CLIENT

PLATFORMS

SERVICES

Squanch Games

PC, Consoles

UX Research & Playtesting

Find the friction. Fix the flow.

High On Life 2, the sequel to Squanch Games’ 2022 release High On Life, is a single player, action, puzzle, shooter game where the player wields an army of alien guns to shoot, stab, and skate their way across the galaxy to blow up the bad guys. Squanch’s challenge to UXIF was to help them identify where things weren’t working and what players enjoyed the most.

DELIVERABLES

Initial Internal Audit
Playtesting with 28 unique participants across 36 sessions for a total of 72+ hours of footage
6 playtest reports covering ~50% of the main storyline

PUZZLES

Balancing clarity, challenge, and enjoyment

Across our playtests we identified many recurring roadblocks in puzzle solving and discovered where small adjustments could significantly improve player comprehension. The most common was tied to player field of view: players generally didn’t look up, behind, or under their feet when starting a puzzle.

Clear Destination

Clear Mechanic

Skill Level

P10: “That’s a nice little puzzle!”

P3: “That’s cool, I like that, that’s fun”

Additionally, new guns add more complexity, requiring clear visual language such as color coding, iconography, and effects to help players figure out who is the right character for the job.

Through our playtesting, we also discovered players consistently struggled with wayfinding, whether it was following the waypoints straight into walls or using the skateboard feature to fully bypass puzzles. Although some fun skateboard skips were kept as nods to the speedrunning community, we identified points where the developer could support player navigation with the addition of critical wayfinding points.

Unclear Destination

Unclear Mechanic(s)

Skill Level

P8: “The problem is, I don’t know where I’m trying to go to.”

With the zipline points overhead, only some players realized they were looking for a purple source. However, there’s no indicator on the field that it’s hidden behind the suction wall, and no clear indicator that the suction wall is interactive.

A Massive World of Weapons

Not Well Liked or Used

Divisive

Generally Liked

Universally Beloved

High On Life 2 doubled its weapon count from 4 to 8. This created more opportunities for experimentation and freedom, but also increases the cognitive load on players, especially during puzzles. Unique to High On Life, each gun also has its own unique personality traits which colored each player’s perception of them and affected how they were used. To combat any bias from this, we had players evaluate each weapon using three metrics:

Usability

UsEFULNESS

FUN

With this, we determined what was hitting and what wasn’t, and why players made the choices they did. Our analysis directly influenced the balancing of a particular gun when an overwhelming majority of players kept saying he felt weak and not enjoyable to use.

Weapon C - Travis

Somewhat Easy

Difficult

Easy

Easy to use

Useful

Never

Situationally

Somewhat

Fun

Fun

Unpleasant

Neutral

Useful

P2: “Since it’s basically a pistol it was very weak and easily outdone by every other gun. Thus I only used it for puzzles or if I randomly felt like it.”

P6: “I tried this gun I just didn’t really enjoy it.”

Narrative

With the fast paced nature of gameplay, players often resented being slowed down to listen to dialogue, even in empty rooms with nothing else to do. They often bypassed these scenes and started interacting with puzzles or exploring the space, even missing key triggerable interactions without even realizing it, causing potential confusion down the line.

To ensure players didn’t miss any of the story, we focused on finding the biggest issues related to interaction and narrative engagement. In one example, players completely overlooked a character who was central to the story of that particular level. In the end, we recommended making important interactions more noticeable to the player to ensure story understanding and emotional engagement with the game.

P6: “Hi, I’d love to know the context of you, you’re adorable.”

P6 was actually one of the players who stopped the most to listen and observe the flashbacks.

2

It’s not my cup of tea but I didn’t mind it

4

Amusing, no major impact on play

Testing for Humor

How do we test how funny something is?

Favorite quote goes to
P3: “GOUGE OUT HIS EYES... Oh no I just shot a bird, I didn’t mean to, I’m soooo sorry!”

To tackle this, we combined multiple qualitative and quantitative measures combined with our own observations noting when players laughed while playing - and more importantly, when they didn’t. The result: clear evidence that the writing was resonating, along with actionable insight into which styles and delivery methods worked best.

One person happily watched the entire 10 minute skateboard video and was really into the “90s” aesthetic

For a game like High On Life 2 that relies on its tongue-in-cheek writing, ensuring the comedic beats are hitting is imperative to the overall game experience. We explored how comedy landed with players and where it didn’t.

Once again the kissing booth was very popular with the player who found it:

P2: ““You’re married?!? Well now I really want some!”

[you’re under arrest for stealing too many kisses]

“I Paid for these kisses!!! What?!?””

How would you describe the humor in this game?

P3: “Knifey and the guns had some pretty good jokes that made me actually laugh out loud in a way I haven't done since Portal 2.”

P10: “I never find myself really laughing at games when I’m playing them, but the dialog really brings life to the game and makes it enjoyable.”

3

Didn’t really laugh / Neutral / No strong opinion

1

Actively detracted from play

5

Genuinely laughed out loud, would want to play more because of it

P3

P4

P5

P6

P7

P1

P8

P2

Major Findings & Impact

WEAPON BALANCING & overall EXPERIENCE

Identified one of the new guns was drastically underutilized compared to the rest due to perceived ineffectiveness in combat. Weapon was significantly rebalanced to make it a viable option within the player's loadout.

Character Clarity & Narrative Flow

Discovered that a central story figure lacked presence. Level redesigned to ensure players understand who they are and why they matter to the narrative.

Comedy & Player Connection

Monitored how the game's humor impacted the perception of the game experience and identified which moments were completely missed or didn't resonate with players.