Role
UI Design
Art Direction
Interaction Design
Usability Testing
Product Strategy
Tools
Figma
ComfyUI
Claude Code
Unity
Timeline
6 months
The Problem
We needed to maintain strong player retention by encouraging players to return day after day.
The Solution
We created a simple, fun, and engaging core adventure mechanic, social features, and a peer-to-peer marketplace allowing players to seamlessly purchase, trade, and list game items without ever leaving the app.
Core Adventure Improvements
Shiba Story Go! is categorized as an Idle RPG. Normally, games in this category have a basic one-button click and reward system, similar to a traditional slot machine. During a 'run' the character progresses through a series of events and battles until facing a Final Boss at the end of the level.
Player frustrations
The current adventure log is not engaging or exciting. Standard events feel like filler, or something to simply 'tap through' rather than adding to the story.
Primary Frustration
Lack of player agency makes the adventure mode feel stale and boring. This makes the adventure feel more like noise or filler rather than part of the adventure.
Secondary Frustration
Visually, we are missing an opportunity to educate our players, add to the depth of our lore, and leverage other incentives through visual content.
How might we improve the design to create a more intuitive and memorable experience?
What can we do?
We can add a choice system that allows players to 'choose their own adventure'. This also allows us to add new art and items to the game.
What will improve?
This improves retention by leveraging the player's agency during a run, and invites them to return and try different choices next time.
Ideation and Content
For this feature, we are going to utilize Enemies, NPC Characters, and Game Items to illustrate the player's choices during an adventure.
Choice Cards
By replacing the standard adventure cards with large buttons inside the 'log' we create a seamless and intuitive experience without breaking the seamless flow of adventure mode.
Game Items
All of the items featured in the choices are going to be character or biome specific. This means we are going to need hundreds of items. By leveraging our custom LORA and models within ComfyUI, I was able to generate numerous on-style item sheets in only a few short hours.
Creating Player Agency
Choice cards appear seamlessly within the adventure log during a run. When prompted, the player can choose one of the two presented options. Items can help you, but sometimes they carry a risk!
Risk-Taking and Rewards
During an adventure, certain characters or events will prompt choices for the player, such as choosing between a risky item or fighting a battle. Some items have a very high risk-reward ratio. These choices can drastically change the trajectory of the player's run.
Delightful Experiences
By adding more player agency, we familiarize our players with our characters and how they behave, the items in the world, and how the environments affect Shiba.
Result
After shipping this feature we saw a notable bump in retention, as well as great community feedback, both privately in our Discord, and publicly in our Google Play and App Store reviews.
Item Trading in the Marketplace
Shiba Story Go! players collect and craft items, equipment, and weapons as they progress through the adventures in the game. To help players and guilds aquire rare items, we introduced a peer-to-peer marketplace where items could be traded or sold.
Player frustrations
Acquiring high-level equipment for serious guilds, elder players, or new players is difficult and time-consuming. Many players prefer to purchase equipment outright rather than grinding for the items they want.
What can we add?
Add a peer-to-peer marketplace feature for players to buy and sell items and equipment for USD, in-game.
How can we improve it?
Lets add robust filtering, market floors, and bulk ordering features, similar to NFT marketplaces.
Robust Peer-to-Peer Trading
By utilizing some core concepts from NFT marketplaces, while still keeping the UX simple and light for the mobile gaming audience, we were able to craft a friendly marketplace experience.
Buying and Selling Items
Items can be bought and sold from multiple touchpoints from within the game, such as in Adventure Mode, viewing your Equipment and Loadouts, viewing another player's profile, and more.
Seamless UX and Safeguards
To make the experience as familiar as possible, the marketplace is always seen in the user's native currency. Market Floor Prices are also utilized to prevent abuse and price manipulation.
Design System Improvements
We created a scalable design system that includes color, type, effect, and icon styles, as well as components such as buttons, cards, and chips. The Marketplace feature allowed us to add to our existing systems, adding components for Equipment Cards and Filters.
Three key learnings
1. Marketplace browsing needs to feel fast, filterable, and grounded in player intent
2. Item cards, rarity signals, and pricing cues have to build trust at a glance
3. Early testing helped clarify how players compare gear, search for the items they want, and assess risk.
Next steps
The next phase would expand the prototype into a fuller in-game marketplace flow, including advanced filters, seller profiles, saved searches, and clearer item comparison states. I’d also explore economy-facing details like price history, listing expiration, and trade confirmation moments so players can buy, sell, and evaluate RPG gear with more confidence.