Player hideout & 3Cs

Overview

This user study explored how players experience & navigate a "player home" environment" in an early (L0) game build. The design team was debating the ideal location of the home, how movement & camera perspectives felt while navigating the space (interior + exterior), & whether players could reliably find their way back to the area without an objective marker. My goal was to evaluate these questions through a structured playtest that captured first-time impressions, navigational behavior & 3Cs-related feedback.

Large portions of this study has been deliberately left out, modified or censored as it's following the terms of a Non-disclose agreement. Therefore images should not be considered actual in-game screenshots, but rather examples to help provide context. Any names directly tied to the game's project have also been altered or uses more general terms.

The Problem

The design team needed clarity on several open questions affecting level design, 3Cs, & worldbuilding:

• How movement inside the home felt, including whether speed should be capped to a light jog.
• What are the player's expectation of the player home (e.g., visual/interactable assets)?
• What points of interests / notable assets do players find?
• What do they think it is / What does it do?
• Whether players perceived differences between navigating in 1st vs. 3rd person.
• How easily could players find their way back to the player home after being teleported away.
• What environmental signposting players relied on.
• General 3rd‑person camera feedback requested by the 3Cs team.
• Whether the interior and exterior communicated the intended personality of the player character.

As this study was conducted early in production, resources restricted the amount of participants we could recruit & as a result made the study's primary focus more suitable for qualitative usability insights, rather than appreciation.
Findings related to appreciation were therefore treated as indicitative rather than truth with the intention of expanding on the sample size data in future studies.

Process

I designed an A/B test protocol where half of participants began in 3rd person camera mode & half began in 1st person to bias & balance order effects. The session followed a think‑aloud structure to capture spontaneous reactions & mental models.

Protocol structure:

Key tasks included:

• Task 1: Explore the hideout interior freely & identify any points of interest.
• Task 2: Find a way to the top of the hideout exterior & comment on anything notable or unusual.
• Task 3: Player is teleported to a nearby combat encounter - Narrate the 3rd‑person camera experience during combat. (Players who started in 1st person were switched to 3rd here.)
• Task 4: Player is asked to travel back to the player home & describe what visual cues they rely on to navigate.
• Task 5: Switch camera mode and re‑explore the hideout, comparing it to their initial experience.

Findings

[Intro sentence about your findings.]

First Impressions

The size of the hideout positively aligned with users preferences

Positive perception of 3rd person camera

Speculation that the player character has lived there awhile considering the many resources/assets located there

Expectations of visual customization

Some elements felt lacking/out of character:

• Lack indication/characteristics of who lives there
• Too tidy & doesn't seem "lived in"
• Placement of some assets

View Example

Interior - High discoverability

Players highlighted the following as points of interest (see above example image) while exploring the interior of the hideout. These were their general guesses as to what it was:

• Cooking station
• Campfire
• 3D printer
• Crafting Bench
• Resting area
• Wardrobe
• Armory
• Wall art

Exterior - High discoverability

Players highlighted the following as notable enviromental elements at and/or near the hideout (See Task 2):

• Shape of the hideout entrance
• Vibrant & unique color trees
• An open, flat area (sudden lack of terrain)
• Small lake
• Tall & unique looking tree
• Nearby NPCs
• Approximate altitude of the hideout position

These aestethic characteristics were strengthened further as the most familiar & memorable as they were navigating back to their hideout (See Task 4)

Low discoverability (interior + exterior)

Most players neglected vertical exploration in general & as a result missed several points of interest. This may partially be a cause due to a lack indication that there's something for the player to explore there

The path leading to the "Wardrobe" is partially blocked by a campfire, resulting in players getting burned easily & being deterred from that path.

Path that leads from the interior to the roof of the hideout is obscurred by a potruding rock & smoke coming from a nearby fire.

The rocky "stairs" are obscurred by trees & foliage.
players who found it were mainly driven by curiousity, but unsure whether it was an intended route as they couldn't where it led.

3C - Look & feel

1st person - more immersion & detailed view of game assets

3rd person - players felt more connected to their character & had a better overview of the area.

• Better grasp of the scale of things compared to their own size.
• Easier to stealth as the camera allows you to "peek" around corners without moving your character.

Missing animation makes 3rd person feel occasionally stiff & unresponsive (e.g., character doesn't bend their knees before a charged jump.

3rd person movement feels slower as the perception of speed diminishes the further away the camera is from the ground

The 3rd person camera makes it more difficult to gauge distance from the character & game assets.
Several players contributed this to the character partially obscurring the view in front of them.

Outcome

The study provided actionable insights that directly the informed early design decision for the player hideout designers & 3Cs team.

• Identify key points of navigational friction inside the hideout, highlighting where the level layout, readability or visual cues made movement & orientation less intuitive.
• Identified discoverability of visual/interactive assets within the hideout.
• Provide insights in how the player finds their way back to the hideout & what visual traits they relied on / remembered.
• Deliver a comparative analysis of the experience across 1st & 3rd person perspectives
• Identify usability friction caused by the 3rd person camera, resulting in early adjustments to the camera behavior, comfort & clarity.

Beyond the individual findings, this study demonstrated the value of testing early & how it's doable within a small budget & time-frame.