The document reviews the game "Snow Way in Hell" and identifies several usability problems, including a lack of feedback when buttons are pressed, mechanics that are not intuitive to players like shrinking and growing, and no option to skip lengthy cutscenes. It provides suggestions for improving the game's usability, such as adding text and sound feedback, informing players about unconventional mechanics, and including a button to skip cutscenes.

1. Snow Way in Hell Review
Reviewed by
Jello Karaboo Squad
Aaron Christian
Austin Steyer
Anthony Stewart
Brandon Pounds
Justin Lelos
Assignment 1
July 12,2015
Full Sail University

2. Game
Summary
This game is set as a side scrolling
platformer. Your character has been in a
tragic accident that has placed him in an
evil place. You play as Snowball that is
trying to escape from hell. You must
shrink, grow, fight off enemies and even
the devil himself while solving puzzles to
find your freedom. Travel through Nine
circles of hell to redeem your life and find
yourself lifted into good graces.

3. Problem Button Activation / Feedback
Rating Important
Description Activating a button in the game allows the player to open gates and advance through the
level. The problem with this is that when the player does activate the button, turning it
from red to green, the game provides no feedback to the player. While the player knows
something has happened due to the changing of button color, without feedback telling the
player that a gate has opened the player is left without a sense of direction. It can be easy
for a player to get lost or confused when no feedback is given especially if the feedback
concerns advancing in the level. Feedback for the button itself can also be an issue as the
player has to assume that the button was activated based only on the changing of color.
Solution A solution for this problem can be solved by adding text boxes and sounds for each
interaction. When the player activates the button the game should tell the player that they
have activated the button opening a gate through a text box. Along with the text box
displaying feedback for the player a sound should be played letting the player know that
they have triggered both the button and the gate.
Reference Shot
Visibility of System Status

4. Problem Hovering/ Shrinking and Growing
Rating Benign
Description The user in the game can both hover in the air by throwing a snowball onto a pit of fire
and will shrink or grow at different points in the game. Neither of these interactions
applies real world conventions. The player would not know that they would hover into
the air by throwing a snowball into a fire pit without prior knowledge from the game. This
also applies to the player shrinking and growing in size, as it is not a convention of the
real world. The problem with this is that the player would need to learn these mechanics
from the game so it doesn’t come as a surprise to the player. The player would simply not
understand that these events would take place.
Solution The solution for these problems would be the game telling the player beforehand that
these two interactions happen, either before they happen or as they are happening, A
tutorial or text box informing the player that these mechanics are going to be used and
are needed would solve the problem of the player finding out on their own. If the game
presents the player with something that doesn’t fit real world conventions, the game
needs to give that knowledge to the player as they would not know otherwise.
Reference Shot
Match Between System and the
Real World

5. Problem No Way to skip End Cutscene
Rating benign
Description Upon winning the game the user is presented with a black screen only showing the health
bar of the player avatar. This blank screen is paired with a long and mostly non captivating
piece of audio. The player is given no choice but to sit and through the scene without a way
skip past it.
Solution The best solution for this problem is two fold. First the game creators need to make a button
that the player can press to skip the cutscene and return them to the main menu. This needs
to be represented on screen through text and imagery through. Second The player is more
likely to Stay and listen to the information provided if there is some kind of visual on screen to
help them care and pay attention.
Reference Shot
User Control and Freedom

6. Problem Button Mapping/Help Options
Rating Important
Description The player has no HELP option at the main menu. Although the game has an easy to learn
control system, providing the proper documentation will allow the player to learn the
mechanics of the game much sooner. Also this would make the player experience a lot less
frustrating that going through trial and error to figure these mechanics out.
Solution Developers should provide the player with a HELP menu option, this will give the player a
reference for button configurations and game tips. The help menu could be 1 page in length,
which displays the button map for the game. It would also contain brief descriptions of non-
playable characters so the player knows what they are going to see in the game. It could also
contain game tips to show examples of the mechanics being used properly. This way it’s a
quick reference that won’t take away from game play yet provide vital information that will
help the player in their progression.
Reference Shot
Help and Documentation

7. Problem Errors and Save points
Rating Critical
Description The game has checkpoints which is good if a player dies then the player can start at that
checkpoint. However if the game crashes or freezes the player has to start from the very
beginning. This can be frustrating to users since they could have been playing for a half
hour gotten to a checkpoint and then the system crashes. There is also no error response
showing what error happened to cause the crash or stating to the user what happened to
cause the problem. An example of an error would be, if the player disconnects the mouse
or controller the game does not pause or state that the controller is not there.
Solution Some fixes that we could do to fixes these issues that would take little time to add, and
not cost that much to add. We need to add a quick save feature. Any time a player hits a
checkpoint it should save in a extra folder on a computer that can be overwritten with new
checkpoints. This would save players time and frustrating and would not take much more
space on the device. We also add a continue button in the pause menu or main menu that
would allow the player to jump to the most recent save. This would be good to have
especially after a system crash. We would also need to add some pause feature if the
controller is disconnected with a pop error report stating what the problem is. If an error
that is non recoverable a new screen should appear stating that the game needs to restart,
and be add a restart button to the screen. This would save a lot of issues with players
starting all over from the beginning, and from losing customers.
Reference Shot
Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover
from errors

8. Problem Checkpoints ambiguity
Rating benign
Description When playing through the game the player can make there way through levels and reach
checkpoints where they will be revived at. The problem that players are running in to is that
the checkpoints have no identifying markers. There is a small audio clip that plays but if the
player misses it or is hard of hearing they have no idea they have reached a checkpoint.
Solution Placing a little icon where a checkpoint is or marking them with a light would let players know
that they are at least halfway through the level and going the right way. A safe point could
also be added to the checkpoints that might give the player some rest.
Reference Shot
Recognition Rather Than Recall

9. Problem Game Difficulty / Game understanding
Rating Important
Description No matter how many times you play the game it's the same game. When a player finishes the
game there is no veteran mode they can play, or difficulty settings in the menu. There is no
introduction to the users making sure that non-experienced players understand the button
layout or understand how to play. If you look in the Game Design Document, it tells you a little
bit on how to play the game. However, in the game itself you have to press buttons to figure it
out.
Solution There are two fixes that we could do here. We can add a little bit more to the beginning of
the game, like a tutorial stage or an introduction section. This can be skipped by the player if
they have already played the game before. After the introduction stage you could be able to
set your difficulty settings. The Second thing that would need to be added is a difficulty
setting vender. The difficulty does not have to add more to the level design just need to add
more enemies and take more damage from enemies. This would give the feeling of a more
difficult level.
Reference Shot
Flexibility and Efficiency of use

10. Problem No end game splash/transition
Rating Critical
Description When the avatar loses all its frozenness to the demons the game does nothing to advise the
player that the game is over. Based on Consistency and Standards of platform games the
player is notified when their game is over with a splash screen or an animation to show that
the player has lost all of their life and to end the game. Since players expect to know when
their game is over, this would be an important problem that would need to be rectified as
quickly as possible.
Solution Place an animation on the avatar that shows they have run out of frozenness and the game is
over. The animation could be the player melting from the heat of the enemies. Then display
on the screen that the game is over; by providing this feedback the game is keeping platform
convention for the player and also can provide other help like error prevention, in case the
player doesn’t want to play again ask if they would like to restart.
Reference Shot
Consistency and Standards

11. Problem No saving or warning
Rating Important
Description When quitting the game there is no dialogue that states that the player will lose all progress
the player quits. As show below the pause menu only says play and start. When hovering over
quit and pressing quit there is nothing that shows up.
Solution The solution to the problem would be to have a message appear either saying “ Are you sure
you want to quit” and or “ Progress will not be saved”. This is a very easy fix that could make a
world of difference for players that need a break or even accidently quit the game by a mis-
click of the quit button.
Reference Shot
Error Prevention

12. Problem To fast of a loading screen
Rating Benign
Description There wasn't much dialogue but the loading screen did have some. Unfortunately no one can
read it since it comes by in an instant. The picture below is the loading screen. The information
isn't very important but the player should be able to read the small hints on the screen since
there is also no control menu.
Solution The solution would be to leave the load screen for a longer time or to have the player click to
continue off of the loading screen. Since the player may want to know what level they are
currently on or just plainly be able to see what is on a screen that flew by.
Reference Shot
Aesthetic and Minimalist Design

13. References
Ps4 error report/PS4 CE-34878-0 crash error Bug/community page/
by funnyangrykid/September_2014
http://www.reddit.com/r/PS4/comments/2cs48k/ps4_ce348780_cra
sh_error_bug/