CoReSys

Overview

Problem Statement: Tabletop RPG enthusiasts or designers tend to take a long time to create a tabletop game campaign because of how complicated the systems are which requires a lot of calculations and iterations.

CoReSys is a combat simulator for tabletop RPG games that is created to aid designers in creating tabletop games conveniently without using pen and paper.

It was created during our final year project in Digipen where the goal was to create an intuitive and easy-to-use software that allow users who love tabletop games to create their own tabletop systems and test it out in a 3D environment.

End Product: Working 3D Software

Members:

Producer - Ziyi Jean Lim

Technical Lead - Cantius Chew

UI Programmer - Huang Xu Rong

Graphics Lead - Linus Ng

Graphics Programmer - Jerome

Graphics Programmer - Darren Lim

Particles Programmer - Chue Jun Hao

Design/ Art Lead - Michael Seah Jin Han

UI/UX Designer - Woo Seik Yee

Audio Designer - Denny Liong Yong An

Product Vision

The goal of creating CoReSys was to create an intuitive and easy-to-use software that allow users who love tabletop games to create their own tabletop systems conveniently with a:

Conflict Resolution Simulation System
3D map builder
3D combat simulator

As a starting point, We did some market research on competitors to investigate the current popular tabletop softwares in the market. We then moved on to decide on original features to be added to the software. Since each feature has its own unique flow, all the UX flows have to be mapped out.

Prototype Process

We used Figma for this project so that we can make quick iterations after receiving feedbacks from testers and lecturers.

Along the way, I have learnt valuable lessons to take note of when I participate in a group Figma project in the future. Here are some of them that I would like to share:

Always create components of assets that will be reused in multiple pages in order to keep consistency
Keep frames neatly organized so that UX flows can be tracked easily
Use the comment tool to inform the programmers on how the flow should work

Screens in Software

Conflict Resolution System

The flow of the Conflict Resolution took the most time to polish because it was the main feature of our software. We had to ensure that users will understand how it works, which led to us creating an interactive tutorial with voiceovers which will guide users step by step on how to use the system.

Main Menu

Select Conflict Resolution

Character Creation

Action/Sequence Editor

Simulate Conflict Resolution

3D Map Builder

The 3D map builder is created with convenience in mind. Users are allowed to created their 3D environment quickly by using the drag n' drop feature while being able to duplicate the asset with one button. There are four different themes with custom 3D assets to choose from.

Map Builder

3D Combat Simulator

After users have created their conflict resolution and 3D map, they can hop into the combat simulator to test if everything works. Users will have the option to place down characters that they have created earlier on which possess the actions and sequences that have been assigned. Since our goal was to aid designers to create a tabletop game conveniently, they will be allowed to edit the action and sequence graphs while testing, which allows them to make quick iterations. The difficulty of this feature was to combine both 2D and 3D aspects of our software together.

Turn Order Page

Combat Mode

Software Tutorial

During the development process, we received feedback from new users that they have difficulty using CoReSys because of how complex the whole software was. Hence, we added a fully interactive tutorial into each and every system to guide users step by step on how to create their own tabletop game from start to end. This was proven effective as more users are able to use the software after learning from the tutorial.

Conflict Resolution Tutorial

Map Builder Tutorial

Takeaways

Some key takeaways from this project are that:

Always keep the problem statement in mind. It is always important to keep our goals in mind when working on a project as sometimes we can derail and create a product that does not solve the problems that we have identified. In this case, the product was too complicated for new designers to use at one point. However, we managed to solve the issue with an interactive tutorial.

Design is never perfect. Design needs a lot of iterations in order to work. Designers should never stay on their initial designs as they can broaden their views to better design if they keep making iterations according to feedback.

Design has to be usable. As much as we want to create a beautiful-looking application, we still focused on usability as the goal was to aid new users to create a tabletop game easily. In the end, we managed to balance out both aesthetics and usability for the end product.