Traveller Kingdoms was used as an Interface task to practice deconstructing common areas found in RPGs acting as an entry title for newcomers to Stat-Based games (e.g. DnD)and how to design interfaces expected of the genre, including Avatar Creation screens, Skill Selections, and Party Adjustment. To add a challenge, I gave myself a development restriction (User Requirement) to have the product be a "Mobile title with the possibility of being played on a big screen", as well as be "a socially cooperative title". These helped build the pillars in development for research and pre-production for a Cross-System Social App.
Focusing on UI/UX development, the task allowed Players to create Characters and simply displayed a simulated concept of connecting to other users on a single system (akin to a Hot Spot).
The battle sequence itself was set to be ready for future development by writing code into temporary easy-to-use macros to sell the idea that Players are playing together on a network using handheld remotes to play.
Although the project went through a number of iterations, most feedback fed directly into the Menu Interface and HUD, leaving gameplay to be desired from the early game-loop concepts as although it was planned to be a Turn-Based Social RPG, not much of the gameplay balancing was designed early on e.g. replay value, challenge for multiple players, etc.
That said, feedback provided allowed me to see the value in cohesion in art styles and accessibility in an interface to invite an audience in before they get a full grip of the game loop itself. You can find more detail on the original interface development on my portfolio.
Moving forward
When planning gameplay beats for the networking tech I'll have to be careful to ensure visual cohesion isn't lost for the sake of technical practice.
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