Climb Landders
Climb Ladders is a classic Korean gambling game developed for the 188Bet platform, aimed at expanding into the Korean gaming market. The game draws inspiration from the legendary Journey to the West story, incorporating humorous characters and a familiar adventure setting to create an engaging and immersive experience.
By blending a well-known cultural narrative with a fun, dynamic gambling format, Climb Ladders allows players to quickly connect with the game’s atmosphere, making it both exciting and easily accessible.
My focus was on designing game environments that enhanced storytelling and player immersion, while ensuring a simple and seamless user interface.
To improve usability, I applied Jakob’s Law and Choice Overload UX principles, allowing players to quickly navigate and engage with the game.
As the lead visual designer, I streamlined the UI interface to enhance usability while focusing on character and environmental design to build an immersive game atmosphere. The humorous character interactions not only engage players in guessing which orb they will obtain but also connect them to the personalities of the two main characters, deepening their engagement with the story and enhancing overall immersion.
Game Features & Design Strategy
During the brainstorming and early sketching stages, I explored two distinct visual directions:
- A traditional Journey to the West theme inspired by Chinese mythology.
- A cute, casual mobile game aesthetic with a lighter, more playful style.
After evaluating market preferences and audience expectations, we chose to center the design around Journey to the West, incorporating a leisurely and lighthearted tone to enhance accessibility while maintaining the game's cultural richness.
Challenges
One of the biggest challenges in designing Journey to the West characters was differentiation—the market is already saturated with numerous adaptations of these classic figures. The goal was to create instantly recognizable characters while avoiding overused, generic interpretations.
Striking the right balance between familiarity and originality posed a significant challenge in character design, requiring a unique approach to ensure each character had distinct personality traits and visual characteristics that set them apart from conventional depictions.
Solutions
Creating Unique Character Identities
To differentiate our Journey to the West characters while maintaining their recognizability, we conducted extensive research on classic games, movies, and cultural references to analyze existing character portrayals.
From this research, we identified key personality traits that define each character and used them as the foundation for our designs. By shaping the visuals around their distinct personalities, we ensured that each character felt unique, expressive, and easily distinguishable, setting them apart from conventional interpretations.
Tools
Photoshop
llustrator
draw.io
Role
2D Designer
A 2D designer creates characters, backgrounds, and UI, defining the game’s visual style for an immersive player experience.
Timeline
Overall: 3+ weeks
UI/UX Design Approach
For the UI design, I focused on simplifying the button layout while preserving key elements that reflect the game's unique style. Guided by Jakob’s Law—which states that users prefer interfaces they are already familiar with—I retained the operation area at the bottom, making only minimal positional adjustments to ensure a seamless and intuitive experience.
By balancing usability and visual consistency, the design enhances player accessibility while maintaining the game's thematic appeal.
Characters Design
The character design follows a lighthearted, comedic style, with exaggerated expressions to enhance the game’s humorous tone. Each character embodies distinct personality traits:
Sun Wukong – A clever trickster, depicted with a mischievous smirk to highlight his witty nature.
Zhu Bajie – A gluttonous and flirtatious character, humorously exaggerated to enhance his playful charm.
By amplifying their expressions and personality-driven details, the design brings a fun, engaging atmosphere to the game, making the characters more memorable and immersive.
Additional Design Work
Once the mockup is finalized, I proceed with designing additional game pages and collaborating with developers to create a comprehensive game flowchart.
After ensuring that all design elements are complete and nothing is missing, I move on to designing the game logo and advertisements. Finally, I organize and export the necessary assets, preparing them for seamless integration with the development team.
Project Feedback & Market Reception
Feedback from the platform and stakeholders indicates that users deeply love the characters. Their expressions and actions have exceeded expectations, making players more engaged and encouraging them to spend more time in the game. Players particularly enjoy observing character interactions that change dynamically based on different outcomes, enhancing overall immersion and replayability.
