Introduction
Exploring the Destiny Season Pass—a counterpart to the popular "Battle Pass" model. This approach offers tiered in-game content earned by overcoming challenges. The Pass presents a choice: free or premium tracks, with the latter ensuring rewards for each level achieved.
Role
UX / Visual Design
Team
Josephine Carpenter, Jami Lukins
Timeline
2 Weeks
Deliverables
Design Specs, Motion Design
Problem
In 2019, Bungie had separated from Activision. Our MTX store was not meeting expectations in its current form, and we needed a reliable way to generate revenue for the studio during this transition. Players were getting increasingly frustrated with the subscription and loot box model.
Along with improving our MTX experience, we needed something new to offer. That’s when the Season Pass was born! We needed to support the addition of a new screen that shows players the value of purchasing the Season Pass.
Aligning
Goals
After meeting with our stakeholders and game designers, we collaborated on defining the following goals:
• Have the Pass in its own tab in the Director for easy accessibility.
• Show the value of the pass with the rewards offered.
• Create an intuitive UX for players who are familiar with the Battle Pass model in other games.
• Be inexpensive to make.
Research
In preparation for this feature, we engaged fervent Destiny fans in comprehensive interviews to understand their frustrations with current in-game microtransactions.
A recurring sentiment emerged—players are dissatisfied with prevailing loot-box systems due to perceived pay-to-win structures and a lack of transparency. They generally preferred the "Battle Pass" format, as it gave them incentive to play the game to receive the rewards they were seeking.
Our findings emphasize the need for user-centered solutions that prioritize fairness and balance, aligning with players' aspiration for an enriching gaming experience.
Fortnite
A competitive analysis was performed by myself and my teammate (Josephine Carpenter) to help break down how Battle Passes in other games work.
Analyzing the Battle Pass system in Fortnite lead to the following observations:
• Their monetization system is named the Battle Pass.
• There is the concept of tiers, which are levels within the battle pass obtained by playing the game.
• The Free and Paid versions of the track are differentiated by branding color and the amount of rewards.
• V-Bucks are used as their MTX currency to purchase items within Fortnite.
• The period of time a Battle Pass is active is displayed as the Season.
Rocket League
With the “Rocket Pass” in Rocket League, we also made these observations:
• Their version of the Pass is named the Rocket Pass.
• Their Free and Paid versions of the track are also defined by color and the amount of rewards.
• They also had the concept of Tiers.
• They had an MTX currency called Keys to purchase items for the game.
• There was also the ability to purchase a new tier with Keys by using Boosts.
Define
After reviewing this data, we defined which aspects of the Battle Pass would be borrowed from other games.
• Our version of the pass will be called the “Season Pass”.
• There will be 100 ranks (tiers) to earn, with 10 ranks visible per page.
• We would display the amount of time the Pass is active.
• There would be different display states for Purchased and Unpurchased.
• Use a Track display for the rewards, with clear separation between Free and Paid.
• Allow the use of the MTX Silver Currency to buy Ranks after purchasing the pass.
• Display a cumulative Season Pass Bonus for all active bonuses that players have unlocked via the Pass.
Because of the short timeline, stakeholders were nervous and wanted to see a full design pass presented for this new screen, therefore we skipped wireframe ideations.
I pulled up some references on what other games did for their Battle Passes. After identifying the key themes of these screens, and having the design spec in mind, I started working on what a Destiny version of this pass would look like.
Here are the first 3 Designs produced. When designing these new screens, I had these considerations in mind.
• Destiny uses a grid-based design system, so I chose to reflect that system in this new screen. Following this design system stays in the Destiny aesthetic, while also being scalable.
• A hero image would be used and updated each season, to minimize the amount of unique assets being made per season.
• Reward item icons would be represented in the size as they currently are. Because we can easily make over 800+ icons a release, re-using the same icons would minimize any extra work for the visual designers.
• The Free and Paid tracks would have their own separation, with the Paid track using a blue color.
• And finally, the Season Pass paid bonuses would be displayed under the Track, only being unlocked when the pass is purchased.
Iterate
After sending these initial concepts for review, the general response was favorable to the 2 column design.
We also decided that multiple rewards in a track would be displayed as Bundle icons, with a tool tip revealing the amount of rewards that come inside of each bundle.
At this point, due to the short timeline, cumulative bonuses categories were also cut. so I would not be carrying forward that aspect of the design. Instead, we would display a pre-purchase banner in that space to communicate the value of the Pass.
Season Rank Purchase
Season Pass animation spec showing a celebratory visual when purchasing a rank. The user can purchase ranks repeatedly, so this required an animation that was not visually overwhelming.
Result
Final in-game screen shot of what the pass looks like. Ultimately, it ended up being basically identical to the visual design mockups thanks to our talented and speedy content designers.
Conclusion
The Season Pass hit all of the design goals of the feature, while also being familiar and easy for players to understand.
In terms of revenue, the pass has also been wildly successful in generating higher player engagement and purchases, earning us $3.4 m in profit since its launch in September!
Now that we’ve shipped the first iteration, the plan is to bring back the Cumulative Season Bonuses for the next upcoming Season.
Working on this screen taught me a lot about quickly designing in a scrappy environment, and It was also a great opportunity to approach a design from a “design systems” perspective.