Overview

Haste Arcade is a platform dedicated to playing hyper casual games competitively. As the lead designer, I played a key role in shaping the platform's information architecture, refining the overall user experience, and creating its distinctive visual branding.

The arcade's value prop is simple: Picture yourself stepping into a local arcade, inserting 25 cents into a game machine, competing for a spot on the leaderboard, then earning instant rewards whenever others fail to beat your score.

Games Landing Page

The arcade features a wide variety of games, including a mix of Haste Originals and submissions from indie developers.

To navigate the limitations posed by iOS and Android restrictions on crypto gaming, the arcade was developed as a web-based React Native application. Leveraging the Progressive Web App (PWA) approach, we successfully achieved a more native-like feel, enhancing the overall user experience.

Modes of Play

To capture a broad audience of gamers, the arcade offers three primary modes of play: Leaderboards, Tournaments, and Live Battles.

Leaderboards

Leaderboards Landing

The original mode of play in the arcade is the Leaderboards, which offer various pay-per-play tiers, including a free option. These leaderboards also feature individual rolling resets based on the amount paid.

Tournaments

Tournaments Landing

Tournaments adhere to the same pattern as the leaderboards but are time-bound, offering prizes that may vary. In addition to competitive tournaments, we introduced the concept of raffle tournaments, where each play serves as a raffle ticket for the tournament prize. We implemented this as an alternative to address the power law problem, where certain players consistently dominated the leaderboards.

Tournament Detail

Live Battles

Live Battles, another play mode aimed at addressing the power law problem, allows users to compete against a smaller group of players every 15 minutes. These battles follow a best-of-3 format and utilize our in-house concept of a line rating system.

Live Battle Landing

Similar to a sports handicap, a user's line rating changes after each ranked play, depending on the skill level of their opponents. Notably, this line rating only gets influenced by plays performed in the live battle mode.

Live Battle Detail

Earning

Users have multiple options for utilizing their earnings in the arcade: they can either cash out through the prize board or provide liquidity by using the in-house automated market maker.

Prize Board

Prize Board Landing

The arcade's prize board lets users have the flexibility to cash out their HST earnings through various options, including a diverse selection of gift cards or direct deposit to their bank account. Furthermore, there are plans to expand the offerings in the future to include a range of physical swag and rare digital collectibles.

Automated Market Maker

AMM Landing

As an alternative, users who are well-versed in crypto have the option to deposit their HST into the AMM's liquidity pool, opening up opportunities to earn even more. Moreover, they can conveniently swap to their preferred cryptocurrency using the platform.

Brand Design

Haste Arcade Brand Guidelines

In addition to the UX/UI work, I also took on the responsibility of shaping the brand: experimenting, defining standards, and giving direction/feedback to other designers who may need to contribute to the brand.