Rhadamenthe
4 min readSep 13, 2022

Game UX - And Temtem for all

-a look at Accessibility #1-

🇫🇷 Cet article est aussi disponible en Français ici : click click.

When people talk about User Experience, there are some common misbeliefs induced by the use of screens. Interfaces sure are a mean to help or guide the players, but they truly are a thin part of UX overall.

‘Accessibility’ in video games is the ability a team have to make their game reachable to the largest number of people. That often focus on making the extra-step allowing players with disabilities to enjoy your game by their own means.

A player’s character waving her hand at you saying ‘Hi’
Hello there!

In this monster taming game, a particular attention has been paid to ease of use. As a PC & consoles game, players can always use the regular ways to play, such as a controller and/or the keyboard+mouse combo.

The experience can be divided in 4 interaction domains: exploration, fight, menus and interactions. In order to give to almost everyone the possibility to enjoy everything, all essential interactions are resumed to a bare minimum of inputs: 2 buttons and a cursor.

Yup, all one need to play Temtem is just a mouse (or any equivalent device).

Temtem customized cursor on the welcoming background of the first island
Just this cute arrow ✨

A. Exploration

One of the first thing to come when making a game is obviously moving the player’s character. In Temtem, the players will use the right-click button, with two different behaviours.

1. Maintaining the right-click button allows you to just guide the character with the directions of the cursor. That can be very practical when farming for wild encounters or in some long-way trip flow.

The character is following the cursor in any direction it goes
Follow the cursor by maintaining the right-click button

2. The player can right-click to mark a spot insight and the character will move by itself to its destination. It is really practical when the path to reach some spots is tricky. Or, obviously, when one doesn’t have the ability to maintain pressure on a button. It’s a click-to-go kind of thing.

The cursor clicks on the floor at different spots and the character moves to these spots
Ponctual right-click to indicate a spot for the character to go

B. Fight and capture

The first use of the mouse cursor and buttons in a fight is pretty typical. One just hover and select the targeted action.

A mouse cursor hovering fight options in Temtem
Typical menu use for a mouse

As Temtem allows the players to quit the game and come back in the middle of a wild fight (or a story fight, but not in a competitive match), the only-mouse configuration needed to allow the pause menu to appear, and that’s done by right-clicking anywhere on the screen.

The player right-click and a pause menu appears on screen
Pause menu during a fight with a right-click

The right-click button has another use during a fight. It allows the player to display a popup with more details on the available attacks.

The player right clicks on the name of an attack and a popup showing details appears
A quick pop-up that sums up the info

C. Menus

This one is almost as usual, with a nice subtility. Right-click is contextual. Depending on where the player use it on the screen, it will have a different behaviour.

For example, in the temtems management computer menu, if the player right-click on one of the temtems, options appear to help manage the temtem.

A contextual menu appears when the cursor right-click on a temtem
Contextual menu with the right-click button on the temtem avatar

But, when the cursor is elsewhere on the screen, it simply closes the management interface. In fact, the right-click button used in blank areas is often a “close” or “go back” button.

The temtem management computer interface disappear when the cursor right-click in an empty space on screen
Closing menu with just one right-click

To access the main menu without the Escape key or the Start button, Temtem have a smart way to do so. Indeed, there’s a preview of the menu on the left of the screen (where it appears with any other technique) that slides a little when you hover it with a mouse, and if you click on it, it will make the menu pop out on sight.

The player’s cursor come to the left of the screen and a piece of the menu comes out, and when the players clicks, the menu pop out
That piece coming out when the cursor approach is just right

D. Interactions

Little speech bubbles appear when an interaction is at reach. It can be talking to the NPC in front of the character, or even fishing if you stand next to a water stream.

Left: Speech bubble for the lady — Right: Fishing in one left-click

Bonus

If a third button is available (let’s say a middle-click or wheel-click), sweets emotes are just a click away.

A wheel appears and the player selects a heart emote which then appears in a speech bubble
Speech bubbles for friendships ♥

In a matter of accessibility, there is always room for improvement.

But Temtem is really of to a good start.