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Eh, I just don't agree with this at all, and also find the presentation awful which is an irony. If you're going to give an example of slay the spire doing som

Eh, I just don't agree with this at all, and also find the presentation awful which is an irony. If you're going to give an example of slay the spire doing something wrong, show an alternative. The slay the spire shot has 13 artifacts active, and 5 status effects, and the criticism is that twitch stream viewers don't know what they do? That makes no sense. A) Twitch stream viewers wouldn't know what anything does from hearthstone either. B) There's no way you're putting all that text on the screen. It wouldn't fit. C) Nor should you. I suspect most gamers who play slay the spire have put over 20 hours into it, and damaging the advanced player's experience for the noobs is a dangerous tradeoff.

georgeecollins 9y ago
I don't think the point is that Slay the Spire is doing something wrong, the point is that Slay the Spire is designed as a PC game so it doesn't have the subway read-abillity imperative that mobile games have. Most people find out about Slay the Spire through Twitch, but that is not how most mobile games are discovered.
- alexandercrohde 9y ago
  Well if all he's saying is that Slay the Spire would be difficult to understand on mobile, well then I agree. However that didn't sound like what he was saying. He describes it as "criticism," but doesn't convince me there's a way to make the interface better. In fact, I'd go the opposite direction and suggest that hearthstone is too simple a game in the name of simplicity.
moogleii 9y ago
He kind of indirectly did with Hearthstone. Things that are important are brought forward and highlighted, or animated, then fade back to the second or third "row" of importance. I didn't read the whole article, save searching for "slay the spire" and reading the accompanying sections, but I agree with his criticism of it, assuming those little status icons below the characters really are as important as he says. And why is your health in two locations and two colors? Maybe there's a good reason, but if I take the author's word for it, it is redundant and raises more questions than answers at first glance. I'm primarily a developer, so I've only dabbled in formal UX study, but it does seem like the game is just giving up easy design wins. Design is subjective, but I suspect many UX folks would agree with him.
- detaro 9y ago
  The health is always in the top bar, and additionally beneath the character on battle screens, where the player figure is visible, matching the enemies health display. Having the own health only in the top bar on battle screens seems wrong: the enemies have it fully displayed, and in battle health development is obviously especially important to see, so the bar-representation makes sense. Removing it from the top bar just on battle screens doesn't seem to make that much sense either (do you pop it back in when a full-screen menu appears during battle, which covers the player character? redesign those screens to be more cluttered, just so the bar on the character is visible?) One can argue about the importance of the status icons. For some of them I'd prefer it if they (or rather, their effects) were more noticeable, others are not that important most of the time. On the other hand, them being were they are the important facts are displayed fairly compact and leaving lots of room for the really nice graphics - I'd disagree that the overall screen is cluttered.
Arnavion 9y ago
TBH, there are a couple of things I think StS could improve regarding its GUI. Moving the energy stat next to the End Turn button would probably make it harder to forget to spend it - you'd think only youtubers do that because they're distracted by commentating (looking at you, NL), but it happens to all of us. I've also found it weird that the draw deck is on the left but the hand adds new cards from the right, so the card draw animation has cards flying in from the left to the right and then moving back left again. (I don't participate in the StS reddit but I'm sure these things have been brought up there.)

georgeecollins 9y ago

I don't think the point is that Slay the Spire is doing something wrong, the point is that Slay the Spire is designed as a PC game so it doesn't have the subway read-abillity imperative that mobile games have. Most people find out about Slay the Spire through Twitch, but that is not how most mobile games are discovered.

alexandercrohde 9y ago
Well if all he's saying is that Slay the Spire would be difficult to understand on mobile, well then I agree. However that didn't sound like what he was saying. He describes it as "criticism," but doesn't convince me there's a way to make the interface better. In fact, I'd go the opposite direction and suggest that hearthstone is too simple a game in the name of simplicity.

moogleii 9y ago

He kind of indirectly did with Hearthstone. Things that are important are brought forward and highlighted, or animated, then fade back to the second or third "row" of importance. I didn't read the whole article, save searching for "slay the spire" and reading the accompanying sections, but I agree with his criticism of it, assuming those little status icons below the characters really are as important as he says. And why is your health in two locations and two colors? Maybe there's a good reason, but if I take the author's word for it, it is redundant and raises more questions than answers at first glance. I'm primarily a developer, so I've only dabbled in formal UX study, but it does seem like the game is just giving up easy design wins. Design is subjective, but I suspect many UX folks would agree with him.

detaro 9y ago
The health is always in the top bar, and additionally beneath the character on battle screens, where the player figure is visible, matching the enemies health display. Having the own health only in the top bar on battle screens seems wrong: the enemies have it fully displayed, and in battle health development is obviously especially important to see, so the bar-representation makes sense. Removing it from the top bar just on battle screens doesn't seem to make that much sense either (do you pop it back in when a full-screen menu appears during battle, which covers the player character? redesign those screens to be more cluttered, just so the bar on the character is visible?) One can argue about the importance of the status icons. For some of them I'd prefer it if they (or rather, their effects) were more noticeable, others are not that important most of the time. On the other hand, them being were they are the important facts are displayed fairly compact and leaving lots of room for the really nice graphics - I'd disagree that the overall screen is cluttered.

Arnavion 9y ago

TBH, there are a couple of things I think StS could improve regarding its GUI. Moving the energy stat next to the End Turn button would probably make it harder to forget to spend it - you'd think only youtubers do that because they're distracted by commentating (looking at you, NL), but it happens to all of us. I've also found it weird that the draw deck is on the left but the hand adds new cards from the right, so the card draw animation has cards flying in from the left to the right and then moving back left again. (I don't participate in the StS reddit but I'm sure these things have been brought up there.)