Challenge Create a brand new games platform that differentiates itself in the marketplace through unique player value and product pillars.
Solution Set a strong design vision to help actualize the products pillars through a thoughtful and creative design approach.
Results A cross-platform product focused on the needs of its players and content creators, using design to create a platform that's inclusive, welcoming and rewarding.
The idea for Kartridge was born out of Kongregate's 10+ years of experience creating a robust web games platform for players. With Kartridge, we hope to carry this over to desktop games, making it the best desktop platform to play indie games, while helping developers and their games succeed in a market where they are often under represented and overshadowed by other platforms. We spent 2 years in development, 9 months in closed/open beta, and launched on November 1, 2018. (Read more about this project on Newsweek, VentureBeat and PC Gamer.)
My primary roles were Creative Director and Principal Designer. I oversaw the overall design, brand, and product design for Kartridge, and did pixel-level design work as Principal Designer for the product. I also worked with the Product Lead to define the strategic business case for the project and the what/who/why of the product.
In my last year on the project, I shifted from Design to General Management of the project, taking over the management of the business and team of 18+ people.
Role: Project Co-Owner and Design Lead
Worked closely with Product Lead (Director of Product) throughout the project.
General Management of project with 15+ person team.
- Design Lead
- Principal Designer (myself)
- Visual Designer
- Front-End Designer
- Collaboration
- Product
- Engineering/QA
- Analytics
- Player Experience
- Support
- Business Development
- Marketing
- Stakeholders
- Executive Team
Starting with a product and design strategy, we first needed to understand why we were building Kartridge. We took thoughtful approaches to the project to really understand the needs of our end-users (both players and developers), which included focus groups, surveys to both the Kongregate user base (a familiar audience and likely early adopters) and externally sourced users (using the market research tool through Survey Monkey), and 1-on-1 conversations with people we knew in the industry.
From there, we developed product and design pillars that would address these issues, meet business objectives, and prioritized which of those were important to the success of the product.
We aimed to create a user-friendly product with a design that put the game content in the forefront, but also sought to create a strong identity and point of view in the platform itself. We felt this was essential to differentiate itself against the competing platforms. We demonstrated this in Kartridge through ease-of-use in the user experience, unique storefront pages that highlights the games themselves, and an overall design that complements the different games on the platform, but stands out on its own.
Design should support each of the product pillars while sticking to the design principles.
Product Pillar:
Distinction
Starting with a product and design strategy, we first needed to understand why we were building Kartridge. surveys to both the Kongregate user base (a familiar audience and likely early adopters) and externally sourced users (using the market research tool through Survey Monkey), and 1-on-1 conversations with people we knew in the industry.
Product Pillar #1 Kartridge is a differentiator in the marketplace
Our Design Approach A visually unique design and friendly user experience are essential to establish a strong identity to differentiate against stalwarts in the competing space.
- Methods
- Comp Analysis
- Market Surveys
- Art Direction
- Wireframing
- Visual Design
Even though Kongregate had established itself as a player in the games space, Kartridge would be a huge underdog amongst the existing platforms in the market. There were clear differentiators that we established in the the product offerings, and wanted a strong visual identity established as well, from its branding, user experience, and look and feel.
While most competing platforms trended towards utilitarian designs, we wanted to convey Kartridge as bright, playful, and welcoming. We established a bold color theme, unique and interesting shapes and iconography, and heavy on imagery. At the same time, it was important that its identity did not overpower from the games themselves.
The same game storefront page on Kartridge (left) vs other platforms (right, Humble Bundle and Steam)
Indie-Focused
Product Pillar #2 Kartridge celebrates the "indie" in indie games
Our Design Approach Engaging use of video and imagery to highlight games will give players a fuller sense of what makes each indie game unique
- Methods
- Design Sprint
- Rapid Prototyping
- Wireframing
- Visual & UI/UX Design
Front and foremost, Kartridge is a games store and platform for indie PC games. While indie games can have an advantage over bigger budgeted games with innovative gameplay and mechanics, they might lack the resources for high-end graphics or franchise/name recognition. Some of the most successful indie games have low budget art, but most importantly, they are fun to play. So, how do you emphasize the game's strengths most effectively to players?
We had been playing around with sketches and prototypes, when during a Design Sprint, one of our designers added a background gameplay video to a page we were building. We honed in the effect that the background video had - that in a first impression, players can get to sense of the game, as it can quickly show off gameplay instead of having players judge a game by its graphics by static screenshots and images.
Left: A prototype from a design sprint exploring the use of background video for a game.
Right: How the background video was implemented in the actual design of the game page.
Open Curation
Product Pillar #3 Kartridge is an open and curated platform, powered by developers
Our Design Approach The right balance of strong visual/structural elements and flexibility is needed to achieve design cohesion throughout on an open, user-generated platform.
- Methods
- Usability Testing
- Wireframing
- Prototyping
- Visual & UI/UX Design
As an open platform where any developer can upload their game immediately for players to play, Kartridge needed a design that can host games of varying genres, size, and art styles, while bolstering their uniqueness and strengths. There are heavy uses of imagery everywhere where we list games, including promotional/editorial pages, such as the homepage, game listings, and developers' game storefront page.
We were careful that the design allows games of all different art styles to fit in well with the Kartridge brand and layout. We also wanted all games to look equally appealing on the platform and allow developers to fully market their games to players. While the game storefront pages were highly configurable, a consistent layout keeps the design cohesive throughout the platform so Kartridge would not lose its identity.
While developers were able to fully customize their game pages, a consistent layout keeps the design cohesive throughout the platform.
In support of a system where game developers will need to upload their games and customize their game pages, we created robust tools to set up their games for sale. Since the game pages are so imagery focused, we wanted to make setting up those pages as easy as possible, as well as for people who may need aesthetic help. We created a WSYIWYG-like editor with some really easy tools to set up color themes for their pages and make their pages look amazing.
Robust developer tools, including a WYSIWYG-like page editor, plus tools to help easily create page themes.
Welcoming and Rewarding
Product Pillar #4 Kartridge is a welcoming, friendly, and rewarding place for all its players
Our Design Approach Coupled with product and community features, the right design and visual tone can set a foundation in making the players' gaming experience fun, safe, and memorable.
- Methods
- Identity / Branding
- Product Design
- Visual Design
- Art Assets
Desktop games platforms have a notoriety of being exclusive, gender-biased, and sadly, often times toxic to the diversity of players. We were committed to building a platform where everyone feels welcomed. From a product and community side, we have strict conduct policies and use community moderated tools to safeguard our players. But we also wanted to bring this commitment to inclusivity to our design.
Instead of the dark and masculine themes that you usually see with PC platforms, we've brought in a vibrant and bright color palette, intuitive flows, and friendly interfaces. We leaned on playful animations and iconography to bring delight to the user experience.
Built-in player progression features, such as collectible avatar profile and achievements, provide intrinsic ways to drive deeper rewarding and engaging experiences.
Meaningful achievements reward players for investing and progressing their profile on Kartridge.Chat is used as a primary social connectivity between players. Product and community enhancements, like zero tolerance focused on toxic language, and design are used to keep players safe and chat fun.