Soulkin
UX/UI Design of a mobile tactical collectible card game.
⏱️
Time
1 Year
👤
My role
UX/UI Designer
🛠️
Tools
Adobe Xd, Photoshop
🔴
status
Deprecated
Soul of Ankiril (SoA) is a strategic, free-to-play collectible card game set in the fantasy world of Ankiril. Originally developed as a tabletop game, tambù has adapted it into their first mobile game, aiming to preserve the core excitement and the essence of the physical game in a digital format.
Despite our commitment and dedication, the mobile game did not achieve the success we had hoped for, leading us to the difficult decision to quit that version and rethink it as a roguelite PC game, currently in development.
SoA is designed for mid-core players who enjoy tactical and card-based games, creature collection, and competitive decision-making, with the flexibility to play anywhere on mobile platforms.
The game's genre (strategy card game) is commonly enjoyed by regular and hardcore gamers. This implies that the game should not stray too far from the complex gameplay they expect, yet the vertical play on a mobile device demands a range of accessibility constraints. Finding the right balance in each game section is crucial for an optimal gaming experience.
The constraint of a fixed vertical screen made designing the HUD particularly challenging, with the task of balancing essential information and a clean interface in an extremely limited space.
The need to adapt to various changes and modifications during the development phase, due to ongoing tests, required flexibility and a quick response to ongoing analysis, while maintaining a consistent vision of the project. Often, significant changes to the gameplay necessitated a complete overhaul of the user flow.
32 years old, Computer Scientist. A gamer for many years, he has always appreciated games that stimulate him mentally and, due to his competitive nature, he always seeks challenges with other players. In the past, he used to spend many hours playing Magic the Gathering and Hearthstone.
25 years old, student. A fan of anime and manga, she is quite familiar with the world of video games, particularly enjoying monster collectors and graphic adventures. She is very interested in the storyline and character design present in games. Her favorite Pokémon is Torchic.
Upon joining the team, I found that the main player targets (Killers and Explorers) had already been outlined in the design document based on Bartle's taxonomy. Starting from this, I crafted detailed personas by researching their behaviors and motivations, which guided our game's feature development to effectively engage these key audiences.
Based on the gameplay flow described in the design document, I created an initial flowchart detailing the game screen sequences. This flowchart served as a blueprint for developing the user interface, ensuring a logical and intuitive navigation path for players.
Alongside the development of flowcharts, I create wireframes to map out the structure of each screen or in-game event, ensuring that I include all essential features and functionalities, and identifying any particular cases.
The game board is made up of hexagonal tiles, a common feature in tactical games. However, it is designed vertically, which has a significant impact on the overall experience.
Typically, card and strategy/tactical games are played horizontally. However, to stay true to the original game, this vertical setup was maintained. This decision resulted in easier user interaction but also increased complexity, as it required fitting numerous strategic elements and information into a field that occupies most of the interface.
Additionally, the use of bright, characteristic colors in the game's setting creates a visually intense battle screen, which required numerous trials to ensure both readability and aesthetic appeal.
The game board is made up of hexagonal tiles, a common feature in tactical games. However, it is designed vertically, which has a significant impact on the overall experience.
Typically, card and strategy/tactical games are played horizontally. However, to stay true to the original game, this vertical setup was maintained. This decision resulted in easier user interaction but also increased complexity, as it required fitting numerous strategic elements and information into a field that occupies most of the interface.
Additionally, the use of bright, characteristic colors in the game's setting creates a visually intense battle screen, which required numerous trials to ensure both readability and aesthetic appeal.
In the game, the cards are divided into two main categories: Creatures and Spells. Motivated primarily by aesthetic considerations and a desire for immediacy, we made the deliberate decision to clearly distinguish creatures from spells. However, when it comes to the card structure itself, our main focus was on ensuring readability and providing comprehensive information, all while still showcasing the illustrations. To manage the inherent complexity, we implemented maximum character count and text size limits within the card. Additionally, we introduced a tooltip feature that allows players to access the meanings of specific keywords by pressing and holding the respective keyword.
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SoA marked my first steps both as a UX designer and within game development as a whole.
While I am aware of its limitations at the time of cancellation, working on a project of this level of complexity helped me quickly understand how game development can be both deeply stimulating and inherently challenging.
The project and its later transformation into Soulkin, became an important learning experience.
It pushed the team to step back and critically evaluate what needed to be discarded, reworked, or preserved.
That process clarified what truly mattered to the experience, including the value of the universe we had built together, which became a foundation for what followed.