Fable: The Lost Chapters
UX Research Project
Usability / Playability Report
Table of Contents
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Issue Severity Scale (User Experience)
Game information
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Project summary
Game title
Genre
Playing device/Platform
Player mode
Features evaluated
Methodology
Fable: The Lost Chapters
RPG
PC
Single-player
- Morality alignment
- Replay value
- Skill system
- Teleporting mechanics
- Weapon augmentations
- Experience acquisition
Mixed methods
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Playtest
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Survey
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Diary study
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Game info card
Game concept
Fable: The Lost Chapters is a single-player RPG game where users complete quests and tasks as the main character,
the Hero of Oakvale.
Skills
- Three skill areas:
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Strength
(Physique, Health, Toughness)
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Skill
(Speed, Accuracy, Guile)
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Will
(Spells – Attack, Physical,
Surround, Magic power)
- Players may choose to upgrade their skills in the order they choose.
- Players can master the three skill areas up to the highest level, even after finishing the game.
Quests
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Gold: Main quests (Required)
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Silver: Relevant quests (Optional)
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Bronze: Side quests (Optional)
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Players can select quests by accepting
quest cards at the Heroes Guild.
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Players can choose to help good or evil characters throughout the hero’s journey. As a result, quests influence the character’s morality alignment.
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Boasts are additional challenges that players may take during certain quests in order to earn more rewards and
gold (in-game currency).
Weapons
- Players can use weapons and spells
to fight.
- Players can add augmentations to
their weapons to increase damage.
- Weapon classification:
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Melee
Close ranged weapons –
Swords, Katanas, Great swords,
and Axes, among others.
Available upgrades:
Iron > Steel > Obsidian > Master
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Ranged
Long distance weapons –
Bow and arrow, Crossbow.
Available upgrades:
Yew > Oak > Ebony > Master
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Special / Legendary weapons
Most powerful melee and ranged weapons in the game. They are already augmented when found.
Experience
- Players can acquire experience by
absorbing experience orbs dropped when enemies are defeated.
- Experience is used to upgrade skills at
the Heroes Guild.
- Players may acquire general experience
or experience to progress one of the
three skill areas depending on the
manner they defeat their enemies.
Collectibles
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Silver keys
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Gear
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Legendary weapons
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Clues
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Augmentations
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Items in silver chests
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Items in Demon Doors
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Potions
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Food
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Objects
Participant information
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Sample of Participants
Sample size
Age / User groups
Inclusion criteria
10 participants
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18-21 (User Group 1) – 3 Participants
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22-25 (User Group 2) – 3 Participants
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26-29 (User Group 3) – 1 Participant
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30+ (User Group 4) – 3 Participants
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Relative experience playing RPG games
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Minimum age to participate: 18 years old
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Ability to meet with researcher remotely and provide feedback if/when needed
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Ability to broadcast play session for researcher
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Ability to participate in follow-up surveys and provide diary entries after each play session
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Participant summary
Participant Gender Age Relevant games played
Participant 1 Male 18-21 World of Warcraft, Elden Ring
Participant 2 Female 22-25 The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Diablo Immortal
Participant 3 Female 18-21 King Arthur: A Knight's tale, Outriders
Participant 4 Male 30+ The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Tales of Arise
Participant 5 Male 22-25 Dungeons and Dragons: Dark Alliance, Assassin's Creed: The Ezio Collection
Participant 6 Male 22-25 Dark Souls, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Participant 7 Female 26-29 The Elder Scrolls V: Skrym, Darksiders series
Participant 8 Male 18-21 Path of Exile, Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Participant 9 Female 30+ The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Dragon Age: Origins
Participant 10 Male 30+ The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, Lost Ark
Issue Severity Scale (User Experience)
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Research design
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Research summary
Session type
Playtest
Data collection
Survey data
Diary entries
Number of sessions
5 sessions of one hour
Project duration
7 days total
Research procedures (5 days)
Analysis and Report (2 days)
Main target audience
Open to all User Groups listed
Location
Remote Steam play
Steam broadcast
Methodology
Mixed methods
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Survey
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Diary study
Responsibilities
Solo
Researcher performed all tasks in this project
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Playtest information
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Participants played through the game two hours at a time until they completed the Darkwood and Twinblade arcs across 5 sessions.
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They were encouraged to play at their own pace and perform tasks of interest before venturing into major quests.
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They filled out a survey and submitted a diary entry after each play session.
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The survey was administered on Qualtrics and it contained a blank box for diary entries.
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All participants were able to finish the two game arcs across the 5 sessions.
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Methodology rationale
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A mixed methods approach was deemed appropriate for this assessment.
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The survey was administered to better evaluate frequency distributions, rating tendencies,
and general observations across all participants.
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Diary entries were also collected to gain more in-depth feedback and insights from participants
in regards to the features at hand.
Findings summary
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Insights and recommendations
This section contains an in-depth analysis and further discussion on each of the findings.
Recommendations were provided to address the medium, high, and critical issues identified
per the Issue Severity Scale (User Experience) on this assessment.
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Overall sentiments: Participants enjoyed their overall experience
Positive finding
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Participants finished the Darkwood and Twinblade arcs in 5 sessions. They rated their overall experience across all days a 4 or above.
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Feedback comments on the morality alignment and skill systems were very favorable.
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Participants stated that morality alignment adds a high replay value to the game.
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Participants praised the Morality Alignment system
Positive finding
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All participants praised the morality alignment system in the game. They particularly enjoyed the freedom to choose what type of storyline they would have based on deeds performed.
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They enjoyed how character appearance changed depending on morality progression.
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They also appreciated the option to switch sides anytime they wished, and attributed a high game replay value to the game due to this feature.
Participant #6 (22-25)
“I highly enjoyed the unpredictable outcomes resulting from my character morality alignment. I never knew what was going to take place after major events in the story. It all depended on the choices that I made and the quests that I picked.”
Example of character progression based on morality alignment.
Participant #9 (30+)
“I enjoyed observing how my morality alignment had an impact on the way other characters reacted to me. If I performed a good deed, people would cheer for me. if I performed a bad deed, the same town’s folk would either fear me or run away from you. I never got to experience morality alignment outcomes to such a degree in any other game before.”
Participant #8 (18-21)
“I liked that I could experience different events in the storyline depending on my morality alignment and what I chose to do. I got to witness several events linked to both sides of my moral alignment by saving the game at different moments in my progression prior to making major decisions.”
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Participants liked the Skill system
Positive finding
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70% of participants praised the Skill system in the game by the end of the playtest. They liked the ability to observe and access all the skills without being limited by class-related restrictions.
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Participants also praised the skill preview videos, stating that it helped them visualize how abilities looked and functioned prior to making upgrade decisions.
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The only minor complaint from the other 30% of participants was that there were more will skills (spells) available than strength skills.
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Participant #1 (18-21)
"The will skills are pretty good! I have never seen so many magic powers being offered in an RPG game before. I also like that skills are not limited to specific classes. Unlike most modern RPGs, I can perform any magic powers that I want, no matter the element or nature of the power itself.”
Participant #3 (18-21)
“I like the part where you can see all the abilities regardless of skill area without being limited to a few abilities in a progression tree. I also like that I can downgrade any of my skills and upgrade others to try new techniques and different fighting styles.”
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The teleporting mechanics were deemed highly convenient
Finding
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The teleporting system allowed participants to travel to many in-game locations instantly.
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Four participants were able to complete silver quests notably faster than the rest by teleporting frequently.
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Three participants provided positive feedback on the teleporting system in their diary entries.
Participant #2 (22-25)
"The teleporting system is highly accessible and easy to use. I liked that I could activate the warping action just like any other spell and travel to places at any time.”
Participant #4 (30+)
“The teleporting system definitely made the quests easier and smoother. I particularly liked that I could teleport anywhere regardless of my skill alignment and character progression.”
Participant #7 (26-29)
"I liked that I didn't have to specialize in spells in order to be able to teleport instantly. People can only play with a single character in this game, however, teleporting is a default skill that is acquired early on, so it made the ability to travel that much easier.”
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Weapon Augmentations are too restrictive
Medium Issue
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Participants were initially interested in weapon augmentations, however, their interest mostly shifted towards Legendary weapons by the end of the playtest.
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The flame augmentation was more accessible than other augmentations.
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There were at least 3 accessible augmentations during the playtest. Overall, there are 8 types of augmentations available in the game (flame, sharpening, piercing, lightning, silver, mana, health, experience).
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Participants were not able to use augmentations with most of their weapons early on in the playtest, and they could not deactivate the augmentations after use.
Examples of weapon augmentations.
Sharpening Flame Lighting
Participant #1 (18-21)
"I found a flame augmentation before completing the first gold quest, however, I was not able to activate it because I couldn’t add augmentations to my sword. I did not have enough gold to buy a more advanced weapon that would allow augmentation use at the time as well. That augmentation went to waste.”
Participant #3 (18-21)
“I found two augmentations throughout the game, but I could not use them both because augmentations are permanent it seems. Once you add an augmentation to a weapon, you cannot deactivate it or change it. I had a weapon that allowed only one augmentation at the time. Since I couldn’t deactivate the first augmentation after using it, I was not able to test the second one.”
Participant #10 (30+)
"I thought the concept of weapon augmentations was very interesting. I liked that I could add them to both my melee and ranged weapons. However, as I was making progress in the game, I noticed that legendary weapons were already augmented and more powerful than basic weapons (even with augmentations added to them)."
Recommendations
In order to further expand the augmentation concept and applications, developers could consider doing the following:
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Lift some of the augmentation restrictions
This would make augmentation use more appealing for users.
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Enable all weapons for augmentation use
(including basic ones)
This would allow users to activate augmentations at any progression phase in the game.
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Designate amount of augmentations for use based on weapon level
Examples:
- Basic weapon 1 augmentation
- Intermediate weapon 2 augmentations
- Master weapon 3 augmentations
- Legendary weapon 4 augmentations
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Make augmentations more accessible throughout earlier phases of game play
Particularly, before legendary weapons become available.
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Make most (if not all) types of augmentations equally accessible throughout the game
This would allow users to test a greater variety of augmentations throughout different phases in the game.
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Allow users to deactivate or change weapon augmentations when needed
This would allow users to test all augmentations available at least once.
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Very few Silver quests available
High Issue
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Participants enjoyed completing silver quests throughout the playtest, however, they argued that there were not many silver quests available in the game.
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There are 10 gold quests available throughout the Darkwood and Twinblade arcs, but only 5 silver quests available in that same game phase. Overall, gold quests almost double silver quests throughout the whole game (23 total gold guests vs 12 total silver quests)
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Silver quests provide more valuable rewards than bronze quests and they contain cutscenes more closely related to important events in the story.
Participant #7 (26-29)
“I would have liked to see more silver quests in the game. They pay more gold and contain interesting cutscenes.”
Participant #8 (18-21)
“The Hobbe Killing Contest was fun. I wish there were more silver quests like that in the game.”
Participant #9 (30+)
"Silver quests were really interesting and I was able to earn a lot of gold by completing those, but they weren’t that many to go around.”
Recommendations
In order to address this issue, developers could consider doing the following:
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Increase amount of silver quests available in the game
For this purpose, developers could create more silver quests from unused content or additional tasks in the game.
Examples:
- More killing contests
- Clean more areas from enemies
- More quests eliminating a set number of enemies
- Extend the story to mythological figures and/or important Fable characters
- Include more mini-boss fights (or mini-dungeons)
- Include more open areas for additional silver quests and further exploration
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The experience absorption mechanic caused lots of frustration
Critical issue
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80% of participants rated the experience acquisition mechanic poorly. Particularly, they stated that having to make contact with the experience orbs or hold a button to absorb them caused issues in certain circumstances.
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Based on feedback, this mechanic was particularly inconvenient when fighting multiple enemies at a time.
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The experience orbs disappear after a few seconds if players do not absorb them or make contact.
Participant #3 (18-21)
“I lost experience orbs because I couldn’t absorb them or get close while fighting.”
Participant #6 (22-25)
“I wish I didn't have to hold down button to absorb experience orbs.”
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Participant #7 (26-29)
"Experience orbs disappearing on site was kind of weird. It makes sense that they would disappear if players leave the location, but why make them disappear while the player is still in the location?”
Participant #9 (30+)
“Although I eventually got used to it, I felt like I had to be on my toes to get the experience orbs (especially as the game difficulty increased). I couldn’t always hold down a button to absorb the orbs while fighting multiple enemies at the same time.”
Recommendations
It is assumed that the absorption mechanic was created to add an additional layer of challenge for experience acquisition in the game. However, in order to facilitate this mechanic for users and address the issue at hand, developers could consider doing the following:
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Disable the disappearing action in experience orbs
This might help users acquire experience orbs when fighting multiple enemies at a time or engaging in extended battles.
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Enable a button press action (instead of hold) to absorb experience orbs
This would allow users to absorb experience more easily in the middle of a battle, regardless of the amount of enemies present.
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Make experience acquisition / absorption automatic after users defeat enemies
This would allow users to acquire experience without any required action on their part.
This experience acquisition mechanic is fairly common in many RPG games.