GENWORLD

The Ultimate Text-Based Life Simulator

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An Introduction

Genworld is a super fun mobile life simulator passionately crafted with rich, standard-setting detail. Live a fictional life with greater realism and minimal paywalls, all without sacrificing the intuitive user-centric design you come to expect. This brand new life simulator entry is player-focused, ethically monetised, and detail-packed, making it the perfect life sim for those seeking an accessible yet fully featured alternative.

In 2018 Bitlife emerged as the single most popular text-based mobile life simulator, with millions of downloads since its release. After changing ownership in 2020, most new content has been paywalled and past promises to supporting players have been left unmet and ignored. Over time players have shared their disappointment, even going as far as to form opposing communities in the thousands. Despite this, no alternatives currently exist which have both the equivalent visual and gameplay quality of Bitlife.

In short, I must create a mobile text-based life simulator that solidifies itself within the market as a high quality, easy to use and more financially accessible alternative to Bitlife and other comparable games.

Project Information

Tools Used:

Unity, Figma, Visual Studio Code, C#, Notion, Github, Maze

Team Size:

Individual

Design Timeframe:

3 Months

Total Project Timeframe:

15 Months

Project Type:

Commercial Release

Understanding the Competition

Before diving into the project, I set out to understand a bit more about the existing alternatives using a SWOT analysis.

SWOT Analysis Takeaway

While there are alternatives to market leaders such as Bitlife, Bitlife remains at the forefront due to its superior quality of design and feature execution, advantageous access to large financial and talent resources, and carefully crafted product identity. For a market alternative to have potential to successfully compete against Bitlife it needs to tick the following boxes:

1.

Offers most features and content to players for free.

2.

Is available on both iOS (App Store) and Android (Google Play Store) for free.

3.

Is surrounded by a large and dedicated community which shows an active interest in the project being developed.

4.

Offers one or more stand out features which both differentiates the game from all other competitors and meaningfully changes the core gameplay.

5.

Offers an experience which is still familiar to existing players of mobile text-based life simulators.

6.

Has a UI/UX which is consistent in-game and across many screen types, visually appealing, easy to navigate, and stands out when compared to alternative text based mobile life simulators.

7.

Receives consistent updates which meaningfully add to the gameplay experience.

Topic Research

Next I chose to research the game genre and general topics which connect to the project. This was conducted using various sources such as Global Growth Insights, and 42matters insights analytics.

1.

54% of life simulation game players identified as female.

2.

Players aged 18-40 accounted for 51% of total player engagement within simulation games.

3.

The 18-40 age group favours life sims and survival sims which prioritised open-world gameplay, customisation, and multiplayer collaboration.

4.

62% of simulation players aged 18-40 preferred immersive graphics, AI-driven environments, and community mods.

5.

29% of total simulation game downloads came from players aged 7-17.

6.

Players aged 7-17 prefer sandbox and farming simulators which offered age-appropriate content, creative tools, and simplified controls.

7.

56% of simulation game players aged 7-17 played simulation games for learning, exploration, and leisure.

8.

34% of all simulation game players come from North America.

User Research Goals

1.

What monetisation models are most preferred among players of text-based life simulators and what is the overall attitude towards monetisation within this market?

2.

Why do players of text-based life simulators play these kinds of games?

3.

What level of performance do the mobile devices of text-based life simulator players most commonly have?

4.

How often do players of text-based life simulators play these kinds of games and how does this differ compared to their playtime of other types of games?

5.

What are the most commonly spoken languages among players of text-based life simulators?

6.

How do players of text-based life simulators view the life simulator game market and its future trajectory?

7.

What do players of text-based life simulators associate with a high-quality gaming experience when playing text-based life simulators?

Surveys

As the next step in understanding the target audience, I conducted 3 separate surveys which included a total of 75 participants between all surveys.

User Interviews

After conducting surveys, I interviewed 4 individuals from the Genworld discord server using Discord's call feature. Going into these interviews, I had to objective of answering any unanswered or new questions from the prior surveys and research.

From conducting these interviews I uncovered the following:

1.

Players often enter a play session with a pre-determined gameplay goal.

2.

Players care deeply about perceived realism

3.

Players feel like existing life simulators are too visually similar.

4.

The goal set by the player can hugely vary

5.

Achievements are often not a primary consideration in regards to progression

User Goals

1.

Live out an alternative fictional life.

2.

Experiment with realistic and appealing activities which are inaccessible in real life.

3.

Access an engaging, convenient, and accessible source of entertainment which supports both long and short gameplay sessions.

Business Goals

1.

Make sufficient revenue to cover past and continued development costs.

2.

Maximise player engagement and retention within the game.

3.

Create a product which reflects and embodies the businesses core qualities (quality, innovation, simplicity).

Technical Considerations

1.

Create a smooth and visually appealing user experience but not at the cost of responsive navigation.

2.

Minimal ability to utilise server dependent functionality due to limited financial resources.

3.

Ensure a consistently high quality UI across multiple screen types and designs.

User Persona

Using all research findings from the topic research, surveys, and interviews I pieced together a user persona to help empathise with the target audience, ensuring design decisions are done with the upmost consideration of the player.

User Journey Map

To further empathise with the target audience and the journey they may go through. To create this journey map, I mapped out the touch points, pain points, expectations, and opportunities that a player within the target audience may go through before discovering Genworld.

Brainstorming

Before starting the design process, I unleashed all of the ideas which had built up to this very moment. For brainstorming I decided to layout my raw ideas onto 4 sheets of paper, with each piece of paper being a category. The categories were features, visual presentation, accessibility, and target audience.

Information Architecture

To avoid designing without any clear direction, I designed the user flows and sitemap based on the prior ideation. This ensures that the screens which need to be designed are designed without unecessary back and forth due to the game's navigational structure remaining fluid.

Low-Fidelity Wireframe

Now that the structure, goals, and target audience were all clearly defined, it was time to design Genworld. For low-fidelity wireframes I decided to experiment with dozens of layouts and approaches. These different approaches were then considered and considered for the layout of the high-fidelity concepts and final design.

Concepts

Based on the designs which were created from the low-fidelity wireframes, I created 3 concepts which combined various different layouts and aesthetics into 1. Once designed, one of the concept designs were chosen as a foundation for the final design's layout and aesthetic.

After deciding on a concept, I used Maze to test the user flows within a high fidelity mockup. From the 72 participants, the success rate for task completion within the prototype was good, but users commonly misclicked two key buttons while completing the task. This highlighted that while most users successfully completed the task of getting their first in-game job, many users had moments of confusion regarding what to press.

Usability Test Stats

Success Rate:

82.8%

Drop Off Rate:

17.2%

Usability Test Takeaways

1.

The hamburger menu and "progress" button confused users on what to press

2.

Many users raised the need for more contextual information alongside buttons

3.

World icon looked like a navigation icon

Solutions

1.

Added explicit text labels alongside icons on the bottom navigation

2.

Renamed "Progression" button to "Skills & Progress" along with a subtitle describing the buttons function

3.

Changed world icon from a compass to a planet