Taps to Riches: UI/UX Design
This app reached #1 in the Google Play Store
Role: Senior UI Artist
Skills: Creative Research, Concept, UI Design, Icon Design, Style Guide Documentation, UX, Layout, Wireframes, Rapid Prototyping, Animatics, UI Animation, Communication
Tools: Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, After Effects, XD, Unity Game Engine, NGUI plugin, Perforce
Skills: Creative Research, Concept, UI Design, Icon Design, Style Guide Documentation, UX, Layout, Wireframes, Rapid Prototyping, Animatics, UI Animation, Communication
Tools: Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, After Effects, XD, Unity Game Engine, NGUI plugin, Perforce
I worked on Taps to Riches from concept to launch. I was responsible for creating the UI and a style/technical guide for other artists to support the game as I was working on 3 other projects in the company at the same time.
After launch, the game grew to be successful, reaching number 1 several times in the Google Play Store. Due to its success, I had further opportunity to iterate and improve based on customer feedback and testing. I was also responsible for the UI/UX of large features that were implemented into the game well after launch such as the Gold Empire, Fortune Wheel, etc. Throughout the process, I worked collaboratively with Game Designers, Producers, Programmers, Artists, QA, and the Data Team.
After launch, the game grew to be successful, reaching number 1 several times in the Google Play Store. Due to its success, I had further opportunity to iterate and improve based on customer feedback and testing. I was also responsible for the UI/UX of large features that were implemented into the game well after launch such as the Gold Empire, Fortune Wheel, etc. Throughout the process, I worked collaboratively with Game Designers, Producers, Programmers, Artists, QA, and the Data Team.
Gameplay
The Main Screen or the Gameplay Screen was the most difficult screen to layout. I collaborated with the Game Designers and the Art Director to try and make sure all the asks from the Game Design Docs were able to be represented visually while also not fighting for attention from monetization hooks. Shown here also were the first icons created to set the style of icons for the rest of the game.
Shop & Monetization
The Shop, like many other screens, also went through many iterations and finally landed on the screens you see above. Because of how many different products the Game Designers wanted to put out, ie: different items based on lineages, and how important monetization is in this game, I worked with the Tech Artist and Lead Programmer in figuring out how to cleverly implement the shop using widgets, scaling down our game objects in Unity, and optimizing how I worked with the Atlas. The results helped lower and change some complaints people had about loading times for the shop!
Gacha System: Advisors
One of the biggest hooks Taps to Riches has are the Advisors and its Gacha system. I went into it knowing there would be hundreds of Advisors with different purposes, rarities, types, and lineages that I would need to figure out how to represent in the UI design.
Prestige System
Another major feature we continued to iterate on was the Prestige system. Although the original layout of the screen didn't differ too much from when I first designed it, the tutorial system surrounding the feature did change. I collaborated with the Game Designers on animatics to better explain the system to our players before collaborating with the Tech Leads to implement it in our game.
More Gameplay Features: Gold Empire, Fortune Wheel, and Profit Boosts
One of the large features we added after soft launch was the Gold Empire system, meant to help with retention and allow players some skin customization on the buildings. I worked with the Game Designers on wireframes and layouts as well as designed and implemented the icons and final screens seen above.
The Fortune Wheel feature was one of the first features to allow me to work with both the Concept and 3D artists to develop the look and how the 2D UI elements would fit on the wheel. I did this by providing visual references and color palettes that the Concept artist was able to use and explaining what we wanted to do in terms of movement with the wheel to help the 3D artist build it. |
This Profit Boost Upgrades feature was especially important to me during its development because I was able to lead in-house user testing through prototypes I created via Adobe XD with the lead Game Designer. We were able to determine what worked and what didn't before implementing it into the game. |