Introducing Sushi Cafe, an engaging mobile game inspired by my experience working at a cozy mom-and-pop sushi joint. In this delightful app, you’ll immerse yourself in the world of restaurant ownership, charming cute animal customers along the way. Customize your cozy eatery with a variety of furniture options, master exciting new recipes, and forge meaningful connections with your furry clientele. Drive into the joy of creating your very own sushi haven!
While the app store boasts numerous casual simulation games, a notable absence at this time was a mobile game centered around a sushi restaurant featuring emotionally resonant characters and a comprehensive tutorial explaining game mechanics. Recognizing this gap, I set out to create a unique gaming experience.
How might we develop a casual yet emotionally engaging mobile game tailored for players seeking brief, recurring play sessions?
To address the market gap, I created Sushi Cafe–a casual mobile game featuring a charming storyline and emotionally captivating characters set in a small sushi restaurant. While Sushi Cafe shares similarities with other casual games in terms of mechanics, its tutorial stands out for its clarity and effectiveness in guiding players. The game’s interface is thoughtfully designed and tested to prevent overwhelming players, ensuring a seamless and delightful experience. Moreover, Sushi Cafe prioritizes fostering emotional connections with users through both its tutorial and visual aesthetics, enhancing player engagement and encouraging repeated visits to the game.
In my research, I conducted a user survey involving six participants, beginning with a screening question to ascertain their current or past engagement with mobile games. The survey predominantly featured open-ended inquiries aimed at understanding participants’ positive and negative experiences, as well as their motivations for, mobile gaming.
A notable observation was the prevalence of female participants and those drawn to a game’s visual appeal. Many highlighted the ease with which they formed attachments to in-game characters and expressed enjoyment in games with a variety of tasks and activities. Conversely, negative experiences often stemmed from dwindling interest or frustration due to limited in-game tasks. Some participants also mentioned feeling disconnected from reality after investing a significant amount of their time in mobile games. While this may be beneficial to companies, it can adversely affect users’ well-being, leading many to discontinue play altogether. An ideal mobile should offer flexible play durations, accommodating both brief sessions and longer immersive experiences based on player preference.
After conducting the user survey, I decided to conduct a competitive analysis. The first two mobile games in my competitive analysis are Animal Hot Springs, an idle casual game where you run a hot spring for animals, and Animal Restaurant, a cozy yet cute game where you run a restaurant.
Following the user survey, I proceeded with a competitive analysis, starting with two mobile games: Animal Hot Springs and Animal Restaurant. Here are my insights from the two mobile games.
Although not a mobile game, it’s widely recognized and beloved. Even if someone hasn’t played any of the games in the Animal Crossing series themselves, they’re most likely familiar with the franchise or recognize its iconic mascots like Tom Nook and Isabelle.
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Meet Amber, a full-time high school student with a knack for all things digital. Constantly glued to her phone, she’s on the search for a cute and relaxing game to fill her free moments between classes, during car rides, or before bedtime. Amber adores cute aesthetics and enjoys earning achievements and rewards. However, with a short attention span, she quickly grows restless and dislikes getting stuck on tasks. She craves a variety and dislikes games that become repetitive without proper motivation.
I proceeded with crafting two different user stories. The first story centered on users seeking mobile gaming experiences and their various motivations and objectives. This includes seeking brief entertainment, taking breaks from academics, enjoying affordable gaming options, and appreciating the convenience of mobile gaming’s portability.
In the second user story, my focus shifted to developing an in-game character’s motivations and goals. Specifically, I delved into the perspective of the restaurant manager, who is driven by the desire to generate profits, ensure customer satisfaction, craft delicious dishes, and cultivate a welcoming atmosphere. This narrative serves as a reference point to guide the creation of emotionally engaging content tailored to player interactions with the in-game characters.
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In the onboarding user flow, the emphasis is on creating a welcoming interface and identifying whether users have an existing account. Based on this, the flow seamlessly guides them through either signing up or logging in. Additionally, the tutorial user flow, depicted on the right, aims to immerse players in the game by having them set up their restaurant. This involves purchasing tables and stoves while introducing them to the storyline. Moreover, players engage with the gameplay by serving customers, who enter the restaurant, place orders, and leave payment for users to collect.
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In the site map, the startup interface is positioned at the far left, with the middle column dedicated to various categories. These categories include specific items like help, language settings, feedback options, and music/sound controls. Players can also explore a range of facilities and furniture available for purchase, including wall decor, plants, fridges, windows, and more. Furthermore, site map showcases an assortment of recipes that can be gradually acquired and offered to customers for order.
I took the liberty of generating Crazy 8’s to swiftly sketch out my ideas. This allowed me to capture my thoughts and concepts on paper, facilitating the exploration and visualization of potential interface designs, before diving into wireframing.
After sketching out the interface and considering user flows and site maps, I transitioned to crafting a low-fidelity wireframe. To populate the wireframe, I used temporary character placeholders, as I hadn’t finalized the character designs yet.
In the onboarding process, players are presented with options to enable notifications and log in. While logging in might seem unnecessary for a casual mobile game, it offers the advantage of data preservation across devices, ensuring users can seamlessly resume their progress. Alternatively, users can opt for “tourist mode,” allowing gameplay without an account connection.
The tutorial, led by Chef Ron, begins with an introduction to the scenario and guides users through various interactions, such as taking orders from customers. Chef Ron provides explanations until the end of the tutorial, encouraging users to take charge thereafter. Finally, the last screen offers a glimpse of the decorated dine-in home screen, reflecting the player’s progress over time.
Following the completion of the low-fidelity wireframe, I began crafting the branding for Sushi Cafe. Presented here is the mood board featuring charming hand-drawn characters. I aimed to maintain an adorable style with the incorporation of thicker and/or darker lines to emphasize the game’s key elements and details.
To further develop the brand, I crafted a style tile. On the left side, you’ll find the selection of fonts and buttons contrast-checked to ensure compliance with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) AA standards. Meanwhile, the right side showcases potential color palettes, including primary hues, secondary button colors, background tones, and furniture/decor accents. The style tile features the logo, icon, and patterns, accompanied by descriptive adjectives to guide the creation of the high-fidelity prototype.
Presenting the initial iteration of the high-fidelity prototype. Shown are several screens demonstrating the onboarding process and tutorial. The final screen offers a glimpse into the dine-in interface, illustrating its evolution over prolonged user engagement.
After creating the initial prototype, I initiated usability testing with three participants, conducted either remotely or in person. Feedback from all participants highlighted several key points:
Additional observations included inconsistent background elements, lack of indication for other rooms, continuous dialogue, and grammatical errors. Following the usability testing, I refined the prototype to its current updated version, addressing the identified issues.
These screens depict the onboarding process. Minimal alterations were made to these screens since no feedback concerning the onboarding experience was received. However, attention was paid to minor details such as ensuring uniformity in background elements, particularly aligning wallpaper lines evenly and maintaining consistent sizes.
In response to the participants’ feedback regarding the lack of depth in the tutorial, my primary focus for the second prototype was to enhance tutorial comprehensiveness. Each game mechanic received a thorough explanation with a personalized touch. Players are properly introduced to the kitchen area and guided through purchasing a stove, a feature not previously addressed in the initial prototype. Additionally, clear indicators, such as arrows, were incorporated to illustrate the option to swipe between the dine-in and kitchen areas, facilitating seamless navigation for users.
In this portion of the iteration, significant enhances were made to deepen the emotional connection to the game. Notably, customers now featured dialogue and names, enriching the gameplay experience and fostering attachment. Additionally, Chef Ron, the owner, engages players with more dialogue, emphasizing his passion for cooking and bringing joy to others. This emphasizes the importance of likable and relatable characters in gaming, similar to renowned figures like Isabelle or Tom Nook from Nintendo games, who resonate with audiences even beyond the gameplay experience.
The usability testing feedback informed several changes beyond those previously mentioned. Notable adjustments include changing the money icon color from blue to yellow, adding arrows to signify ongoing dialogue with speech bubbles, and replacing the calendar logo on the task button with a checkmark icon. Furthermore, the “Chef Ron” alert button was repositioned to align with the map and setting buttons, and the button’s background color was adjusted to ensure compliance with WCAG AA standards. These refinements aim to optimize user experience and accessibility.
Briefly mentioned in the project introduction, I spent half a decade as a part-time server at a small sushi restaurant while pursuing my undergraduate degree and UX design. Inspired by this experience, I embarked on creating a game as a tribute to my time at the restaurant, making it the focal point of my final case study for Thinkful. Throughout this project, I not only refined my skills in UX design, but also delved into the realm of game and UI design. As a personal hobby, I also had the opportunity to indulge in my passion for doodling by creating my own characters and backgrounds for the game.
Within the future development of the app, there are several key areas I would like to focus on.