Challenge

Among Us 3D was Schell Games’ first major online multiplayer experience at this scale, and we were behind. With a launch date looming, we faced a critical gap: no system to handle user reports, protect our players, or empower our support agents.

Our early research quickly identified, three core challenges to manage:

1. Business Challenge: How do we build a robust, scalable player safety solution on an incredibly tight deadline without delaying the launch?

2. User (Agent) Challenge: How do we prevent the inevitable burnout and decision fatigue that comes from sifting through thousands of potentially toxic user reports?

3. Technical Challenge: We had to build the entire backend and front-end infrastructure from the ground up, with no pre-existing tools to leverage.

The Approach: Balancing Speed, Quality, and Agent Sanity

My design process was built on a foundation of balancing immediate stakeholder needs (time to market) with the long-term quality of the product. The sanity of our future player safety moderators was my primary design principle.

1. Internal Alignment & External Insight

I started by interviewing internal stakeholders to define our immediate priorities and constraints. To accelerate our learning, I also conducted both a competitive analysis of existing player safety tools from other game studios as well as a series of interviews with our partners in player safety, identifying best practices and common pitfalls. This research established a core design tenet for the project: reduce agent cognitive load at every opportunity.

2. Designing for Focus

The key insight from my research was that an endless queue of reports is a recipe for burnout. My design philosophy became centered on creating a focused, manageable experience for our agents. I rapidly prototyped and iterated on solutions, holding continuous synchronous and async feedback sessions with stakeholders. This agile approach allowed us to quickly identify and discard complex features, ultimately reducing the project's scope by 35% by identifying the necessary functionality and integrating it into a more streamlined design.

The Solution: An Agent-Centric Safety System

The final design consisted of two core components engineered to work together to create a simple, powerful, and sustainable workflow for our safety agents.

1. The Batch Queue: Taming the Flood

Instead of presenting agents with an overwhelming, infinite list of tickets, I designed the "Batch Queue" system.

• How it Works: Agents "check out" a small, manageable batch of 15-25 reports at a time. This batch is assigned to them, removing it from the main queue and allowing them to own the resolution process from start to finish.

• The "Why": This approach chunks a massive dataset into digestible tasks. Psychologically, it provides a clear start and finish line, which is proven to reduce cognitive load and prevent the feeling of being overwhelmed. It turns a seemingly infinite task into a series of achievable goals.

2. The Player Card: Context at a Glance

To make informed decisions quickly, agents need context. The "Player Card" is a comprehensive dashboard that provides a holistic view of a player's history and behavior.

• How it Works: The card consolidates all of a player's infractions, chat logs, and account details into a single, scannable view. A custom-built priority system flags repeat offenders and severe infractions, allowing agents to immediately identify high-priority cases.

• The "Why": This eliminated the need for agents to manually search for a player's history across multiple tickets. By presenting all relevant information in one place, we drastically reduced the time and mental energy required to make a fair and consistent judgment.

The Impact: A Successful Launch and a Safer Community

The Player Safety Update launched with Among Us VR's fifth patch in April 2023 and the results were immediate and significant.

• Tens of thousands of infractions successfully processed post-launch.

• Thousands of bans issued to disruptive players, improving community health.

• A 35% reduction in project scope through iterative design, ensuring we met our critical launch deadline.

• A seamless design handoff to the Design Director, thanks to consistent documentation and clear design artifacts

Lessons Learned

• Don't Be Afraid to Show Incomplete Work: Our commitment to asynchronous feedback and sharing early, rough designs was critical. It allowed us to identify and solve problems faster and led directly to our ability to simplify the product scope and launch

• The Power of a Design Principle: Centering every decision around "reducing agent cognitive load" provided a clear north star. It helped us prioritize features, justify design choices, and ultimately build a more thoughtful and effective tool.