Underworlds Helper
This month we have been busy working away at a free mobile app for Warhammer Underworlds called the Underworlds Helper. It’s basically a digital version of the standard game board so you can track activations, glory and round number.
About the Project
The aim of the project was to provide users and players of the game with a platform able to recreate the tracking system of the board's mechanism.
Users can easily navigate rounds of play, record glory points gained in a precise moment of the game and track the numbers of glory points converted to arm properly their champions.
At the end of the customary three rounds of play, the users is taken to a summary screenshot that highlights the ending status of the game givng the possibility to restart a new game or to go back to previous moment of the game being tracked.
UX Challenges
Working alongside Paul McCabe main programmer of the app our main objective was figuring out how the users would use this application. We tried to cover every possibility of one player mode and two players mode, controlled by either players or both.
While Paul was focusing on the possibilities of what could be achieved with written code, I was challenged to design an easy to use interface for the players.
Another issue was the 1 Player Game vs 2 players Game. In the first case, the player records all of their improvements for himself. The second case could have had two options: 1) one player records the scoring for both players or in the mirrored versions both players can use the app as the game evolves.
UX Solutions
There are two ways of the app.
The first that enables the player to track his/her improvements in single mode, with activations tokens and buttons for the scoring of glory points.
The second is the two player mode. This second version can be used in two different ways. The first grants one player to use the interface and track on the app everything that happens during the game and the second way is the mirrored version of the two players that enables both players to use the application.
In this way, whatever the situation the tablet or phone can be kept on top of the table near the gaming board and be useful to every player.