Animal Crossing:
New Murder
Through usability testing, I ensured that AC: New Murder was enjoyed by the 2500+ players who picked up the game. The 60+ fan letters we've received are proof of the quality of my UX methods. This case study covers several pain points that arose.
"Think Ace Attorney, but it’s ACNH"
"Explore the dream island “New Leaf.” See what clues you can find. It may seem peaceful, but a crime took place here!"
"Play now!"
"Think Ace Attorney, but it’s ACNH"
2020-'22
2 members
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UX Designer
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Game Designer
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Director
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Artist
Role:
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Problem
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Plan
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Process
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Obstacles
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Target Audience
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Secondary Research
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Flowcharts
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Memory Retention
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Difficulty
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Missing Cake
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Story Beats
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Reception
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Reflection
What is AC: New Murder?
AC: New Murder is a light-hearted murder-mystery visual novel that plays alongside Animal Crossing: New Horizon. Evidence is found on the in-game island, while the story is playable in an in-browser visual novel. It's really just an interactive dream island. New Horizon is required to play.
My UX Role
AC: New Murder’s game development happened before my UX education. My UX role in this game was less of a UX designer and more of a game designer who used a playtesting approach to solve design issues. If you would like to see a more formal, well-rounded UX design case study, please check out the case study Training Buddy.
Success
For an indie companion game created by first-time developers, AC: New Murder received moderate success. Our game has reached over 2,000 players. On top of that, 25 of those players were streamers, with a peak live viewer count of over 300 viewers.
But that's all just numbers to me. What fills me up with genuine pride is the letters we've gotten. We've received 63 letters (so far) from players who wanted to express how much they enjoyed the game. They're all very sweet, ranging from excessive use of "!"s to very personal testimonies of how the player felt connected to the story (which is pretty wild for a goofy murder mystery set in Animal Crossing).
"I played this from midnight on and off straight to the next day until I finished it."
"Wow, way to surpass your inspirational material (Ace Attorney) there!"
"I’m going to be thinking about this game for a while, it’s left a big impression on me."
How it Started
It’s August 2020, Animal Crossing: New Horizons presents a free update that introduces the concept of Dream Islands. Dream Islands are a way for players to share their islands online without the player having to be present.
2020 me took this update and ran with it. "What if I make my island a story-based game? The setting and items could be on the dream island while the story is on a related website." I had a lot of fun figuring out how to make it work.
It was going to be simple, a few storyboards tied together through Wix, but then my software engineer brother volunteered his coding and music skills. It was that moment that this fun little project transformed into a full-on video game.
The Plan
I knew the only way to understand the player's wants was to interact with them directly. I ran three sessions of usability tests, one near the beginning and two at the end, plus some secondary research. With the knowledge I gained, I was able to improve AC: New Murder.
The Problem
We wanted the best for our players. It wasn't enough for them to have an enjoyable time; the player deserved to feel like a little detective amongst goofy animals in our funky Animal Crossing world. I wanted the player to get lost in the heart of our game, and I was going to make it happen.
Process
Since this game was created before my UX education, AC: New Murder's process is somewhat unconventional. However, it worked out. It just goes to show that each unique project needs its own unique process.
Ideate
Define
Test
Prototype
Test
"This game is seriously amazing… It was such a fun, refreshing, and creative experience."
Obstacles
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This is our first game, so we had to learn as we go.
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Modding was not an option.
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No budget, only passion.
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Our time was restricted to what we could squeeze into outside of our other full-time work.
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Hype for Animal Crossing was long gone by the time of our release.
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We were a very small team of two with a big vision!
The Target Audience
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Fans of mystery games like the Ace Attorney series
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Die-hard Animal Crossing fans who own a copy of Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Being connected to a life-sim meant AC: New Murder was a lot of people's first mystery game. I had the specific challenge of making AC: New Murder enjoyable for both novice and advanced mystery game players alike.
"I have never played Ace Attorney so this was my first experience with this kind of game. Trying to keep track of details between 10 villagers and so many items and places was challenging, but so fun! I felt like a genius!"
Pregame
The first research I did was external. I looked at blog posts and YouTube videos on game design and reviewed summaries of the Ace Attorney games I've played. I wanted to understand what makes and breaks a detective game.
Mark Brown of "Game Maker's Toolkit" praised The Forgotten City for how its information and events constantly flow into each other, so I incorporated that into AC: New Murder. On the right is me testing and altering how AC: New Murder's story flows.
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Flowcharts
On the left is AC: New Murder's overall flow. There's a lot of back and forth between the in-game island and the visual novel during Act 1, while the player's path in Act 3 is sprawling. The two trials bring everything together.
On the right are variable checks for an item that is needed to reach the last trail.
I conducted the first test as soon as possible; after I finished writing the game. My friends and I played AC: New Murder through Word documents in Google Drive. I pasted dialogue into a master document based on their choices, and we acted it out together.
I couldn’t answer “Is the game enjoyable?” with certainty since spending time with my friends is usually an enjoyable time, but the tests gave me good insight into the other two questions.
Low
Fidelity
3 participants
- "Can the player get through the game on their own?"
- "Does the story unravel as intended?"
- "Is the game enjoyable?"
"Can the player get through the game on their own?"
Memory Retention
The Problem
The players struggled when asked questions during the trial because they had forgotten what was said in the testimonies.
The Solution
I couldn't help the player by lessening the amount of information they received, nor could I diminish the importance of the information, so I approached it from the other end. What if they don't have to remember all that information in the first place? I added descriptions of the villagers' testimonies to the character's bios to close this gap in the player's memory.
The first question is often one the player has forgotten the answer to.
“Who had a conversation with Lucky last night?” Most players stare at the selection of characters, racking their brains for the answer.
They eventually make an educated guess and click on a villager. Once they do that, they're exposed to the character's description, which summarizes the character's testimony. If they didn't happen to pick Katt, the player goes back and reads the character's descriptions until they read Katt's. From then on, the player knows to check the descriptions when their memory fails them.
1st Usability Test
Between the usability tests is where most of the “game making” happened. This whole time, I was thinking about the players and how we would deliver the experience I envisioned in a way that the players would enjoy. We had enough initial data from testing to build out the prototype of the web application. So we set to building it!
Hi, it’s the summer of 2022.
The testing is juicier this time around; I had a near-complete game to play with. I found my testers through Twitter. I didn't seek the streamers out at first, but I'm so grateful for their contribution. Being able to watch someone play is game-changing (figuratively and literally). It took some practice, but I got the hang of watching play tests without interfering.
I combined these last two tests because they were conducted one right after the other. The 3rd one is entirely dependent on the 2nd.
High
Fidelity
10 participants
(5 streamers)
- Are the players picking up what they need?
- What is the game's difficulty?
- Are the story beats invoking the right emotions?
Besides the game, the usability tests included
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A survey mainly covering logistics
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An avenue to report bugs
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A post-game survey focusing on opinions and experience
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A request for live note-taking (streamers were exempted)
Call for testers tweet for the 3rd test.
Difficulty
"What is the game difficulty?
Based on what testers said in the post-game surveys, out of 10, the average difficulty score from Test 2 was 4.9 and 6.8 from Test 3.
What happened? I made changes between the tests to make the game easier. Why did the 3rd round of testers find the game more difficult? I don’t recall sneaking in challenging riddles at the last minute or anything of the sort.
4.9
6.8
What the surveys don’t show is the difference in how much I aided the testers between the tests. A lot of snags and bugs surfaced during the 2nd test. Half of those test 2 testers would not have been able to finish AC: New Murder without my assistance. The players who got help from me through stream chats or Twitter DMs did not include that in their evaluation.
Once test 3 came around, I had a more hands-off approach because I addressed the common issues.
A message from a tester during Test 2.
I didn’t know AC: New Murder’s true difficulty during test 2, but I knew it was harder than I wanted. Even with poor game design choices and bugs removed, I worried about players, especially novice players, getting stuck. There’s only so much I can do to prevent it. If I have to look up a guide for every Ace Attorney game I’ve played, then there’s a high chance some of my players will also need to. But there is no AC: New Murder guide out there! As far as I know, no one has written a GameFAQs for it.
So, I took it upon myself to add hints to the game after test 2.
The hints were implanted in the two “bag checks,” spots the player can always visit in the first and third acts. The hints cover items the player may have missed, remind players that not everything is obtainable at first, encourage players to talk to essential villagers, sneakily reveal the answer to a riddle in a way that won’t spoil it for people who aren’t looking for the hint, and other helpful tips. The hints acted as a safety net. They don’t interfere with the players cruising along, but they are there for those who feel lost.
The calls for help from the testers lessened between the tests.
2nd & 3rd Usability Tests
Reception
On September 30th, 2022, soon after the testing, we opened AC: New Murder to the public. The responses we’ve received have been phenomenal.
"Truly this project is awe inspiring, I could float every time I think about it."
"I’m also impressed by how well it was balanced… I never felt stuck. It all flowed and made sense. And at no point did I get farther ahead than the characters about knowing what happened!"
"It was hard enough that it was never monotonous, but not too hard that I was completely stuck for any part."
"When a fellow friend of mine told me it was similar to the charm of Ace Attorney, I had high expectations and this project did not fail those at all and exceeded them! I did not expect to get as immersed as I did."
"This is an experience that I would pay for."
Reflection
So, did we succeed? Did the players feel like little detectives amongst goofy animals in our funky Animal Crossing world?
Yes! Here are some examples of people feeling like detectives!
"I've replayed [AC: New Murder] a few times now and keep coming back to it every time I want to feel like a detective."
"I definitely felt like I was a detective in this little island."
Looking back, I feel so proud of this project. We really created something extraordinary. Of course, this project was far from perfect. Considering this was our first serious video game, I don't regret any of my choices, but I would do things differently today, knowing what I know.
Honestly, the biggest change I would make is to my communication. There were times I asked a lot of Chris and all at once. As the director and creator of the project, I allotted more of my personal time and energy to the game than he could, so our perspectives didn't always line up. To keep the project from becoming overwhelming before the finish line, we learned that we both needed to be selective about what we would do with the limited time and try to avoid workload overload.
After those adjustments, we were still able to ship the game! All the while without completely being overwhelmed by the final push!
Thank you for reading! You're welcome to contact me with any comments or questions. I have some links to related places below.
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Click Here if you want to hear about Chris's contribution.
If you want to see more research, Training Buddy's case study has plenty!
If you seek wireframes,
head over to the Wireframe Exercise!