Physical Prototype – Play-test Analysis

Below are my thoughts, both positive and negative, on the prototype, as well as the feedbak that was given to me, whether I feel it was be useful or not.

 

Positives

• Entertaining 

From the test, I felt it was useful in reassuring me that the game was fun and enjoyable, due to the smiling faces of the testers, their willingness to play and their enthusiasm to want to play the game again and try to improve it. I found this to be useful as it helps to back up the idea that the gain is entertaining and successfully starting to fulfill its entertainment title. Therefore I am on the right tracks with the game and just need to continue on this idea of fun and excitement to help drive design decisions.

 

• Easily Understood

Another positive from the test is that everyone understood the game, as there wasn’t any questions asked during the process and no one was unsure what they had to do. Making me feel that the mechanics are simple and easily understandable. Helping me as I realise that

Though it could have been that my explanation of the game being very clear and concise, though further tests where no explanation is given would help to give me a definitive answer to this.

 

• Panicked Nature

From watching the game, it appeared as though the players were feeling panicked, and verging on stressed, as they were running around the place or standing still trying to remember the where the colours where or what colours to get and then quickly running off to find them. So I believe this quick movement and uncertainty at the begin, helps to create for a panicked feel, if not a stressed one.

However when talking to the testers they said they didn’t feel particularly stressed and had more of an adrenaline rush, which I suppose is the flight or fight response which is part of stress. The users may say this because it didn’t feel like stress they feel when doing work as it was more of a physical stress. Making me think they’re could be different forms of stress and I may want to restrict myself to one.

Personally I think I created an element of stress from seeing the reactions of the players, however i have stress written more about the testers’ feelings below and how I could create more stress within the game.

Improvements

• Make more stressful

I think the main problem I see from the play test is that the game didn’t create stress but more a feeling of adrenaline, as said by the testers. Therefore I feel I need to ensure the game is stressful rather than creating a heightened excitement. I believe more of a chain of events that involves all the players, helping each other progress, would create more stress. I think this would work as there are multiple stages that rely on people doing the right action quickly and players down the line will feel more stressed that they may not be able to complete their task, as the other players are too slow, and hopefully creating stress.

However, I plan to research more into multiplayer and stressful games, as suggested from Adam’s formative feedback, to also help me identify what I could add to the game in order to improve the stressful nature of it.

 

• Emphasis on Keeping Team Alive

Also I think I need to put more of an emphasis in keeping team mates alive in the game, as I don’t feel there was an incentive to keep a player in the game, more of an incentive to get to the colour before the time runs out.

Though I tried to make it this happen, with the increase of colours that need to collected or colours needed to be created, as it would be easier to have multiple players in get to all the colours within the time limit. Though I’m unsure that the players really understood this and were trying to keep their team mates in for this reason, as none seemed particularly stressed when players started dropping out. Indicating to me that they weren’t bothered whether people where killed or not.

So within the game I believe I need to add more negatives to team mates being knocked out. Maybe the killed team mates could then start to hinder the ones still in the game or maybe they lose the ability to touch certain colours, making the game more difficult to complete. Overall encouraging the players to want to keep their team mates in and feel guilty if they don’t.

 

Thoughts on Feedback

• Making colours

As suggested by the players, they felt it would be more difficult to just have primary colours and the players have to mix the colours in order to form them. We actually tested this and I found it interesting as it did successfully make the game harder and more confusing, due to the players having to not just find a colour but also process what colours mix together to form that colour. Therefore I feel it was useful in creating stress, due to the extra step. However I don’t think it had the same panicked feel, which could simply be due to the players didn’t have to run as far to touch the colours, as we put them closer together in order for people to be able to reach and connect them. So perhaps a larger group of people would allow for bigger distances between colours and so more panicked movement.

Though if I said two colours, for example orange and red, it then caused the red colour to become redundant because the player would have to be holding the colour red to form orange anyways. Therefore I think there either needs to be separate non mixing primary colours for players to have to touch as well, or the game can’t say colours in the mixing

Also this could limit the number of colours that are available to use, with only 6 primary and secondary colours, however I could add tertiary colours into it too but this may very difficult to mix accurately. Therefore this limitation is something I’d need to consider if I wanted to add this feature in the game permanently. Thinking about whether it would be effective or not.

 

• Buzzers

The idea of buzzers came up, they would be placed on the coloured areas and players would hit them to heal the player. I liked the idea of buzzers as I felt it would make it clearer what colour the players were hitting (if the buzzers had coloured lights in them), removing the problem of the coloured paper not easily seen due the light reflections, that I gained in my feedback.

Also I feel it would help to make it clearer if the player had got to the colour within the time limit, as the buzzer could be connected to a computer and send out a nose if the player hits the buzzer in time or not. Which could act as a reward as well, which I believe will encourage the player to continue playing the game. As they feel as sense of sanctification from it. Therefore I feel I will add buzzers into my developed game idea.

 

• Pullies

Another idea that came up in the feedback was the idea of pullies that player could pull, if they were the only one left, allowing them to reach colours across the room. As players could pull the rope of one colour across to the rope of another, connecting the colours and still mixing them.

Though I think the thought of this idea, as I feel it would be an innovative mechanics and could visually look very pleasing and exciting, I feel it takes the element of stress and team work away. As by losing team members, this is meant to make the game get more difficult. Whereas the pullies are then reducing that difficulty and could reduce the players need to keep each other alive. So this could go against what I’m trying to achieve with the game.

 

• More than one of the same colour in the room

I believe having more of the same colour in the room could either be beneficial or more confusing. Beneficial as the players would have multiple options to touch and so could touch the colours in a quicker time. However also more confusing, as then there would be more going on in the room to focus on just one colour. Therefore giving the player too many options could confuse and stress them more.

I feel I’d need to test this out in order to see what exact reaction this would create in the players, so I can know for sure what the feature would be adding to the game. However for now I will consider it in my developed idea and

One thought I had was that the perhaps as a player dies certain colours die too – making it harder for players to run around the room.

 

• Colours are difficult to see

From the feedback it was clear the colours needed to be more obvious, as they were difficult to see, due to the light reflection. Therefore as stated before I feel buzzers or possibly lighting would help to solve this issue and make the colours more obvious, as they wouldn’t be obscured by the reflection of the daylight and so could help make the coloured areas more visible. I will consider this in the development of my idea.

• Could this be a game in the dark – Help to make the coloured lights or buzzers more vivid – or I could use infrared paint to highlight the colours

 

 

Plan

• Test idea 1 prototype once finished, to identify what needs improving for that idea.
• Research into co-operative play, through journals, games, talks etc and identify what makes them co-operative and what makes them stressful.
• Use the information gained from my research and the prototype tests to form finalised ideas.
• Create mood-boards and overviews for each idea to help with presentation.