Companion Experiences for the Illuvium Universe
Illuvium: Zero & Beyond
Cross-platform game UX/UI, product design, and sales-page architecture for two connected Illuvium experiences.
Project
Illuvium: Zero is an immersive city-building game set in the wider Illuvium universe, available on both mobile and desktop. Players harvest resources, construct and upgrade advanced buildings, and research Illuvials to unlock exclusive blueprints that carry over into the broader ecosystem, blending strategic planning with in-depth city management.
Illuvium: Beyond is a dynamic and competitive collectible card game where players collect and showcase their Illuvitars. It offers multiple ways to engage, including collecting cards, unlocking rare Illuvitars, and tracking progress through the Beyond Album, with layers of strategy via power ratings, fusing mechanics, and customisations.
Our Work
Illuvium: Zero - Cross-Platform UX and UI
When our studio joined the team, Illuvium: Zero was a mobile-only game with an initial UI. In preparation for Open Beta, the scope expanded to include both desktop and mobile. We were responsible for redesigning the entire UX and UI so it matched the updated visual direction and worked seamlessly across both platforms.
Desktop Adaptation
We created desktop variations for every screen, scaling layouts from mobile to larger form factors and adapting key interactions so they felt native on desktop while remaining consistent with the mobile experience.
Feature Design
Working with product managers and game designers, we helped define and design new features including improved navigation, a goals system, power-system visualisations for generators, and a marketplace for trading fuel and resources.
New UX Elements
We designed animations to guide players through key actions, added path indicators, reworked the goals menu, introduced the megacity feature for combining plots, and improved how path growth bonuses and efficiency were visualised across structures.
Ongoing Collaboration
Throughout development we collaborated closely with engineers to audit and refine implementations, ensuring the final experience stayed true to the design while remaining performant and usable.
Sales Pages and Information Architecture
We designed the UX and information architecture for the Wave 1 and Wave 2 sales pages so players could move smoothly from discovery to purchase. The flows make it easy to understand what each D1SK contains, compare options, and review collections without getting lost in the details.
Beyond Album and D1SK Purchasing
We defined the initial UX for the Beyond Album and D1SK purchasing system at launch in 2022. Our work focused on interactions that let players organise their collections intuitively and see their progress across the album at a glance, rather than forcing them to dig through dense menus.
2024 UX and UI Redesign
More recently we led a full UX and UI overhaul of the Beyond Album, with three main priorities.
- Enhanced visuals: we worked closely with artists to design a more striking album layout that gives the Illuvitars room to breathe.
- New features: based on community feedback, we introduced album-wide filling options, clearer milestone visibility, and more obvious progress tracking through a circle gauge pattern.
- Progress visualisation: we created the My Progress section to give players a single place to see collection milestones, D1SK purchases, and rewards.
- Milestones and rewards: we designed a clear system for surfacing collection milestones and the rewards tied to them.
Outcome
Across Illuvium: Zero and Illuvium: Beyond, we reworked UX and UI to support new requirements, platforms, and player expectations.
For Zero, the interface now scales cleanly across mobile and desktop, with clearer goals, systems, and affordances that support long-term city management.
For Beyond, the updated layouts and features improved how players track progress and interact with their collections while directly addressing long-standing community concerns.
Together, these changes create more immersive, readable, and motivating companion experiences that deepen engagement with the wider Illuvium universe.
Gallery
From the original case study
Selected Work