Ryver City Party:

A journey of revision in tvOS Game Design

Brief

This case study highlights the initial goal of creating a unique game leveraging tvOS and how it evolved into a more clear, cohesive, and captivating game concept in two development cycles. I worked at the Lead UX Designer and Project manager for both development cycles.

Ryver City Party—a 4-player virtual party board game for tvOS.

Introducing the first iteration of

On a Detroit inspired map, four players compete from the perspective of their chosen characters, rolling dice and battling in trivia and a mash up of taboo and charades. When players roll, it’s a game of luck and strategy to see who wins the most Moto-bucks. The final winner earns their character a pair of “buff” glasses.

We chose tvOS because we wanted family and friends to enjoy a fun gaming environment on a big screen similarly to consoles.

A colorful board game with a green background, featuring a pig, a dog, and two human characters, along with trees, buildings, and various game pieces including colored spaces and dollar amounts, indicating a money-related game.

A digital illustration featuring two crossed swords with a large yellow question mark in the center on a green oval background.

Query Combat

Building on what the team collectively decided we wanted the core experience of our game to be, I crafted the experience and visual asset for Query Combat— a family feud-inspired trivia mini game.

We found that, while we can use iPhones as additional remotes, they would all function as the same controller. This meant they could be used asynchronously but not simultaneously as players could control other players remotes even out of turn. As a workaround I came up with the concept of buzzers to regulate players to one turn at a time. The player who hit their assigned buzzer gets to answer the question and all others must drop their remotes.

Two yellow humanoid figures holding sticks, aiming at a small robot on a gray oval base, set against a green elliptical background.

Mimics & Mystery

Three cartoon characters: a boy with a red hat and gray hoodie, a brown bear wearing green shorts, and a white cat dressed as a police officer.

Mimics & Mystery is a taboo and charade’s inspired guessing game where a detective uses their partner’s hints to guess keywords. While Mimics & Mystery is fairly simple in design and requires less code than Query Combat, the directions for users to follow made up for it in time and attention to detail. I was responsible for that as I designed the rules and wrote the user guide for playing the game properly.

Character Selections

With my direction, my co-designer created character models for players to choose from. This would provide fun options for players to decide how they play the game.

Map and Hero Assets and Foliage

The first iteration of RCP featured a small geometric map and focused on core game mechanics that would be carried over or refined in the second iteration. Foundational components that we kept for round 2 include:

Insights and Feedback

The first iteration of Ryver city Party was a success. My team at the team did our best and fulfilled the requirements of the Apple Developer Academy’s challenge. However, when I carried the idea over to my new team, Pathos, we conducted research and found some valuable data and feedback that would take the game to the next level.

The Map and Theme

The map captured the spirit of RCP in the mini games but lacked the immersion, mechanics, and familiarity for Detroit’s and Metro-Detroiters to holds onto. My team found that players would get tired of the mini games alone and felt there were too few ways to impact the game. The party element of the game was also lacking features that made players feel like they had autonomy and subsequently did not fulfill their desire to affect each other’s experiences.

The landscape also didn’t give the impression of an urban industrial city like Detroit.

The Characters

The character designs were fun and creative but did not fulfill the vision of immersion in a Detroit-centric world. The animal based designs felt out of place and did not lend themselves to the brand.

An iPad screen showing a digital board game with a green background and a blue path around the perimeter. The game includes cartoon characters, trees, and houses, with a dice and animated effects. The top and bottom edges display player icons with virtual currency worth $100 each.

Three cartoon characters standing side by side: a boy wearing a gray hoodie and red cap, a brown bear in green shorts, and a white cat with glasses and a blue outfit.

The Second Iteration of RCP

Colorful illustration featuring the letters 'R' and 'C' in red and blue, each with a microphone icon and a small calendar showing the number 13, set against a yellow background with a blue border.

The New Map and UI

After a series of user testing, research, and brainstorming, my team Pathos made significant strides non reimagining what the map and in-game screen could be.

We wanted players to feel familiar with the map in how they recognize it, so we labeled the different regions within Metro-Detroit like the East Side, West Side, Southwest, and Dearborn.

We were presented with the idea of making a sardonic take on Detroit which informed new mechanics like potholes and explanations of old ones like red spots, which are now known as “pay to park spots.” We also played up unique Detroit experiences like accidentally going to the Canadian border as a prompt within the chance card mechanic, which results in players being detained in Windsor for multiple turns.

I also designed a bottom UI panel taking inspiration from Detroit’s Motor City identity by using a gas gauge for indicating players’ distance for movement and an illuminated traffic sign to limit the time of each turn. Originally dice would be used for generating player movement but I pivoted to a gas pump for user recognition.

A purple triangle with a dark background.

The first time around laid the foundation of what RCP could be but lacked the scale and branding. I lead my second team, Pathos, in creating a more robust, Detroit-centric gaming experience that featured mechanics that added layers to the game that made it comparable to franchises like Mario Party.

A digital collage features a city skyline background with a green banner at the top reading 'Become Detroit'. In the foreground, there is a black toy-like character, a large clenched fist, and a metallic ring shape.

Screenshot of a board game, featuring a map divided into regions with paths and Monopoly-like properties, a pop-up shopping interface with three items priced $12, $12, and $15, and a game timer showing 30 seconds. The background shows parts of the game board.

A quiz game screen showing question round 3 of 10 with a timer of 1 minute. The score is 100 with a +$100 reward. The question asks about a food item best with squeeze cheese, not sliced, with options A. Burger, B. Coney Dog, C. Chili Cheese Fries, D. Spicy Chili.

Screenshot of a game showing round 3 of a 'Mimics & Mystery' quiz. The game has two teams labeled 'Investigators' and 'Judges' with prompts for each team, and instructions to pick the detective first for each round.

iPad screen displaying a game called "Mimics & Mystery" with the round 3 of 10, a timer set at 3 minutes, a score of 20, and a word "Trifling" with instructions that the player cannot say nasty, dirty, foul, gross, treacherous. There are confirm and reject buttons, and a cityscape background with yellow and gray buildings.

Minigames: Query Combat and Mimics & Mystery

To make the feel of the game smoother and more familiar I revamped the UI of the mini games. I made Query Combat Detroit Tigers themed and added visual assets to Mimics & Mystery.

We also changed the functionality of the mini-games so they were more feasible for developers. instead of using a buzzer feature, Query combat became a one-player high score style game but Mimics and Mystery remained a team based game. Based on user testing I readjusted the allotted time for Query Combat from two minutes to one minute and Mimics and Mystery from five minutes to three minutes.

I also added a “winner” screen to notify players who won the minigame once the timer has ended.

Colorful celebration sign with 'Kris won!' in green, plus signs and '10' and '58' in black and yellow on a yellow background.

A digital game board on an iMac screen depicting a map with regions labeled 'Windsor,' 'Downtown,' 'Dearborn,' with game paths, tokens, and icons. There's a timer, round indicator, and player status on the screen.

A rectangular block of butter with a four-leaf clover on top, and a small slice cut out showing the inside.

Map Spots: commute spaces and chance deck

To make the game more engaging, I conceptualized two new mechanics for the map: the commute spots and chance spots. The purple spots known as commute spots allows a player that lands on one to skip to another commute spot in the same turn instead of relying on a randomized number of spaces in the gas gauge.

When a player lands on the chance spot, a card is automatically drawn with a prompt that can punish or reward players via points or moving them around the map.

New Characters/Pieces

To further inject the Detroit feel of the game, we pivoted from the original character models to pieces modeled after recognizable Detroit monuments like Joe Louis fist and the Spirit of Detroit.

The Corner Store

Bodegas are a part of everyday life in everyday Detroit. It’s unlikely to drive down a busy road and not see a bodega or liquor store that sells food and household items. We considered that fact when we designed the Corner store system that allows players to buy items to gain an advantage in the game.

We made fun and strategically effective items like the “black suburban” that grants immunity to potholes, the “turn skip,” and the “game on command” so players can initiate games on a whim rather than landing.

The screen shows a quiz game interface with a futuristic cyberpunk Detroit theme. Text indicates it's round 3 of 10 with 1 minute remaining. A brief description mentions a sci-fi Detroit setting. Multiple-choice options include A. Matrix, B. Robocop, and C. Beverly Hills Cop, with Robocop highlighted in green. An orange lion illustration is partially visible on the right side.

My Roles

Product Manager

Using Miro, I directed the ideation of our project and assigned tasks to the coders and designers based on their strengths and preferences. I steered the conversation of the product features and UVP and monitored the progress of project tasks, while keeping my team on track using backlogs and scrums to deliver a cohesive gaming app. See examples of my contributions below.

Game Design Document

As the project manager, I refined and documented the smaller details of our game like the rules, the mechanics, and the

A screenshot of a webpage titled 'Player Stories' with instructions on creating simple player stories and numerous sticky notes with different player stories written on them, arranged in columns on a white background with blue headers.

Ideation

I was responsible for steering the ideation phase, constantly evaluating what ideas and features had payoff for users and were feasible with our timeline.

Kanban Boards

To ensure the team executed the steps needed for the final deliverable in the right order, I managed the Kanban boards for agile project management.

In the Research phase of our project, the co-manager and myself conducted trials using prototypes of the mini games designed within RCP to get user feedback and refine design.

As the Lead UX/UI Designer. I did the wire-framing, led the branding, created many of the in-game assets, designed the map and designed the user interface.

I also illustrated the storyboard and created the promotional video.

Lead UX/UI Designer

Style Guide

I was the sole designer responsible for designing the map and UI. Using Sketch, I made at least three different iterations of the map and UI panel before settling on the final one designs. I also provided the developers with annotations so they could understand the functionality.

The Game Assets and minigame designs and experiences

Using Sketch and Procreate, I was the designer behind the mini games UI and design, the map’s components, the flow of the mechanics, and the logo, while my co-designer was responsible for the design of the player pieces and corner store items.

As Lead Designer, I took the initiative to draft assets for our game and brainstorm brand components like font and colors. With feedback from peers and fellow cohort members, I was able to finalize brand style, icons, and logos that fit the team’s vision.

The Map and UI

Storyboard

As Lead designer, I analyzed our early game concept to build a storyboard that conveys the essence of our game’s experience.

Project FAQs

What was challenging about the project?

There were many ideas we had as a team and as individuals. Considering that one of our coders in round one of development had no coding experience, they were very intimidated by the scale of the project. My challenge was maintaining morale, pushing the team to do their best, and managing the different personalities.

What did you enjoy about the project?

I enjoyed the theme of the project. As someone who was an avid gamer in youth, it inspired me to take a closer look at design decisions made in some of my favorite games and capture what made me love them so much.

What di you learn from this project?

I learned about tools of product management, what goes into game development, and how to drive a team of various personalities to a finish line.