Users tend to hold mobilephone in a vertical orientation with one hand for a significant amount of time compared to holding them horizontally with both hands. Different from mainstream mobile games primarily designed for horizontal screens, the screen switching function caters to the users' need for one-handed gaming experience during their commutes and other scenarios，and also meets the requirements of disabled users.

The color correction function provides three color correction options, allowing players to change the territory ownership colors in a way that enhances visibility and recognition. Everyone can choose a color correction scheme that suits their needs.

This is not a game that involves instant combat at any given moment. The player's actions mainly involve tapping and dragging on the screen, without the need to hold the screen with both hands for an extended period . It is feasible for players to hold and operate the game with one hand in a vertical screen orientation in various environments. In the design of the vertical screen interface, we need to ensure that the functionality remains unaffected and meets the operational experience of players holding the screen with one hand in a vertical orientation.

In strategy games, the information conveyed by the colors of the tiles is crucial for players. To enhance the gaming experience for a wider player base and accommodate color-blind individuals, improving the recognition performance of tile color information has a positive effect.

The budget for these two design aspects amounts to approximately 2 million RMB.

This is a strategy game set in ancient China during the Three Kingdoms period. The game aims to recreate the tactical and strategic experiences of warfare in ancient East Asia, allowing tens of thousands of players to compete for dominance in a map territory spanning over two million grids, engaging in city sieges, territorial conquests, and forming alliances.

The ownership of territories on the sandbox map is the core gameplay of the game. The entire sandbox map is like a Chinese Go board, where players send their armies to march onto grids and engage in encounters and battles. The winner of a battle gains ownership of the grid. Cities and buildings are also located on grids, and occupying the corresponding grid means occupying the building. Players can form alliances with other players, and within a season, the alliance that occupies the most key buildings at the end of the season wins.

Different colors are used to distinguish the ownership of land plots. For example, green represents land or cities occupied by the player, blue represents friendly territories within the alliance, and red represents enemy territories outside of the alliance. There may also be some other mixed colors representing non-alliance but friendly factions. By recognizing the colors on the land plots, players can identify the ownership of the sandbox area they are currently exploring and assess whether their territories are under threat from neighboring regions.

The duration of vertical screen usage on mobile devices is much higher than that of horizontal screen usage. Most mainstream games in the market are designed with a horizontal screen orientation, which fails to meet the gaming experience demands of players in fragmented time and one-handed usage scenarios. For a strategy mobile game with a non-real-time operation, the landscape and portrait screen switching function allows players to freely switch between landscape and portrait interface layouts by rotating their phone screens. The displayed information and functions remain the same, but the layout of the interface and the position and size of UI elements may change. This not only satisfies the players' needs for one-handed gaming in different life environments but also considers the needs of disabled individuals to play games. The color correction function also helps visually impaired individuals enhance their gaming experience.

December 26, 2019 - Landscape and portrait screen switching function goes live.

April 20, 2022 - Colorblind player testing report is completed.

July 20, 2022 - Color correction function goes live.

Landscape-portrait Screen Switching :

To begin with, we grouped the interface content into categories such as long lists, left-right layouts, top-bottom layouts, pop-ups, etc. Based on these groups, we performed disassembly and reorganization, in the design of the portrait interface, we adjusted the position and size of the controls, concentrating frequent and important operations within the efficient one-handed zone of the portrait screen.

We have created a separate vertical version game engine file that shares the same name as the landscape version. We iterated the interface in batches until we achieved smooth switching between landscape and portrait modes by rotating the phone. We only used one set of game resources for the adaptation and adjustment of the two layouts, reducing the difficulty of development and future maintenance.

Color Correction :

First, we incorporated scientifically validated color deficiency correction algorithms into the game and created a test package. We recruited players through user researchers to conduct tests. Testers, while experiencing the game normally, selected the solution that improved color recognition the most. Then, we developed the color deficiency correction algorithm that had the best testing results and iterated on the system settings page.

User research data shows that at least 47% of players have used the landscape and portrait screen switching function. Many mobile games now consider this function as a standard, changing the competition rules for top SLG games in the market. Additionally, the proportion of colorblind players using the color correction function is similar to the overall proportion of colorblind individuals. Player satisfaction reached a high level of 92.5%, and a significant number of players with normal color vision also use this function. This indicates that the function is inclusive, fair, and caters to all demographics.

Multiple games within the company have been promoting the use of the landscape and portrait screen switching function, consistently applying and gradually iterating it, and have received widespread positive feedback from players.

Several strategy games have also been promoting the use of the color correction function.