Lumi Go banner — glowing blue ring reflected in water with shooting stars

LUMI GO

LokyGames

Contains ads · In-app purchases

Lumi Go app icon
4.9
★★★★★
106
5
4
3
2
1
1K+Downloads
Get it on Google Play

A project which highlights Visual design through a Published game also shows Implementation of UX skills in Game design. Individually designed & developed as a part of LokyGames.

Game Design Visual Design UI / UX Inde Dev Before AI
1

About

Grid of ~20 in-game level screenshots showing enemy/level variety

Game Description

It is all about your Agility, Reflex and Speed Control! Control Lumi-go by sliding your finger to dodge the advancing mini devils. You complete simple level objectives to explore the new levels!

More than 75+ levels all with challenging enemies, each level is different and demands unique play-style to beat the level and unfold new challenges.

Designed & developed manually before AI era using

UNITY

Game Engine to create game

CSharp

For Scripting functionalities

Illustrator

For creating 2d assets and UI elements

Audacity

for Sound editing

2

Design Process

How I derived this User interface using extensive user feedback and improvising in each iteration

EMPATHIZE

  • Provide engaging game play
  • Colorful & pleasing to eye
  • Survey form various source
  • Empathy mapping

DEFINE

  • To create engaging Interface
  • Creating flow state
  • Finding engaging sounds
  • Easily Accessible UI
  • Simple core game loop

IDEATE

  • Varying tempo of music based on level speed
  • Neon style icons and buttons
  • Water ripple and trail effects
  • 80 different enemy behaviors

PROTOTYPE

  • Sketching new assets in Adobe illustrator
  • Coding and implementing
  • Optimization for each device
  • Finding and editing new sound tracks

TEST

  • Testing each Iteration
  • Bugs finding
  • Identify hikes in difficulty of game play
  • Noticing Duration of each level
3

Screen Flow

PAUSE MENU LEVEL SELECT GAME OVER GAME SCREEN LEVEL DONE LEVEL INFO STORE HOME SETTING CREDITS 2-PLAYER
4

Wireframes

Ideating and wire-framing each screens

Hand-drawn paper wireframe sketches (Main menu, level select, Pause, Description, Store, Game over)

Low Fidelity Wireframes

Low-fidelity digital wireframe grid (Home, Store, Settings, Level Select, Level Info, Game, Pause Menu, Level Done, Game Over, Rate Us)
5

Gameplay & Level Design

Core mechanics illustration: Player (touch and drag to move), Points (glowing orb), Enemy (chasing trail creature)

The core game loop is all about surviving the enemy in each round, It was hard to create entertaining levels with such a small game concept, I had to do lot of brain storming to create various levels for this games.

Made up to 80 levels, grouped them in pairs of 8 which deserves specific game play style.

Level Design Document

Legend: S = speed (speed1, speed2, speed3, varying speed) · P = points type · F = frequency (1=normal, 2=switch, 3=move, 4=push to score) · T = trigger Range (dist1, dist2, dist3)

Level Design Document table: 80 rows across 10 categories

After several play-testing session, I adjusted the difficulty of the level according to the given graph below. by following Csikzentmihalyi's flow state principle.

When person's ability to execute a task balances the difficulty of the task, they enter into the flow state, where people enjoy the game.

Flow state difficulty graph: Player Skill vs Task difficulty

Took several game play test to find out the optimum speed and behaviours of the enemies to keep the flow state intact. Few screenshot of diffent levels are shows below

Grid of ~56 gameplay level screenshots showing level variety

List of levels and elements in the level selector screen

Level-selector UI screens with categories and star-rating detail screen
6

Sound Design

After play test of each level, I grouped levels based on the game-play speed to assign background music according to the tempo of the level

Music TempoLevelsGame-play
Fast beats4, 7, 10, 14, 18, 20, 24, 32, 42, 58, 64, 69, 70, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80Fast
Medium beats1, 3, 5, 8, 9, 11, 12, 15, 16, 19, 21, 23, 29, 34, 35, 38, 43, 50, 51, 60, 61, 62, 63, 67, 71, 72Medium
Slow beats15, 17, 22, 25, 26, 27, 28, 30, 31, 33, 36, 37, 39, 40, 41, 44, 45, 48, 57, 73Slow
Calm Melodies2, 6, 31, 46, 47, 49, 52, 54, 55, 56, 65Very Slow

Sound Interaction

Button clicks : bubble bounce sound
Level complete : Claps sound
Player Movement : Water ripple sound
Purchase : Falling Coins
Player enemy Interaction : Warning vibration
Player points Interaction : Capture cling sound
Player Obstacle Interaction : wooden knock sound
Player Slime Interaction : jelly sound
Vanishing Points : bubble pop sound

Menu Music

Main Menu : Ambient calm slow music
Level Complete : Ambient cheering music
Level Select : Ambient clam music
Game Over : Ambient sad music
7

Iteration 1

Initially I used bubble and gradient style of interface, since I was planning to invoke feelings of water and fluidness in the gameplay, I also added a lot of ripple effects.

8 UI mockups, light-blue/red gradient bubble style

Insights from testing

Different age group, around 20 users were selected

Satisfaction with game play:17 Users
Satisfaction in UI design:6 Users
Hard to navigate between screens:10 Users
Level completing is not rewarding:12 Users
Color scheme is not good:9 Users
Level difficulty are not gradual:10 Users
No sound:18 Users

Inference

Required complete re-write of UI, gather attractive sounds.

8

Iteration 2

From the learning of previous iteration, I decided to change the Complete UI, I made a quick prototype which invokes feeling of space and fluidness, giving it a neon touch to make it interesting.

9 UI mockups with neon-outline style

Did a quick round of testing with same 20 users

Pleased with graphics and color:16 Users
Clear readability:15 Users
need ambient background music:12 Users
Too shiny in some places:15 Users
over all UI satisfaction:17 Users

Inference

people liked the new interface, so upgrade the same UI style and add interactive musics to create engagement

9

Iteration 3

Redefining the whole Neon UI. Created icons and character from scratch in adobe illustrator, gathered free sounds from various source. Analyzed each level and categorized into the game play speed: slow, medium, and fast. to play music with respective tempo.

Neon Icons

Drew all neon icons, blue to indicate neutral sceens, red for game over

Icon set (blue/red/yellow neon icons)

Characters

Used simple circle for base. Horns and shapes to show variation in characters.

Character icon set (orange/green/yellow ring creatures)

Colours Palette

Cool colors indicaiting the player and used in Neutral UI screen. like

Bright warm colors indicaiting the enemies and also used in Game

Bright yellow is used in the rewarding screens

Warm green is used to indicate game obstacles

Screenshot of screens after Iteration 3

10 neon-outline UI screens after Iteration 3
10

Name & Logo

Selected LOGO

Selected glowing blue ring logo

Logo which got most of the votes 42 out of 50, based on the survey.

Glowing blue indicates the flow of enegy in the game and neon style. Reflection in the water explains the smoothness of the game.

Some Rough sketchs of logo ideas

8 hand-drawn pencil logo concept sketches

Logos I considered for user survey

8 logo option thumbnails

LIST OF NAME I CONSIDERED FOR THE GAME TITLE

Names are taken according to the mostly used key words, and conducted a survey with 50 friends to find out the apt name.

Liquescape32 votes
Fluidscape29 votes
Lumi Rush44 votes
Lumi Go47 votes
Fast Dodge20 votes
Red bouncers33 votes
Dodge my trail30 votes
Reflescape39 votes
Angry balls42 votes
Flee and Flow29 votes
lique dash38 votes
Neon Rush44 votes
Ilumos31 votes
Devil's Tag24 votes
11

Game Screens

Various strategies to provide immersive and engaging interface and also to boost monitization

2 Options screens (with/without neon border)

50% of users in the testing seems to like the game with neon border, and other 50% seems to like the game without it.
Solution: provided a customization to toggle on

Objective Completed screen (golden, smiley, +100 diamonds)

golden yellow color and a smile forces you to think you are rewarded, back button is not provided so you are forced to the next level.

Store screen (Buy 500/2000/5000 diamonds, 50% off tag)

50% off tag to encourage players to buy diamonds

4 Revive screens (sad smiley, Revive with hearts, Retry/Home)

Revive option is shown first as the player enters game over screen, each button zoom-in in the sequence seamlessly, such that Retry button takes time to popup, mean while user are encouraged to use revive to spend diamonds or to watch video. Home button is in red color so that player doesn't notice it much, and store is in blue so that he notice it often.
Red color and a sad smile emphasize your defeat, Store is provided in this screen to encourage micro transaction.

Heart-shaped refill + Buy diamonds screens

bright heart shaped button to triggers player to refill life at the cost of diamond.
In game, buy button is provided in case if you wish to purchase diamonds and upgrade your health.

The Glitch level intro + in-game tutorial screens

Level description screen states objective and also introduction of new elements.
In game tutorial is shown, whenever new game element is introduced.

Other Screens

Guards level-select screen · Trap locked levels · Referral validation · Home Screen · 2-player instruction · 2-player winning screen

Usability evaluation of

Lumi GO

Why this Product
needs an evaluation?

Primary elements (avatar, enemy, points) and secondary ones (lives, volume, bonus points) all carry weight in the experience.

The game feels smooth — but early discovery surfaced disconnects. Time to test if it actually plays as intended.

Key Question

Can players figure it out on their own?

Do users intuitively grasp the usage and control of every primary and secondary game element?

Functional screens

8 functional screen mockups (Home, Options, Store, Game Over, Objective Completed, Survive!, Trap, Chase)

Playable screens

Grid of ~15 gameplay screenshots

Focus group

Who

Frequent and occasional gamers, age 13–26

Why they play

A fun, easy game to kill boredom in downtime

Testing Method

01

Functional Testing

Can users understand the game elements and build a working mental model of how it all fits together?

02

Retrospective Testing

What was the overall play experience, reflected back after completing set tasks?

Pilot Testing

  1. Ran a Functional + Retrospective pilot — observed gameplay against set goals
  2. Probed after each goal was completed
  3. Asked players to reflect back on the experience

Revision of Testing protocols

  1. Pilot mostly held up against our protocol
  2. Caught ourselves asking closed, leading questions
  3. Revised the questions and user brief before the real run

Defining Test Protocols

01

Functionality testing

Objective: Smooth onboarding — can users find and navigate the game's elements?

Goals given to each user

  1. Find the music controls
  2. Start the game and clear Level 1
  3. Clear Level 2, then Level 3
  4. Return to the Home screen
  5. Replay an earlier level
  6. Buy 500 diamonds
  7. Push through to Level 6 and head back home
02

Retrospective testing

Objective: Do players intuitively read the game's elements, and how does the play experience feel overall?

Goal 1
Clear Level 1
  • How did you clear it, and how did it feel?
  • Could you read the enemy's behavior?
  • How did you dodge it?
  • Did you clock what the sparkling thing was?
Goal 2
A few levels back to back
  • Can you read the enemy's behavior now?
  • What was the red thing about?
  • How does life work here?
  • How are star ratings earned?
Goal 3
Reading the difficulty curve
  • How does difficulty shift as levels climb?
  • Could you feel the music change level to level?

Music & Sound

  1. SFX vs. Master volume — nobody could tell them apart
  2. Mute/unmute itself was easy to find
  3. But the mute icon read ambiguous as a toggle
  4. Only a few players noticed the music shift between levels
Options screen (Border toggle, Graphics, Sound/SFX/Background sliders, referral claim)

Mental Model

Main menu
  • 2-player button sitting under Play read as ambiguous — mode switch, or something else?
  • Play's destination was unclear: level select, or straight into the game?
Home screen (Lumi Go) + The Orb level-intro screen
Settings
  • Referral claim was found by accident, if at all
Level description
  • Most players read it fully, the rest at least skimmed it
  • The Back button's destination — previous level or home — stayed a mystery
Game screen
  • Player control clicked instantly — everyone cleared Level 1
  • The heart read as "life," but its function stayed fuzzy until it ran out
  • The pause button was hard to find
  • Enemy behavior changes went unnoticed unless we pointed them out
The Orb level-intro screen + gameplay screenshot
Level complete
  • Stars read as a score, but how they're earned stayed unclear
  • The star button next to Play sparked wild guesses — leaderboard? premium? level select?
  • Share button: sharing the score, or the app itself?
Game over
  • Revive and the "3 lives" concept confused most players
  • The life icon on Retry — does it cost a life, or grant one?
  • Tapping Home didn't actually go home — a broken expectation
Diamonds
  • Mixed up with in-game points by some players
  • Their role on the level-complete screen wasn't clear
Objective Completed + Revive screens

Retrospective Insights

01

First level

  • Play clicked intuitively for most; the levels felt fun and easy to read
"The instructions were short and crisp." / "Can't wait to click play."
02

A few levels in

  • By level 2, nobody needed the instructions anymore
  • "Game life" only clicked after an actual enemy encounter
"It takes just 5 sec to understand the enemy's behaviour, even if I miss the description."
03

Reading the difficulty curve

  • 10 of 12 players correctly tracked how difficulty escalated level by level
  • Variety in enemy behavior landed better than a flat difficulty ramp
"Especially in Level 4 — the enemy got faster and started moving randomly instead of chasing me!"

Our Takeaways

01

Should've asked for reactions after the fact, not mid-play — first instinct beats an interrupted one.

02

Players acted naturally until asked to explain themselves — then hesitated putting it into words.

Conclusion

01

Some buttons didn't read intuitively — but players adapted fast after one encounter.

02

Several elements only registered once we probed for them directly.

03

Level Select ↔ Home navigation was the single most reported friction point.

04

Metaphors (heart, diamonds, stars) were recognized — their function wasn't.

05

Functional gaps and all, players still enjoyed the game — that came first for them.

Thankyou

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