RetroHaven: Preserving Classic Games Through Legal Emulation
Part 1: Project Overview
Concept
RetroHaven is a video game distribution software designed towards making out-of-production games available legally and accessed through emulation. The goal of this project is to provide a legal and a user friendly platform to current gen gamers, while carefully navigating the fine line between accessibility and piracy concerns. I conducted the user research and designed the platform.
The Problem
The video game industry has seen significant growth, but many older games remain inaccessible due to being out-of-production. These games often hold nostalgic value for gamers, yet the lack of legal access has led to widespread use of emulation and piracy. While emulation preserves these titles, it also raises legal and ethical issues.
The Solution
To address these challenges, I designed a legitimate platform called RetroHaven that allows users to play these classic games legally. The games provided on this platform are officially licensed by the industry and RetroHaven acts as the intermediate between the gamer and the industry to provide a seamless user experience.
Target Audience
The target audience includes both retro gaming enthusiasts who seek to relive the classics and younger gamers interested in exploring the rich history of video games.
My role
I conducted comprehensive user research to understand the needs and preferences of our target audience. I then designed a platform that balances accessibility with strict adherence to legal requirements.
Disclaimer:
The RetroHaven project presented here is a hobby project created solely for personal and educational purposes. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by any video game companies or publishers. The project aims to explore user-centered design principles and does not involve actual commercial distribution of video games. All game licenses and intellectual property rights belong to their respective owners. The project is intended to showcase my design and research skills and is not a functioning commercial product.
Part 2: Research and Findings
Requirements
I aimed to understand the gaming habits, preferences, and attitudes of potential users towards emulation and legal access to older titles. I also intended to identify desirable features for the RetroHaven platform and understand the factors that influence videogame purchasing decisions.
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I then conducted in-depth interviews with a small group of diverse gamers and a survey with a broader demographic on gaming subreddits. I then analyzed the interviews to obtain personal insights, while the survey offered quantitative data on user preferences and behaviors.
Interviews
I conducted interviews with four individuals who identified as long term gamers, who had been gaming since early 2000s. The interviews revealed a significant demand for a platform that legally provides access to out-of-production games, with many participants starting their gaming journeys on PCs and lacking console access. This has led to a reliance on emulation to play classic games, highlighting the need for a legal alternative. The following excerpts from the interviews should provide an idea on what users expressed regarding this issue.
Interview Transcripts
Describe your early gaming experiences.​
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P1: "I started playing when I was 7 years old on Microsoft PC..."
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P2: "I would say around 2003, where I played mostly PC games..."
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P3: "I started by playing Prince of Persia on the MsDOS computer..."
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P4: "Been playing since childhood, I did not have a console..."
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Did you feel like you missed out on exclusives?
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P1: "Yes I missed out. I still feel like I miss out on them..."
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P2: "I think the Xbox and Playstation consoles were very popular..."
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P3: "To be honest yeah, but since I started gaming recently..."
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P4: "I do feel like I missed out on Halo, but it was later released on PC..."
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What was the reason you emulated video games?
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P1: "because they are not available today."
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P2: "because I did not own the console to play the game."
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P3: "There was no legal way for me to play the games."
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P4: "They were really expensive in my home country..."
Surveys
In the surveys, users expressed a preference for features like game recommendations, in-game achievements, and integration with social platforms. They valued easy navigation, a user-friendly interface, and a comprehensive game library. Pricing was a critical factor in their purchasing decisions, with a preference for lower price points for older games and remakes. The following charts show the visualised data obtained through surveys.
These insights that I obtained through surveys and interviews helped me shape the overall design of RetroHaven, and create a platform which provides a smooth gaming experience.
Part 3: Ideation and Concept Development
Brainstorming and Ideation
I began by brainstorming potential features and layouts that would make RetroHaven an intuitive and engaging platform. I took inspiration from various videogame platforms such as Playstation, Steam and Epic Games. The initial sketches and wireframes focused on a user-centric design that offered a straightforward way to browse, purchase, and play classic games.
Low-Fidelity Wireframes
I identified and evaluated different concepts based on user feedback and usability. The chosen concept emphasised simplicity, with a clean interface that allowed users to easily navigate the game library and access emulation features.
I then created low-fidelity wireframes on Figma to outline the basic structure of the platform. These were then refined into high-fidelity prototypes based on the data obtained through iterative user feedback and design processes that included detailed interactions and visual elements, which ensured a seamless user interaction and a cohesive user experience.
Part 4: The Design Process
Design Iterations
The design process consists of three iterations incorporating feedback from user testing to improve usability and functionality.
My primary focus was to create an interface that was both aesthetically pleasing and easy to navigate.
Final Design
The final design of RetroHaven featured a clean and intuitive interface. Key screens include a game library with detailed descriptions, a purchasing section with price comparisons, and an emulation hub that allows users to access and play their purchased games seamlessly.
Collection Page
The collection page organized the purchased games and provided a game library where users could access and play the games they owned.
Store Page
The Store page is where users browse, view detailed information and purchase a wide variety of games, officially licensed by the developers.
Social Page
The Social Page is where users can integrate their Discord accounts to RetroHaven and can access the social community and access multiplayer
Badges
The Badges allow players to view and track their achievements. The players can also showcase and compare their progress and badges with friends.
Downloads Page
The downloads page provides users with easy access to view, manage, and download their purchased or available content.
User Profiles
The profile page allows users to view and edit their personal gaming information, track recent gameplay, manage privacy settings, and showcase their gaming stats and bio.
Settings
The settings page allows users to customize their gameplay experience by adjusting general settings, video and audio preferences, accessibility options, control configurations, and more, for different emulators.
Part 5: Outcomes and Learnings
Results
RetroHaven is a project I undertook to showcase my design and research skills. The final product allows users to navigate a clean, intuitive interface that effectively demonstrates a feature set for legally accessing a wide range of classic games, while navigating the complexities of legal constraints.
The testers provided positive feedback, highlighting the platform’s user-friendly design and the potential it shows in providing seamless access to nostalgic gaming content.
Takeaways
Working on RetroHaven provided a meaningful opportunity to delve into user needs and create a design that successfully marries nostalgic elements with modern usability. This project has significantly enhanced my UX design skills and underscored the value of thorough user research in the design process.
Next Steps
I plan to explore opportunities to expand RetroHaven’s game library conceptually within the Figma file and consider integrating additional features that could enhance user engagement.
