Playtest Review
A cartoonish, animated scene in the style of modern western animation, with vivid colors, depicting a game tester conductor in a whimsical, professional attire, interviewing a college-aged game tester. (Created by Yupei and ChatGPT)
Initially, I wanted to invite one of my previous students to do the playtest. However, due to his busy schedule, we had to cancel the appointment. I changed to ask my family members to be the playtesters. One of them accepted; let’s call her participant A. Participant A, older than our targeted audience and with no direct connection to geographic research areas, is interested in playing more games and learning about geography.
Due to the different time zones we are living in, I used the asynchronous way to do the playtest. I sent the game to participant A at 10 am on April 27, Saturday (CST) and used the survey question to make an interview with participant A to collect her feedback to the game at around 10 pm on April 28, Sunday (CST).
For the user’s convenience, I used the survey questions to interview participant A instead of asking her to input the written feedback on the google form. After the interview, I transformed her feedback into survey data on the Google form.
Participant A was not familiar with the game engine and game platforms like itch.io. I used some time to introduce her to how to play the game.
Lessons Learned
- Time management
I lost my initial game tester due to the very limited time I gave to him. People may have temporal businesses to do and issues to tackle outside of the schedule. Next round, I hope I can leave more time for the game tester to do the test.
- Flexible options
Due to the variability of the game testers, the more different available test models they can choose, the more feedback we can get. The synchronous and asynchronous testing consideration was a great one in the game test. I would like to keep more flexible options to the testers in the future.
- Detailed instructions
Potential testers may not be familiar with our game; detailed instructions with helpful tips can enable them to quickly understand the game’s background, the rules, and start playtesting. We designed a brief introduction to the game background and the play rules to share with the testers which helped them emerge in the game faster. This helpful experience will be kept in the future.
- Diverse participants
Diverse participants may provide feedback on aspects of the game that the designers have not noticed. Originally I wanted to invite a participant with a background related to Geographic and owns more game experience to do the test to collect feedback about graphics elements in the game. The new participant with no direct connection with Geographic research and with limited game experience didn’t focus on the educational and game design elements, but she shared an unexpected view to the game musical and graphic settings, which were also vital for a successful educational game.
Suggested Design Improvements:
The general idea and design of the game were attractive and interesting. It would be better with more game mechanics and content. It would also be more interesting to add music and audio elements.
I want to suggest to the studio members to add more audio and graphic assets in the game, keep polishing the game narrative and design more game mechanics to show more educational content.
Appendix:
- Game Link:
Echos Of Lalibela by RRstrauss (itch.io) - Questionnaire:
Post-Playtesting Questionnaire – Google Forms - Survey Results (team work):
Demographic and Response information for 7 participants
Administered via Google Form
How do you identify?
Male 42.9%
Female 42.9%
Non-Binary 14.3%
How old are you?
19-24 57.1%
25+ 42.9%
How often do you play games?
Weekly 42.9%
Daily 14.3%
2-3x/week 14.3%
Less freq. 28.6%
Monthly 0%
What are 2-3 of your favorite games?
1. Slime Rancher, Stardew Valley, Terraria
2. D and D, Pente, Spirit Island
3. Legend of Zelda (All of them), Spirit Island, Subnautica
4. Hades, Assassins Creed Odyssey, KOTOR
5. Borderlands, Dwarf Fortress, COD
6. Ludo, Temple Run, Subway Surfers
7. Super Mario, Tetris
What are 2-3 of your least favorite games?
1. Risk, Chess (sorry)
2. Hop Scotch, Marbes, Tiddliwinks
3. I forgot because I don’t like them, and I don’t dislike them enough to remember
4. Gotham Knights, COD MW2
5. Tropico 6, Civ 6
6. NA
7. Some games with blood and violence
Have you ever played an educational game?
Yes 71.4%
No 28.6%
Have you ever taken a Geography class?
Yes 85.7%
No 14.3%
Are you familiar with professions associated with Geography degrees?
Yes 57.1%
No 42.9%
First Impressions of the Game
What are the first three words that come to mind after playing the game?
1. Scott, green, dice?
2. Incomplete, simple, potential
3. Squares, Path, Movement
4. Interesting, potential, engaging
5. Confusing, cool idea, potential
6. Educational to kids, Fun to play
7. Interesting, simple, narrative
Would you play this game again?
1 = No, 5 = Yes
2 57.1%
3 28.6%
5 14.3%
(Optional) Why or Why not?
1. More of a concept project than a repeatable experience
2. Can’t tell – there isn’t enough of it for me to have an opinion
3. As is, it’s not prepared enough to “Play”. The most basic elements of a game only partially exist.
4. I would play if the game were more playable.
5. It’s interesting but need to add on more features to make children attract
6. I would like to play it again if there was more stuff to explore
Would you like to learn more about this game?
1 = No, 5 = Yes
3 16.7%
4 33.3%
5 50%
(Optional) Why or Why not?
1. Looks like a neat concept and I would enjoy seeing it go further, it touched on ideas that would be interesting to see in a deeper game.
2. I would if this actually becomes an educational game
3. It’s game.
Were the directions clear?
1 = No, 5 = Yes
1 28.6%
2 28.6%
3 14.3%
4 28.6%
(Optional) Why or Why not?
1. Hard to remember what was expected, did not know how to move buildings, important details felt lost in character text
2. The icons were not clearly labeled. The directions should have remained visible on the playing page. No idea what the green squiggles were, where the ‘sacred trees’ were, et cetera.
3. Where were the directions?
4. Directions were unclear as to how to interact with the world and complete objectives.
Was the story interesting?
1 = No, 5 = Yes
2 42.9%
3 28.6%
4 28.6%
(Optional) Why or Why not?
1. There wasn’t much story that I saw? I think the character dialogue was most of the story building and there wasn’t much to supplement outside of character interactions
2. What story? There was a scenario that had potential, but not a story.
3. It didn’t feel particularly connected to the mechanics.
4. There was very little story, and what there was seemed aimed towards children
Were the controls easy to use?
1 = No, 5 = Yes
2 14.3%
4 57.1%
5 28.6%
(Optional) Why or Why not?
1. Controls were easy but I got confused about the parameters for where I could place buildings
2. The controls were arrow only – sure, easy to use.
3. I was using a wonky keyboard and trackpad. I did find it odd that I could move everywhere freely.
4. Had trouble controlling without a mouse, very sensitive.
Were you able to “win” the game?
Yes 71.4%
No 28.6%