Games usability design guidelines
This article contains some guidelines for games usability. For more information see Game Design (Design and User Experience Library).
See Also
Game Design (Design and User Experience Library)
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Article
Created: User:Rahulsingh1m
(25 Jun 2009)
Reviewed: SannaH
(07 May 2012)
Last edited: hamishwillee
(09 May 2012)
Important games usability guidelines
- Game should be automatically paused on events like incoming calls, messages, alarms etc.
- Game should not continue automatically after the paused state.
- If the game starts with a story or a video visual, the user should be provided with a skip button.
- Relevent game data like player life, level etc. should be shown.
- Make the keys consistent with the default applications. For example, keys 2 and 4 should be used for horizontal movement, similarly 2 and 8 should be used for vertical movement.
- User should be able to change the control keys.
- Should provide option to enable/disable sound and backlight.
- On restart, user can skip the already cleared levels of the game.
- Should provide the option of restart in the menu.
- Softkey labels should be consistent. For example, use left key for ok, continue, options and use right key for back, cancel, exit.
- Save the state of the game on exit.
- Context sensitive help should be provided.
- Information on the creator of the game in an about option should be provided.
- Use splash screens in case the game takes a lot of time to load at first run.
