UX DESIGN | 2024
Making combat feel engaging and strategic in Jaded.
Jaded is a five-year labor of love (2020 - 2025) that launched on Steam to 180,000+ players. I spent thousands of hours meticulously programming, animating, composing, and leading the team at ShellSnore Games.
This case study focuses specifically on my design process in refining a specific feature. To see a comprehensive overview of my work on this project, click here.
ORGANIZATION
ShellSnore Games
ROLE
Creative Director
Game Designer
Programmer
Artist
Musician
TEAM
2 Developers/Designers
2 Artists
1 Musician
TIMELINE
Mar 2020 - Jan 2025
CONTEXT
Jaded is about speed
In Jaded, most of the game consists of using a grappling hook to zoom through obstacle courses.
Our design north star was to make players feel fast.
So when designing the combat sections, we decided players should be able to slash extremely quickly.
PROBLEM
Combat isn’t engaging players
We released our beta version on Steam in 2022, and in early 2024, we noticed an uptick in reviews.
When reviewing criticism, the most common piece of feedback we received was that the combat was the weakest part of the game.
~60 user reviews mentioned disliking combat
Out of those, 20 provided a reason why
We created an affinity map to discover patterns in these complaints.
Outside actionable suggestions like adding more audiovisual feedback, complaints fell into these two categories.
Too repetitive
Too easy
TESTING
Playtests corroborated that combat lacked interest
To understand why people felt this way, the other designer and I decided to dive deeper.
During our playtests with 5 players, we
Wrote down strategies observed while traversing combat sections
Conducted after-test interviews
Interview Questions
“What do you find fun about combat in other games?”
“How did Jaded’s combat feel to you while playing?”
“Was there anything about the combat you found frustrating?”
→ We noticed that enemies were dying so quickly they weren't a meaningful challenge.
"It's too simple, every time you just do the same attack over and over."
Players want combat that feels dynamic, expressive, and worth improving at. How might we help players frustrated by repetitive combat feel like their choices have weight and consequence?
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SECONDARY RESEARCH
Risk/Reward Model
My co-designer and I came across a framework outlined by Assassin’s Creed designer Sébastien Lambottin. He argues that fun combat comes from meaningful decision making, where every action carries both risk and reward.
So we evaluated Jaded's two core combat moves.
Sword Slash
Reward - high damage, fast execution
Risk - close proximity to the enemy
Grapple
Reward - lets players close distance so they can slash
Risk - vulnerable to taking damage while grappling
Clearly, slashing was too powerful relative to grappling. It dealt damage and carried a lower cost. The grapple was useful for manuevering in the rest of the game but offered almost no reward in a combat context. As a result, players converged on one strategy.
IDEATION
Blue sky period
With this insight, we ideated ways to give the grapple more value and rebalancing the sword’s strength.
ITERATION 01
Slowing sword rate & introducing tether ability
Even with speed as our north star, the sword was simply too strong. Anyone who realized how fast the sword could be slashed could kill enemies instantly. To bring more challenge into the combat, we had to slow the slash rate.
For making the grapple more useful, we landed on one final idea:
Grappling to an enemy creates a red tether that connects to you
Grappling to another enemy links together the pair of enemies, turning the tether blue
Now that they're connected, slashing one will also damage the other one
Now, there's a strategic element when fighting many enemies. Players have to decide which two enemies they want to link together.
USABILITY TESTING 01
Players can't figure out the tether
So does the tether make combat less repetitive? To find out, we conducted 4 usability tests and released a testing demo to 50+ community members.
Result
Players couldn’t understand what the tether ability did without guidance - 1 of 4 figured it out unassisted, community reported confusion
No one minded that the sword slashing was slower - testers told us they liked it, because it forced them to think more about when to slash
25% task success rate
USABILITY TESTING 01
Unclear signifiers make it difficult to learn the tether ability
Players are confused why the red tether connects back to the player. "Is it hurting me?"
When they hit tethered enemies, it's not very clear that both got hit. They both flash white, but it's quick and easy to miss.
ITERATION 02
Revising tether ability
To clear things up, we decided to replace the tether with a magical mark that appears above an enemy's head. This signifies that we have done something to the enemy, removing confusion about if the tether is hurting us.
Next, a tether appears between the two magical marks once another enemy is marked.
Finally, when slashed, we made the tether and magical marks flash white along with the two enemies. This signaled that the entire group is taking damage.
USABILITY TESTING 02
The tether makes combat less repetitive
To validate our new changes, we conducted 7 more usability tests with new users who hadn't seen the tether before.
Result
Players understood the ability - 6 out of 7 people were able to figure it out without some experimentation. We knew a tutorial was still necessary for this ability, but this was proof that players could figure it out without that.
The tether successfully made combat less repetitive and more enjoyable. Each tester was asked on scale of 1 through 10 how fun the combat was, and we got an ~8.4/10 average rating. During the post-test interview, one tester said:
"The tethering adds a more interesting challenge now. I feel like now I have to take a step back and think a little. The combat definitely lives up to the rest of the game now."
85%
Task success rate
8.4/10
Fun rating (Likert scale)
RESULTS
Impact
When the game released in January 2025, we scanned reviews left on our Steam page to gauge how well the combat changes were received. We were happy to see that
User reviews expressed positivity in how the combat was changed, even though we made the slashing less fast
Players thought combat was more fun because of the new strategic element
“I was surprised on how different combat was from the betas, and it improved it in every way”
“I really like what they did with the combat, using your dash to "link" enemies together […] Made the gauntlets much more fun and manageable.“
“You can use this ability to connect them and attack only one while damaging the other [...] This gives the gameplay a strategic side.”
RESULTS
Reflections
Be flexible in service of the user
Our north star of making players feel fast was useful to provide us direction, but following it too closely made our combat too easy. Staying detached from our initial ideas and prioritizing players led to a more fun experience.
Test early and often
We identified the core issue through direct feedback and testing, not assumptions. We caught issues with our signifiers early by investing time into testing as well. As a result, we understood users more deeply and validated every change we made.
© Kyle Jhong 2025