2 Player Sports

2 Player Games: Sports is a casual mobile arcade game designed to bring people together. It features a collection of competitive mini-games  (such as tennis, track and field, and air hockey) that can be played solo against an AI, or locally with a friend sharing a single mobile device. My contributions ranged from mapping out the UX flows and designing the in-game UI to creating playful animations and designing marketing assets for App Store A/B testing.

Designing a local multiplayer game for a single smartphone presents a unique set of UX challenges. Ergonomics play a massive role, as two sets of hands need to comfortably hold and interact with one small screen simultaneously without obstructing each other’s view. Additionally, cognitive clarity is paramount. In fast-paced mini-games, players need to instantly recognize their side of the screen, their score, and their controls. Finally, the information architecture of the menus needed to seamlessly accommodate both single-player and dual-player setups without causing friction before the game even begins.

To solve the physical constraint of two players on one device, I utilized a strict vertical split-screen orientation. I designed thumb-optimized controls by scaling up the action buttons and placing them at the absolute edges of the top and bottom of the screen. This maximizes the tap targets in accordance with Fitts’s Law and ensures players’ hands remain at the extremities of the device, preventing their fingers from blocking the central gameplay area. For the top player, the UI and controls are mirrored—rotated 180 degrees so the experience is identical and intuitive for both users facing each other.

In chaotic, competitive gameplay, users shouldn’t have to think about which avatar is theirs. To solve this, I implemented a strict, universal color-coding system. Player 1 is always Red at the bottom, and Player 2 is always Blue at the top. This color dichotomy extends beyond the characters to the UI panels, scoring systems, and even the physical environments, like the halves of the tennis court. To further enhance visibility, the in-game HUD is minimalist, stripped down to the absolute essentials, just the score and a universally recognized pause button, maximizing the playable real estate.

The visual language of the game is intentionally bright, friendly, and flat. I used a vibrant, high-contrast color palette alongside soft, rounded vectors to appeal to a broad, casual demographic, including families and friends. Beyond static visuals, I developed snappy, responsive animations for user inputs and character movements. This micro-interaction feedback is a crucial element in mobile games to make hits, jumps, and goals feel physically satisfying and rewarding to the player.

A great game only succeeds if players actually download it, so I extended my design role into marketing to ensure a strong storefront presence. I designed a diverse set of app icons for rigorous A/B testing on the App Store and Google Play. I tested different variables to see what drove the highest conversion rate, comparing abstract concepts like sports equipment against literal character faces, and testing various layouts like split diagonals versus quadrant grids. I even tested the inclusion of a smartphone graphic in the icon to explicitly communicate the shared-device mechanic at a glance. To accompany the icons, I created featured graphics that combined core brand elements with a collage of the mini-games, clearly communicating the “party game” value proposition to prospective users.

Designing 2 Player Games: Sports was an incredible exercise in spatial UI and mobile ergonomics. It reinforced the idea that good UX isn’t just about how a screen looks, but how the physical device is held and shared in the real world. By prioritizing accessible controls and extreme visual clarity, we were able to deliver a friction-free, highly engaging social experience.