Ant Lion PrototypingPlaytest group: SIAT students
Where: Research room, sat next to subjects and took notes.
Mechanics:• Model: board game –moving across board to escape predator or to escape prey through player’s dice rolls, physical movement of avatars.
• Strangely: no starting point at the beginning of the game –setting up one would be more intuitive regarding gameplay for the user. This probably lead to players saying the gameplay was “random”.
• Rules are slightly misleading –do not recall how they were misleading during presentation.
• Fairly balanced game –game is neither too hard to overcome nor too easy to breeze through.
Dynamics:• Main problem: need to add more features.
• Game needs more obstacles for the player to overcome in order to keep playing.
• It would be interesting to play as anteater as well (different perspective)
• As the game continued, it became apparent the random function did not work due to poorly mapped dice.
• No “special squares” –power ups/downs
Aesthetics:• Fantasy/challenge/strategy-survival game
• Emotional response: generally easy to understand though initially confusing
• Did not see much art at all during presentation.
• Originality: new spin on old concept of predator vs prey = good.
Fins of FuryPlaytest group: SFU students in their 20s
Where: On campus and at home
Mechanics:• Model: four level hex grid board game with each level representing the tadpole’s growth into a frog. Dice rolling is main mechanic, along with moving the piece on the board.
• Rules were explained by both the team and by a set of written instructions.
• Game is balanced: gradual leveling up that will not overpower user.
Dynamics:• Game is reasonably challenging as levels progress with a straightforward strategy.
• Problems: having more enemies pop up keeps the game from getting too slow; adding mini games/puzzles would keep user interest; including some weapon variation would also give the user more incentive to kill (this is a big problem right now).
Aesthetics:• Fantasy/challenge/power-seeking game
• Emotional response: hard at the beginning when first playing but it gradually gets easier –changing the wording of the rules might help here. Also, some people didn’t like having to physically roll the dice –maybe one person could have been the computer AI and rolled it for them.
MizuPlaytest group: SFU students
Where: Research room
Mechanics:• Model: board game that imitates a side-scrolling adventure. Player and AI roll dice; player moves their own avatar.
• Rules: written instructions.
• Balanced game: provides enough challenge and things to do; the boss is also challenging enough –the player can win or lose against it.
• Digital game: splash power gauge, movement with keyboard
Dynamics:• “Splash” attack whose level of power is determined by the die.
• Problems: roll of die takes away ability to make decisions (ie: why use a lower level of power when you could use a higher one when the die number is also high?). Major problem: paper prototype couldn’t exactly match mechanic they had in mind.
• Suggestions: expand on the role of the turtle as a transportation vehicle (maybe it gives power ups); add in-game power ups to help player.
Aesthetics:• Fantasy/narrative/discovery kind of game.
• Very cute artwork!
• Emotional response: straightforward, not really confusing, though adding more elements would make it smoother (?).
UntitledPlaytest group: variety (programmer, engineer, designer from SFU)
Where: At home
Mechanics:• Model: board game with the player rolling the dice and physically moving their avatar.
• Rules: unclear how they were presented.
• Balanced game: it appears to be well-balanced, though this is also unclear.
Dynamics: • Different character types/classes; the group was testing to make sure their attributes made sense, as well as their special attack.
• Variety of mini games.
• Problems: too many puzzles!; turned-based strategy is annoying; the game needs more pick-ups in order to advance, as the skills are underpowered; there needs to be harder enemies. Their problems seem to be ones that need minor tweaking and programming in the digital version, especially since they’re using a tailor-made engine.
Aesthetics: • Power/discovery/adventure-fantasy based game.
• Did not see any artwork at all.
• Emotional response: the playtest group seemed to be a bit annoyed (see the problems above). It is also unclear if they managed to get through the game.
