work as market staff racing to meet their quota before time runs out. Sounds simple? It’s not your everyday supermarket. Players must chase down customer orders, literally, while trying to survive pesky higher-ups determined to make their shift a nightmare. But then again, isn’t that what they always do?
Project Highlight
Software used:
OBS, Google Suite, Canva, Jira, Adobe AE
Challenge: Improving Player Guidance
Early playtests revealed that players experienced high cognitive load, struggling to comprehend core objectives, navigate critical paths, and recognize task completion states. To diagnose these underlying friction points and systematically prioritize design iterations, we required deep visibility into player mental models and spatial perception.
To evaluate these player experiences, we executed a multi-method research framework:
Observation Notes
Conducted behavioral observations of live multiplayer sessions to evaluate team communication patterns, task delegation strategies, and spatial navigation flow.
With this, we pinpointed specific usability friction points, providing the team with actionable insights to redesign machine art assets, optimize task board visibility, and implement item outline VFX to ensure clear player orientation.
Playtest Survey
Designed and deployed player surveys focusing on core mechanics (movement speed, object-throwing physics, and enemy pacing). By analyzing these response patterns alongside historical baseline data, we evaluated gameplay clarity, difficulty scaling, and overall player experience, providing measurable proof of our UX improvements compared to previous playtests.
Comparative Playtest
To optimize player flow, I ran an A/B test comparing two level layouts: Layout A (1st-floor spawn) versus Layout B (2nd-floor spawn with a glass window for visual anchoring).
By analyzing spatial navigation and task completion metrics, we resolved a critical design roadblock, leading the team to implement Layout B to reduce player backtracking and finalize the level layout.
Think-Aloud Sessions
Utilized think-aloud protocols during live gameplay to capture real-time player sentiment and cognitive load. By mapping these verbalized thoughts, we evaluated how movement mechanics, object interaction physics, and enemy behavioral patterns directly influenced spatial navigation, tactical decision-making, and objective clarity.
Impact: Playtest findings directly drove level design iterations and milestone prioritization, enabling the team to enhance player onboarding and optimize spatial navigation flow systematically. This experience reinforced the critical role of data-driven user research in bridging the gap between designer intent and actual player perception, ensuring that high-level product strategy always aligns with the end-user experience.
Contributions
1. Define Player Experience Goals: Early-Stage KPI Framework
During competitor analysis, I realized we needed a clearer framework to understand why players engage with similar games and where we could create differentiation. I developed a KPI framework to connect market insights with player experience goals, helping the team identify meaningful design opportunities.
Success Metrics Selected
-
DAU/MAU → Evaluated player habit formation and long-term engagement potential
-
Retention → Identified factors that motivate players to return
-
Session Frequency → Examined engagement patterns and pacing expectations
Design Questions Guided by Metrics
-
How should we structure game pacing to maintain player engagement?
-
Where can we encourage teamwork and meaningful player interaction?
-
What mechanics can increase replayability?
-
What experiences encourage players to share and recommend the game?
Outcome
-
Established a shared framework for the team to align on player experience goals and prioritize design decisions.
-
Understood what competitor games' design strategy was and began discussion on how to differentiate from them
2. Communication and Decision-Making Support
[Art Pipeline Coordination]
-
Collaborated with the Art Lead and Art Producer to establish an art production pipeline, defining key milestones such as asset creation, quality review passes, and handoffs between departments.
-
Created a clear timeline for asset progression to improve visibility across teams and ensure departments understood when assets would be ready for integration and review.
[Task Documentation & Alignment]
Defined Jira tasks with:
-
Goal: Why the task was needed and how it supported the project.
-
Deliverable: Expected output and completion criteria.
-
Acceptance Criteria: Requirements needed for the task to be considered complete.
Outcome: Reduced uncertainty between departments and created a more transparent workflow for tracking progress and making decisions.
[RACI Chart]
-
Clarified team roles and decision ownership by creating a RACI chart that defined responsibilities, accountability, consultation, and decision authority across the development team.
3. Playtesting & Feature Refinement
-
Analyzed feature feedback and QA results to identify usability issues and improvement opportunities.
-
Translated findings into actionable Jira tasks, collaborating with the Design and UI teams to prioritize and implement changes.
-
Coordinated playtesting sessions to validate updates and support iterative feature refinement.
-
Organized playtesting sessions by determining testing methods, recruiting appropriate participants, and designing surveys aligned with research objectives.
-
Recognized the need for standardized playtest evaluation criteria and collaborated with the Designer and Co-Producer to establish them. This was helpful when designing playtest surveys.
Playtest feedback was shared during team meetings to align team priorities and inform milestone planning decisions
Project Reflections
-
Combining qualitative player feedback with gameplay data produces more actionable design insights.
-
Tracking player engagement, movement behavior, and character performance helps identify the game's core sources of fun.
-
Evidence-based findings provide teams with clearer direction for balancing, pacing, and future design iterations.
-
This project reinforced the importance of iterative tutorial design. Observing player behavior revealed where instructions were unclear, allowing the team to refine onboarding based on evidence rather than assumptions.