Case Study: Chivalry II Battlepass
How might we improve the battle pass flow and remove the disconnect between custom settings and the dashboard display?
Chivalry II released its first paid seasonal battle pass, but the upgrade system is extremely confusing. By using UI and interactions I hope to add clarity to the user experience of medieval knights. For this project my role was research, visual design, UAT, and prototyping.
What is a battlepass?
A battlepass is a modern day way of marketing video games to maximize revenue. Instead of charging an initial fee for the game, companies offer the game for free and instead charge recurring monthly or seasonal premiums packaged as a “battlepass”. Each battlepass typically includes some free features and then premium items (character models, skins, maps, etc.) for the BP subscribers.
PREVIOUS DASHBOARD
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Show me the [$item]!
Add a function to preview each of the newly released items.
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Dashboard = Armory
Allow the user to customize player model directly from dashboard screen to visualize equipped items.
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Encourage progress
The current leveling system doesn’t convey the player’s current progress state or remaining progress to next tier.
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Protect the user
Store functions are set to single click purchase at the moment, add confirmation pop-up.
GOALS
Retention, retention, retention. The battle pass sales system came into existence because developers were releasing games for free, instead capitalizing on the microtransactions of their users that would allow them to capture payments that may be smaller, but will occur more regularly than traditional game purchases.
In our case, Torn Banner sells Chiv 2 for $40, and is also now asking players to pay for the battle pass. For this reason, my main goal will focus on creating a positive user experience that may increase retention and increase sales for the next battle pass.
The technical goals for the project are as follows:
✅️
Give them their money’s worth
The battle pass system is very on trend, but as a niche medieval game, it’s new to many players. For this reason, a user-centered flow and even a pop-up walk-through on the tiers would be helpful. As a paid addition to the game the more content the better.
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Functional models
Move the custom player model from the Armory page to the dashboard to create a more personal and functional user experience.
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I’m Lost
By adding a simple navigation top bar we can make this page feel less disconnected from the rest of the site, and stop forcing the user to constantly return to the Main Menu to navigate to any other pages.
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Create excitement
Adding paid elements to a paid game can sour some players. How might we add excitement to the battle pass to make it feel like an extension of the game rather than a page tacked on?
RESEARCH
How are other games approaching their battle passes?
A “battle pass” is basically a new release of items for (typically) free-to-play games. They can include assets like: new maps, new player models, new weapons or body skins etc. Priced at $10-$15 they’re basically SaaS for gaming, releasing new updates annually and often with time constraints to finish.
Above is a great example from one of the foremost battle pass games, Fortnite. Yep, that’s Fortnite, now you know.
The designers do a great job here of calling out the pricing, and also highlighting each item (using a photo of that item not a place holder like above) and the players progress. They also call out their freemium vs premium features, which indirectly helps push more users towards premium.
Create a premium experience
Using callouts, pop-ups, and alerts the designers make each item feel much more premium and sought after. Alerting the user that they earned something new AND letting players directly equip that item.
SKETCHING
How might we deliver a solution that increases the likelihood a player will buy the next battle pass?
Ultimately our goal is to make the player feel like they got their money’s worth. The $13 cost for this specific pass is a fairly low barrier to entry, but with this feature usually for free-to-play games adding it to a game a player already paid for (MSRP $40) means it’s even more important to create a positive user experience. As stated previously, retention is the main goal.
SOLUTION
Creating a top bar navigation system alone vastly improves the flow, creating separate sections whereas before each area of the game from Armory to Progress was very self-contained, requiring the user to navigate to the top menu before visiting any other pages. I also made what I consider hygiene changes, adding back buttons and replacing what were previously stock containers with the actual asset unlocked. Finally, the most drastic change I made is moving the player model from Armory to the dashboard. Along with making the customization much easier, a player logging in to be greeted by their own player model should in the long term improve the health of abstract UX strategies such as loyalty, trust, and hopefully our goal of retention.
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Don’t be lazy
Replacing stock icon containers with a preview of what each new item looks like adds excitement and just makes sense
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Bread crumbs
Adding top bar navigation and back buttons we create safety ropes for the user, allowing for easier navigation throughout.
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Remove the hoops
Bringing the user model to the front page and adding customization options here and in the armory improves the flow and adds personality.
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Worth their while
Gamers are notoriously fickle, but asking them to pay money for a subpar experience is a surefire way to lose a user base.
