Black Salt Games / CerebralFix
DREDGE (iOS & Android)
DREDGE is a single player fishing adventure with a sinister undercurrent, developed by Black Salt Games. In DREDGE players take on the role of a lone fisherman, catching and selling aberrated fish while avoiding the creeping horrors that come out at night. Players upgrade their boat with better equipment, new rods and nets to catch different types of fish, brighter lights to see into the dark and faster engines to outrun the horrors and explore new locations.
DREDGE was originally released on PC and Consoles, coming soon to iOS and Android devices. CerebralFix has adapted DREDGE to suit mobile platforms, emphasizing maintaining gameplay parity with the existing releases and providing an appropriate and equivalent user experience on mobile.
TASKS
Game Design, UX Design, Wireframing, Playtesting
2023 - 2024
DATE
Overview
As a game designer my primary task was to adapt DREDGE to mobile devices while maintaining gameplay parity as close as possible. Anything that would be in the other releases ought to be in mobile too. Given my previous involvement in the development of the original DREDGE I was deeply familiar with the game design, and could quickly identify priorities and constraints. My rapport with BSG also allowed me act as a conduit between my team and the client.
DREDGE faced many obstacles on it's way to being adapted to mobile. A lack of physical buttons for shortcuts, as well as the original games liberal use of hover state text boxes posed some challenges otherwise absent in other 3rd person mobile games. In addition, adapting the core mechanic revolving around grid based item placement was a particularly unique challenge to overcome.
Mockups
As a mobile game - and one with all the features of the original - it meant we were going to have a lot more onscreen UI. Our buttons also needed to be comfortable to reach, with adequate size and spacing to ensure the player can confidently control with intent. However this was not a new issue, and even cursory research into precedent mobile games showed a consistent control scheme for 3rd person camera with multiple onscreen buttons.
Because we had an existing product to work with, our lead programmer very quickly created a makeshift build to put on mobile devices early on. While much of the gameplay and UI was broken, this allowed me to get a preview into what the biggest problem areas for UI were likely to be and let me collect screenshots of DREDGE at aspect ratios I would need to design for.
Rather than greybox wireframes I added onscreen control icons over the screenshots to get an inclination of how the game might look and how much screen real-estate was available to me, and less assumptions around what existing screen elements were liable to being obscured.
I created a set of early mockups due to my familiarity with the game I could work quickly, capturing a wide swath of the games screens early on. I worked in tandem with the UX Designer to balance UX best practices without altering the gameplay too significantly from the original.
Early Mockup:
I would create preliminary mockups that captured the gameplay intention of the screen, with the support of the UX Designer.
Late Mockup:
After client review and approval our roles would switch. I would handoff to the UX Designer for polish and provide support, then finally the 2D artist to create any new icons or assets we would require.
Grid Placement
Placing and moving items was one of the most difficult behaviours to adapt. The issue we had to overcome was the small size of screen causing the cells of the grid to be tiny. This made precision placement difficult and accident prone. This issue was further exacerbated as the users finger may be partially obscuring the screen. In addition, due to tech limitations we would be unable to magnify the size of the grid itself to make the squares easier to see and tap. I created several iterations of UI with the UX designer and we playtested them with both veteran and new players to DREDGE.
This variant was designed to reduce on screen clutter, and featured only a rotate and discard button. This also allowed us to validate our assumptions regarding player intuition, would players simply tap on a tile?
A lack of a dedicated call to action to place the fish left some players confused, some resorting to pressing the start fishing button again (which due to a bug actually worked)
This variant was designed to make use of player ambidexterity. An elongated placement button in easy reach of either thumb was intended to function much in the same way as a space bar, whichever side of the screen the player had the fish, they could use their other hand to confirm placement.
This design however, created significant additional clutter, and when this design was applied to the shops it required even more buttons and became very visually messy.
We tested some variants based around tapping and dragging the fish, letting go of the fish over a valid grid tile would place it. However most playtesters would instinctly lift their hand to view the intended location, and in doing so release it too early.
Ultimately we settled on a solution that gave the player the most agency and reduced the potential for errors while allowing us to continue further development.
Players could drag an item to their desired position and then confirm placement with a dedicated place button in the item information tooltip. This allowed the user to position an item, raise their finger to view the placement and then either adjust or confirm. I am however a big proponent of including redundancies within designs, and so players who prefer it can still tap directly on individual cells to place items. This allows us to support players who want precision and tight grid packing and players wanting speed and volume, without harming either play pattern.
DREDGE features many item grids throughout. The system we designed for item placement needed to be appropriate for all possible types of grids. The tooltip variant allowed it to seamlessly fit into the shops, accounting for additional buttons and maintaining the visual style of DREDGE's original hover over tooltips.
UI Redesigns
Some screens required more significant changes to adapt to mobile. I worked closely with the lead programmer to understand how the UI had been implemented in order to make designs that did not significantly increase the workload and accounted for any technical limitations.
The Dry Dock screens look very different compared to the original, but had minimal impact on the task of the programmer who had to implement it.
Original:
The original Dry Dock screen featured many small buttons that would show information after hovering the selection. Our mobile playtest showed some players did not interpret the icons as buttons they could tap on and assumed upgrades would come to them later.
Redesign:
Due to a lack of being able to hover an item I redesigned the Dry Dock to display the requirements by default. This also required me to paginate the Dry Dock in order to fit the information, a dramatic change from the original screen. Fortunately precedent already existed in the design language of the shops and research screens, making it easy both for players to understand and for our developers to implement.
Polish:
After nailing down the elements of the redesign the UX Designer and 2D artist were able to tidy up the rough mockup into something a little more presentable to players. We further broadened the menu to allow another explicit call to action button labelled "upgrade" a lesson learnt from our item placement playtesting.
This role required a high level of collaboration and communication, I worked directly with a UX designer and 2D artist on concepting the on-screen controls and maintaining the player experience of the original. I also made an effort to work closely with the programmers to determine the optimal methods of implementation with consideration for technical constraints, then report these back to the design team. As a result of my broader project oversight I also worked closely with the producer on determining the prioritization of tasks and assisting in client communications, and I could provide expected behaviours and acceptance criteria for our QA. I made an effort to keep team morale high as we encountered unexpected setbacks, my proximity to so many members of the team made it easy for me to spread positivity to those I saw in need of it most.
DREDGE is a game I am passionate about. I had the luxury of being an early and frequent playtester during its development and the opportunity to provide significant design feedback and support to Black Salt Games. I am grateful for the opportunity to work directly on DREDGE myself, in adapting it to mobile.
DREDGE is coming to iOS and
on February 27th, 2025