Thursday, March 01, 2007
Blog Your Playtests!
Today/tomorrow you're going to be having your alpha paper prototypes tested while also having a chance to play/test the prototypes of others. We're asking that each group submit the results of your games' playtests as comments here. So talk about whether you discovered some loopholes in your game, one or more dead-ends, areas where balancing is needed, overall necessity for scope adjustment etc. In other words, what did your group learn from the testing commentary of others? Let us know, group by group, right here.
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Averse: The Team
Katie Seaborn
Mike Malyuk
Lawson Lim
Charles Cheung
Paper Prototype Testing
During the prototype testing process, our team discovered a few flaws in our design and possible areas of improvement.
Section: Menus
Feedback: The menus were fairly well received and testers felt that the menus were intuitive and easy to understand/navigate. It seemed that on the character page, the players were not utilizing the option to customize their players abilities. It appeared that this was because these options were not easy to find or central to the character page.
Improvement Plan: During the character creation process, the user will be forced to choose a colour and gender.
Section: Enemy AI
Feedback: The enemies were too easy to dodge for one tester. It was also easy for the tester to predict enemy movements after encountering the enemy for a short period of time. For challenge, the tester suggested the enemies have projectile attacks.
Improvement Plan: The enemies will move quicker and more erratically, and will shoot projectiles. Also, so as to warn the user that the enemy has spotted him or her, a small exclamation mark will appear above the head of the enemy.
Section: Environment Objects
Feedback: The objects within the environment aren't intuitive in how they should be used, or the very fact they can be used. Testers generally did not exploit the objects.
Action Plan: An optional short tutorial in the form of a conversation scene with the first world god at the beginning the game will show the user how objects in the environment can be used to their advantage.
Team Far Far Away
For the first run through of our paper prototype, a few things came up . First, measuring how long the tester took to run the course didnt necessarily work out too well, b/c alot of their time was spent hopping (physically) around the game as well as getting used to the rules (they are a little more complicated when friction is represented by color). Also, there are certain aspects of the prototype that represent a minor "dead" end, such as the tester is forced to hit an obstacle by the rules. This, however, is a physical restraint and would not be an issue in digital format, we hope : )
After the second test, we realize that we need to give more insentive to stay on the ground and experience friction otherwise they will just jump over everything to get through it quickly. To avoid this we will add points to the ground as well as obstacles in the air to give incentive to stay on the ground.
Team JIGY Playtests
"Pillage the Village"
Paper Prototype Testing:
General comments:
People felt that there should be a time restriction to the game so that it won't last forever. Also, vikings with the more swagpoints should win.
Game Layout:
There are too many spaces on the game board, so there should be a decreased amount of game spaces. Also, there should be fewer dice used per turn. There should be fewer "pick up card" spaces because it is too easy to acquire beer and weapons since there are currently so many. The buildings are placed too closely together so it is too easy to pillage several buildings in close turns. We should think about placing fewer buildings or making a bigger gameboard to make the paths and buildings more spread out.
Weapons/Attacking:
The range of the weapons need to be increased because it is too hard to attack a viking with the current weapon stats.
Swag:
Make swag that's worth more points more difficult to acquire to increase the difficulty level of the game (i.e. moving it to the edge of the board or placing it at the end of a convoluted path).
Beer Cards:
Beer cards should have different effects on people instead of just doubling movement spaces so that there is more variety.
Special Cards:
Special cards should be limited to a specific building, and specific swag should be assigned to a specific building. The point of the special cards were unclear, so naming the cards would give them a bit more purpose and restraint.
Team JIGY:
Joyce
Ingrid
Gordon
Yi-Ling (Elaine)
Suggestions we received:
1. Scrolling should be restricted to upward, as opposed to allowing the player to freely scroll up and down.
2. Use the mouse for movement instead of the keyboard.
3. Either more or faster enemies.
4. Vertical winds to affect vertical movement, adding randomness/difficulty.
5. More enemy variety.
6. Enemies more challenging
7. Movement more intuitive (we think it will be in real-time version)
8. for board game needs to be a limited number of turns or time, players are moving slowly because there is no difference between moving slow and moving fast.
9. levels should be bigger, more populated with enemies, more variety of interactions
10. enemies should move around a bit even when not detecting the player
11. higher level enemies should move faster
12. disconnect between console and moving the spirit(again, should be fixed in electronic version)
jody
tyson
kenson
sam
Team 10 "Kapilo" (Amy, Peter, Krishna, Peter)
Some comments we received: "the game is pretty much complete", "had all the elements needed, like character card, the characters figures, map", "pretty balanced gameplay"
1st group suggested that some enemies should move/patrol around areas to make the game more dynamic.
The 2nd group suggested that the final boss was not challenging enough, and should include more stronger power-ups for the characters to obtain throughout the game.
We plan to add stronger final boss to go with the stronger power-ups. The enemies can be programmed to be smarter to surround or follow the player's characters.
Team Neon Kat
Charmaine Chan
Karl Schmidt
Alex Ting
Anna Wu
Paper Prototype Testing
* We need to make a better die
* Consider having monsters run away when they are low on health
* Consider having monsters be able to also collect and heal using coconuts
* Consider giving the player full health after completing a level
* Consider notifying the player of a dropped coconut, or drop near
the player's current location
* Think about rewarding the player with more points at the end of a
level if they have more health left
* Consider having more spawning points for humanoid enemies
* Big Viking is too powerful, other enemies are too weak
* Consider temporary speed powerups
Team Falling off a Chair
June Fu
Tony Tsai
Yip Ho
Royce Sin
"Viking Run"
Feedback
The play area is too big which makes the game too easy, long and boring
Improvement
The play area was reduced to allow more action and suspense.
Feedback
Characters move too slowly and the opponents are too easy to dodge
Improvement
A die based movement system was implemented, to increase speed and suspense.
A random path character was added.
Feedback
Making the player move in straight lines, and the full amount of the die roll made the game too hard.
Improvement
All characters were given freeform movement, which made it easier to dodge, yet more suspenseful.
Feedback
Too many variables in the game which made the game complicated. There are three different speeds and detection ranges in the game.
Improvement
One of the speeds and detection ranges were removed. The player has a choice of run or sneak. Running can travel faster but has a higher detection range, sneaking is the opposite.
Team Squared
Andrew Clough
Jae Joo
Jessica Lam
Tadashi Miyazaki
In "Paper Prototype Testing Phase," we found a few concerning issues.
Our weather mechanic was far too harsh. We have now added a few things to tone it down alittle.
Many players felt that we should give bonuses on certain days to keep interest in the game up.
We found that we need a way to make the players take more risks so we shortened the period in which you need to make money. And implimented a tax on your gold as one of our weather mechanic.
Clearly write down the rules on a piece of paper to explain to others.
Gain bonus at time interval (i.e. on the 6th day, gain $50 pocket money from relatives for her birthday)
Math may be complex with big numbers for banker, due to the equations used but if used on a computer there should be no issues.
Team CL^2
Terry Chow
Ulrike Lam
Jason Chen
Yvonne Lui
We didn't have any paper prototype for other team to testing because we know what kinds of feedback we will get. However, after we play other team's prototype, we discovered they have same problem as we predicted.
Since our game is all about dodging, which has no attacking, rolling dice, or collecting items involve. Therefore, if we have our paper prototype, all the player need to do is move from one end to another. And rest of us will control the AI. Here is the problem. If the AI is controlled by human, it is quite impossible for the player to win our game with a lot of restriction on movement because the AI can easily predict what the player will do after. Or the player can predict what AI is trying to do, and make the game too easy. This is what happens when I play other team's prototype
The second problem we find our from other team's prototype is the rules. For us, we have 5 different stages, and with 5 different movements rules for both AI and the player. It will take more than 20min to play the whole game with all those rules.
Team 6 DHI Section D103
Irving Lau Fang
Henry Kim
Daniel Lee
Game: Hover Car Wars
Description: Race hover cars to the finish line and use items to slow down your opponent.
Feedback:
-Level structures need to be more unique.
-Movement controls: turning, drifting, NOS.
-Item use and limitations.
-Track randomization.
-Balance speed, and track difficulty as level goes up.
-The game idea was easy to understand and users seemed to enjoy the mechanics of racing and destroying.
Improvement plan:
-Work more on the different levels of each map.
-Balance the random tracks and items in each level.
-Create more menus, like choose a car, weapon and item guide.
Team L'etoile (Lab B, Team 2)
Hae Won Lee
Julie Yeem
Karen Yuen
Paper Prototyping Testing
Game Additions:
1) need more garbage card
2) have built-in buildings at the beginning so that the player can feel like they are moving soon after the gameplay starts
Appearance:
1) have easier indication showing which route belongs to which player
Dead Ends:
1) What happens when the player has no cards they can play?
2) What happens when the player has all garbage cards but the opponent has no more buildings to destroy?
Suggestions for changes:
* Doubling the amount of building cards so that the players will only need to discard used cards and do not need to reshuffle every time a card is put back into the deck
* When the user has no more cards they can play, he/she can discard a card of their choice from their hand and pick up a new card from the deck
* Make 'player side' indications on the cards larger and more noticeable that they are different.
Dysfunctional Studios (Lab C, Team 1)
Darrell Yeo
Yohei Shimomae
Scott Ko
Game: Hydro (card game)
Problem:
The decks each had a different amount of characters with special abilities therefore making the balance between decks uneven.
Solution:
Both decks were given the same amount of characters with special abilities to keep the balance between all characters for both decks.
Problem:
Some characters abilities, when paired with buff cards would create an almost invincible character.
Solution:
Readjust certain character abilities and buff cards.
Problem:
Too many attack cards in the deck which would often leave players with no choice in which move they can make.
Solution:
Take out some attack cards and create other “special” cards to add more variety and give players more options.
Problem:
Game rules were not all properly defined.
Solution:
Edit rule book with clear and precise instructions.
D.103 Lab C Group # 5
Raymond Wong
Jamie Chiang
Kelly Chang
The Red Hot Vegetarian JaKeRa
Game Name: Burger Madness
Paper Proto-Type Testing:
Problem #1:
Game is taking too long. It's hard to form a burger when other players are capable of interfering with the process.
Possible Solution:
Players can have Star Cards, which can save them from other harmful cards. This way, players can be save to make burgers to get points.
Problem #2:
The game is too dull, and not enough interactions with other players.
Possible Solution:
We increased the special cards for players to use to interfer with other players. This way, other players can attack and destroy other players using these cards.
Problem #3:
Character's ability is not balanced. We have 3 main characters, and they each have
different abilities. Their powers are not balanced.
Possible Solution:
Nurf these powers and to balance them. So that each character posess similar powers. Increase the number of protection cards.
Problem #4:
The rules for the game is not clear. It can be confusing for the players.
Possible Solution:
Fix the rules to make it more clear and easier to understand.
Team Chocobo
Game: Bubble gun
Alex Lorimer
Claudia Chan
Karen Lo
Angelus Chang
Feedback
The game view seems too narrow (cannon at this point goes through a wall)
Introduce ships too slowly
It was hard to guess the distance of the boats
Improvements
Make the game world a bit wider
Depending on the difficulty level, introduce ships faster at the first level
Have some sort of grid to help the cannon shooter measure/eyeball distance
Team name: The Unbeatable!
Group members: Leon Tang, Jessica Xu, Johnnie Tso, Joseph Yu
In our racing board game, the very first problem we notice is the starting direction. We are not sure which direction is the “right” way. The second is the rocket is too weak and it is difficult to use since originally the rocket can only target 1 spot with range from 1-6 depending on the Power Up card. Third is the power up spot are too few which makes the game not fun at all because it is just like rolling a dice and see who have better luck. Fourth, we decide to add dummy card (one of PowerUp) which is to stun a target of players choice. This way, the game will require some strategy. Ex.being first is not necessary good in the early game.
After all these problems are fixed, we decide the number of lap players need to go around in order to win. By doing this paper prototype testing, we have noticed the key problems that we have in our digital version.
Team: Momentum
Team member:
Jack Yeh
Kevin Kao
Justin Lee
Alfred
“Weapon Cards”
Feedback:
The range and attack style of some weapons were not well fit to their purpose.
Improvement:
We redesigned all the range and attack style of all weapons.
“Moving Turn”
Feedback:
All players move at the same time is just not going to work. Everyone is waiting for other players to move first.
Improvement:
Whoever rolled the lowest number has to move first.
"Order of Attack"
Feedback:
Very often the game ends with all players losing in the same round and creating a tied game.
Improvement:
All attack cards have different attack speeds, the player must follow the attack speed in order to decide who attack first. If both players share same attack speed, roll the dice and decide who attack first.
Our team discovered that our prototype was dreadfully imbalanced. The small tank had too much move and shoot. However, we found that we couldn't balance it without making any of the other two tanks (medium and heavy) overpowered. Our end result was to cut the heavy and light tank, and make the game playable with medium tanks only. That way everyone was on a fair playing field, and the light tanks didn't dominate all!
nPsy3 (Lab B, Team 3)
Akiko Fukushima
Angela Chan
Catherine Poon
Simon Lee
Name of Paper Prototyping Testing - Math Power
Description:
2 people game (each person takes a turn). One person is the player, and the another person is the timer and deliver cards.
- Use the followings numbers 1,2,3,4 to produce a sum of 6,7,8,9
- Then, put the combination of numbers into the right place.
- For example: To produce the sum of 6, you have to put take the Card 1, 2, and 3 on the grey number 6 box.
Problem:
* The instruction is not clear.
* Players do not know whether they put the numbers one by one or gather all the numbers then place them at once.
* Players do not know whether they should place the numbers onto the number box or place the numbers next to the number box
Possible Solution:
* Write the instruction in detail.
* Provide diagrams in the instruction
Problem:
* The game finishes very fast. It ended in 30 seconds.
Possible Solution:
* Add more questions and not only find the sum of 6,7,8,9
* Not only do the addiction but also subtraction and multiple. Subtraction and multiple takes longer time to calculate.
Problem:
* The game is easy but it is not challenging. So, the player has no interest to play the game again.
Possible Solution:
* Make the game challenging. Set the game in different levels.
* Players has to complete the level in the certain time limit
Team AFK
Game name: Cats, Ladders, & Bombs.
The basic mechanics of the game is pretty much same as snakes and ladders. The way we manipulated to throw in a bit of enjoyment is adding in BOMBS. The 2 key functions that goes with the bombs is 1) Bumps players back spaces 2) Gives the user a chance to avoid the snakes (toilet flush). Apparently we didn’t find any specific loopholes, or “bug” associated with the game, but the problem that we find with our prototype is that again similar to snakes and ladders, the game gets boring after first 5 minutes of playing.
Feedback: it’s boring in the earlier stages, when you don’t get many things happening.
The solution is really about the distribution of items in the actual game board. Rather or not the “toilet flush” , bombs, ladders, as well as the number or frequency that these items appear is highly important in terms of providing excitement and fun of the game. This is an area which we are to reorganize. The play testing of the alpha game was really a good idea. It allowed us to understand and isolate the problems, plus how to approach the solution of these problems.
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