Using Feedback

This assignment we spent time playtesting our prototype design with potential players and ideally with the other design team in the class. For this blog post we were expected to answer a few questions. 

In general, playtesting was a great experience. If you can obtain willing participants, it is a fantastic way to engage with users and really test the design. Assuming there is time to adjust, the feedback you can gain is invaluable for a better designed game. 

Questions to answer:

As a play tester what was your experience? Overall my experience was good. The game was easy to play and control. 

Were you tested synchronously or asynchronously? Asynchronously

What did you learn from playtesting the other team's game? The other team’s game didn’t really identify the learning objective of the game, so I wasn’t really sure what my goal was as I played. This reinforced the idea that instructions or at least a simplified goal should be identified even for something as simple as playtesting a prototype. Functionally the gamed mechanics worked, but without the “reason why” I didn’t feel I could provide adequate feedback on the game design itself.

How could your playtesting experience have been improved? As previously stated, I feel not knowing the “why” of the game prevented me from really feeling like I was playtesting for a reason. I think modifying that, would be helpful… maybe if I was playtesting synchronously, giving me the ability to communicate with the designers as I play, I would have had a more productive experience.

As the one administering the playtest, what was your experience? Unfortunately, I was only able to playtest with someone I knew, so I don’t think the experience was a “brutal” as it could be. With that being said, the experience was fine and exactly what I expected.  

Did you administer synchronously or asynchronously? Synchronously

What did you learn from administering the playtests? Playtesting is probably more beneficial if you have participants that are not associated with you in some personal capacity. I also learned (Not just from my playtest but reading the data) people can sometimes focus more on the visuals or the functionality unless they are specifically told to ignore those.  

What could you improve if you were to playtest again? I would choose someone I don’t know first. I took some notes from my other team member who also did a playtest synchronously and started the conversation by identifying the “flaws” before they started (specifically some of the functionality of the prototype). I think if I had not done that before hand I would be sure to do it.


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