"Dragon Queens" is a non-military, multiplayer strategy game for mobile devices. You and a companion each play as a dragon queen watching over a peaceful and sedate realm.
It is in your power to transform the realm's villages and cities into prosperous centres for culture, joy and luxury goods - gladly offered in tribute by your devoted subjects. These tributes inspire your dragon queen towards great magical feats, spreading your influence further and ensuring that your realm is the most fabulous.
This game is the debut project of Kaludoscope AB - a studio specialising in inclusive and accessible games. As the company's designer, one of my tasks has been to concoct clear and consistent yet customisable layouts for Dragon Queens' UX, making the game accessible to as many players as possible.
The game remains in the prototype stage for now, with placeholder UI. This has afforded myself and developer Delia Hamwood the opportunity to carefully observe player interactions with the game, and adjust accordingly - sometimes making fixes whilst still on the exhibition floor.
This has been especially valuable during testing for Dragon Queens' 'hotseat' multiplayer mode, in which two players share one device.
As with all the games I design, I worked to a few design rules for accessibility - including the option to perform every interaction with a single tap. Whilst Dragon Queens' map screen incorporates some pinch-zoom and tap-and-drag controls for the convenience of many players, every action may also be carried out via optional button panels, whose on-screen position can also be set by the player. Such options are to be included in the full game's settings and tutorial/orientation menus.
As the debut project for our startup company, Dragon Queens also relied on animated visualisations for pitch materials, as much as for directing next stages of development. This called for mockups like the one below, of trade goods moving between cities at the end of a player's turn.
Team Credits
Designer & placeholder UI artist: Gemma Thomson (Kaludoscope AB)
Developer: Delia Hamwood (Kaludoscope AB)
3D environment artist: Kate Holden
More information at kaludoscope.com/dragonqueens.
