Heroic Game Visual Concept
There are four types of games that represent heroism that has been designed with stories, assets, games, and users with a similar interface (UI). From the results of the VAS (Visual Analogue Scale) questionnaire, the four types of games will be explained sequentially based on the largest to the smallest preferences in the form of statistical data containing eight categories that 70 respondents have assessed for preference assessment, there are four variables such as Entertainment-Education, Boring-Fun, Spend-Use, Ordinary-Interested, and for motivation, there are four variables such as Relax-Fight, Mediocre-Nationalism, No Sacrifice-Sacrifice, and Ordinary-Love Motherland. These parameters were tested on respondents in the form of visual impressions of four types of games, namely Action, Strategy, RPG, and Adventure; here is the result of the design.
From the average results for the four types of games, we can sort the types of hero-themed games based on the dominant preferences of Generation Z in Indonesia. The first order is game Strategy, with an average of 71.25 as the strongest impression. The second order is the game Action with an average of 69.94, RPG Games (67.09), and last in line are games Adventure of Hero (63.87) with the lowest game preference (Muminin et al., 2022). Through this insight, strategy genre games become the main object in designing heroic games.
Design Mechanic and Motivation Heroic Game
Educational value relates to game content design applications. The content will be adapted into gameplay. Meanwhile, game motivation is related to game mechanics, both tangible and intangible. Several game components appear to be a heroic game design, namely heroes, locations, award medals, and Gold. Meanwhile, intangible designs such as stories, intrinsic motivation, playing experience, and several other components.
Table 1
Design mechanic heroic game.
Mechanic Games | Description |
Onboarding | Bringing up an introduction system and tutorials as a start in playing the game and its content. |
Level | Provides levels up to 12 levels with different difficulties to create flow and playing experience so that the game can be completed to the end. |
Gold | In the context of this game, Gold is Kampua as a legal medium of exchange and currency in the era of the Sultanate of Buton. |
Hero Medal | Provides four medals of heroic value as an appreciation to users who have completed missions in the game. |
Challenge | Provides a challenge that is completing 12 levels of 4 defence sectors by setting a war strategy—complete four questions as a challenge to test Player insight. |
Quizzes | Complete four questions as a challenge to test player insight. |
Emotion | The relationship between the game and the user is by entering the voices of Gen-Z girls in informal Indonesian and instructions and dubbing so that players can listen and play the game until it's finished. |
Strategy Sets | Game difficulty with troop, weapon, and fort upgrades. |
Share to Public | Provide a menu to share experiences in the form of hero medals that have been achieved through Twitter and Facebook posts. |
Table 2
Design motivation heroic game
Motivational Games | Description |
Recognize | Presenting the latest National Hero from Southeast Sulawesi As game content on Android-based smartphone media to be recognized by Gen-Z. |
Collection | Brings up an item in the form of Buton Fortress, which can be upgraded. Features collectable troops of up to 3 troops. Collect items to help with challenging battle levels. |
Achievements | Showing awards from the results of efforts in the form of Medals of Heroism. |
Answer the question | As a challenge on several levels that have been passed by asking for the results of player insights, there are praises and pleasant sound effects (SFX) when you succeed in answering them. |
Playing Experience | There are traces of struggle in the form of hero medals that were obtained and displayed in the form of a map. In addition, the results of the victory can be shared on social media. |
Culture | Features cultural and regional content of Buton, Southeast Sulawesi, and the story of the sultanate of heroes told in the game. |
Adventure | Shows the hero's journey and territory in defending the territory along with four defence sectors. |
Experience as Hero | The hero tells the story, and the player gets involved in helping the war and defending the Fortress, then repelling the invaders. |
Heroic Game Design Concept As Game Component
Based on the results of previous research and the design process using the player method as the centre of the design, followed by the usability testing process for the hero game Himayatuddin Muhammad Saidi, a hero game design was found. The explanation is as follows:
A story is a story of heroism from written and oral sources that have been valid based on true stories and accepted by the community. Then from that story, the input process is carried out to become Storyworld, which is a story designed to become an in-game story. This story is in the form of pieces of the storyline that are considered essential, such as the climax of the story, or pieces of moments that should be turned into in-game stories that can be learned and become educational values to convey from heroic stories. In this design, the story adopted is the story of Himayatuddin Muhammad Saidi, specifically in the 21st and 23rd eras of the Buton sultanate, with the climax of the story when the moment of defending the Buton region in Bukit Siontapina, Southeast Sulawesi, succeeded in repelling the invaders.
After determining the story, the following process is the design of characters and roles in the game as the primary mission that the player must carry out. In this design, the main character, namely the national hero Himayatuddin, and the supporting characters are troops or soldiers who have a mission to defend four defence sectors on the island of Buton from invaders. Then the design of the guide character is a Butonese woman who tells the content in the game that does not have a mission to be carried out by the player. Next is the enemy character, namely the invaders who have a mission to capture the hero Himayatuddin and destroy the Buton fort, Southeast Sulawesi.
Furthermore, from the stories and stories of heroism in the game, there is a journey or plot from the heroic story that is a component of the Adventure game. The Adventure is designed to illustrate the extent to which the hero struggles and is told in the game. In this design, the Adventure is visualized from the hero's journey to defend the castle from 4 defence sectors and two-game maps, and 12 levels. The first map contains the defence sector I Sampolawa with 3 points of travel as level 1–3 and defence sector II Lasalimu with 3 points of travel as level 4–6. Then continued the second map containing the defence sector III Gentara with three travel points for levels 7–9 and the defence sector IV Liya Togo with three travel points for levels 10–12.
The following process is the design of the level of difficulty or Leveling. The goal is to create a good flow of play and experience to complete the game. From the game testing results, players are not too interested in repetitive or monotonous gameplay and need surprises. Then a punishment was designed as a challenge to players if they failed in carrying out the mission in the game.
In this game design, there are 12 levels with two periods of difficulty, namely levels 1–6 and 7–12. Then the next difficulty is the addition of Quizzes on each map so that players don't just focus on playing but on the learning process, which evaluates the success of conveying messages in the game. Difficulty increases due to punishment, and there are two types of punishment. In the first penalty, if the player does not complete the mission or fails to defend the fort, the player will lose the Gold (Kampua) obtained during the war, and the player must repeat it because he cannot continue the level. Second, in the quiz section, players will get punished if they answer wrongly, but in each option, there are interesting facts so that even though the player is wrong, their knowledge increases. Then the player will be returned to the level he has completed and has the opportunity to repeat the game and get additional Gold/Kampua and hero medals to the max.
After the player struggles, he gets an achievement as an appreciation for carrying out the mission. The award design for players is intended to motivate them to complete the entire game to completion. In this design, there are three types of awards, namely Gold income, hero medals, and congratulations. As a result of the achievement, the player can open the next level and continue the game. Players get medals that can be shared via social media, and players get appreciation from the guiding character in the game in the form of a woman with a beautiful impression from the island of Buton.
Gold and Boost are essential features of the achievement of interrelated playing games. Gold is a term for a point or coin as income earned when completing missions, and in this game, Gold is Kampua as a legal exchange currency in the era of the Sultanate of Buton. Then Boost is a function of Gold obtained in improvements that support players and balancers to complete the game. Boosts are used to upgrade or purchase items in preparation for continuing a level. In this game, the improvements that can be made are strengthening the fort, adding troops, and strengthening the effects of weapons; the goal is for players to complete increasingly difficult levels.
with the atmosphere of Buton Fort.
The environment is a game component in the form of location and environment designs that are adapted from the real world into a special display in the game world. Each game has a characteristic visualization of the location in the game, both in the original and imaginative form. Especially in-hero games, involving real locations can increase the engagement of players. As is the case in this game design involving the Buton fortress, it makes players enthusiastic about playing the Himayatuddin game.
Players, both tangible and intangible, obtain two outputs. What is visible is the Share to public feature, where players can share their gaming experience and achievements. The things that can be shared are getting heroic medals, correctly answering quizzes, completing missions at certain levels, and completing the game. At the same time, the invisible output is the insight that the player gains from his experience of correctly answering questions, recognizing the hero Himayatuddin in the game, knowing the location, and how this hero drove out the invaders and succeeded in becoming a national hero.
Game design with ten components as game content can be applied to hero games. Starting from the original story that is made into Storyworld and the content can be not rigid, following the story and characteristics of the hero and following the preferences of Gen-Z. Then the end of the game component is Share to Public which can be shared on social media so that other players can obtain the message.
Punishment Design Games
The level of this game increases with various difficulties. This type of game is a Base Learning Game, so the punishment in this game is made easier in the form of repetition when the player cannot complete the level so that the player gets more gold. Each level that has been passed will be unlocked and saved. So, with the ease of punishment, players are expected to be able to complete the game and gain experience from the story of Himayatuddin Muhammad Saidi.
There is an additional game component in the form of punishment in the gameplay in the form of a quiz as player insight, the design of the punishment is as follows:
The punishment design in the quiz gameplay has three questions, one option is correct, and the other two are wrong. An option is designed with the same theme as the other answer choices and has facts in it so that players can learn from mistakes.
When the correct answer, then the player can continue the level. Meanwhile, if the player is wrong, it will move the scene to the wrong option, but the player gets additional explanations to add insight. In addition, the game will be repeated at the level that the player has previously completed to keep fighting and get more Kampua. From these errors, the experience of playing is getting more and more, and it is easier to play at the next level after upgrading items.
The punishment quiz design is applied to the Himayatuddin game after completing level 2; here is the explanation.
At the end of level 2, there is a question about who is the national hero fighting in this game. There are three options with the same theme, namely heroes from the island of Sulawesi.
The correct option is the hero Himayatuddin, as the main character in this game. After the player is correct, the map open button will appear, and the player can continue with level 3. However, if the player is wrong, a Butonese female character will appear to tell him, and an explanation regarding these options will appear.
Heroic Game Level Monitoring
After testing seven players, there are game design constraints experienced by players, namely level balance, and some players only reach level 5; for that level, improvements are made with the following explanation.
Players experience several difficult and unbalanced levels. Therefore made a method to balance the levels. Three main components complement each other. Gold income can spur Boosters as items increase, namely fort strength, troop addition, and weapon strengthening. The results of the Booster can make it easier for players to complete increasingly difficult levels. While the addition of levels is also able to increase the amount of Gold income from the rewards that players get for completing missions. This can also be done to make it more difficult for players, namely by reducing the amount of gold income, the Booster will be more difficult, and players have to play many times to get more Gold and can increase items to get through increasingly difficult levels. In the design of this game, the balancing process is carried out by reducing item prices and increasing enemy troops in the middle of the game so that players get more Gold at the beginning to increase items and win the game.
Measurement Games Himayatuddin Heroic
Himayatuddin's game measurement process uses Nielsen's models with five categories of assessment, including effectivity, efficiency, satisfaction, learnability, and function. The evaluation uses a Likert scale with five categories, namely Strongly disagree, disagree, hesitate, agree, and strongly agree, by game testers on Gen-Z as junior high school students.
Process usability testing by providing four smartphones on the table equipped with earphones and the Himayatuddin strategy game that has been installed, then given information about the game in the form of a guide to using the Himayatuddin game. The student holds the smartphone and operates the game with the tester playing the game for a minimum of 40 minutes. Students are advised to complete the game with at least eight levels and 12 levels available in the game. Students fill out a questionnaire and fill in insights and suggestions for game development for 10 minutes. The last stage is to carry out the documentation process and record game test points for each question.
on 25 junior high school students.
Usability testing was carried out on representatives of each class by students of SMPN 17 Kendari, Southeast Sulawesi, with the criteria being students who were interested in the game who were chosen directly by the teacher as a research companion. As a result, there were 25 participants, namely 11 male students and 14 female students aged 12–14 years and from different ethnic groups and regions.
Each player has a different gaming experience; in this usability testing, the tester has the fastest time of around 45 minutes to complete 12 levels and interact with the game in an average of 49:36 minutes. However, not all students managed to complete the game and the game level, one of which was a player named Vita, who was only able to complete 9 levels with the longest duration of up to 65 minutes. Then for the achievement in the form of a hero's medal, no player has been able to get a maximum medal, namely 36 hero medals. Players get a minimum of 16 medals and a maximum of 32 hero medals, with an average of 20.2 medals per person.
There are five categories of assessment, namely effectiveness, efficiency, satisfaction, learning ability, and Himayatuddin game function, which are explained as follows:
From the five elements of the Himayatuddin Muhammad Saidi game evaluation based on Gen-Z assessment as a junior high school student, based on Nielsen Model's evaluation elements, it can be concluded as follows:
Table 3
Game usability testing results from 5 evaluation elements.
Factor | Number of Samples (student) | Standard Deviation | Usability Test Results (Scale 1–5) |
Effectiveness | 25 | 0.1675974 | 4,466666667 |
Efficiency | 25 | 0.06110101 | 4.37333333 |
Satisfaction | 25 | 0.14805404 | 4,552 |
Learnability | 25 | 0.21756225 | 4.27 |
Function | 25 | 0.09481812 | 4.58285714 |
Average 4,448971427 |
From the overall assessment carried out by 25 testers, namely Gen Z as students, they gave a good impression with a rating range of 4–5 (Strongly Agree) with an overall average of 4.45, namely 89% successful in terms of effectiveness, efficiency, satisfaction, learning ability, and function.
However, several components become recommendations for improving the Himayatuiddin Muhammad Saidi game, clarifying the story in the game, adding variations to the share feature, adding descriptions and clarity of locations and regions in the game, and making UI variations in the game, and adding two quizzes. The repair process will be carried out later in the third Iteration, followed by the release process on the Playstore platform so that the national hero story of Himayatuddin Muhammad Saidi can be conveyed to Gen Z through their smartphones.