Playtesting is a critical, involved task. It cannot be
avoided or breezed through. It is part of the designer's job #1
as an advocate for the player. The testing process and testers
are your view of the real game. If you listen to the feedback
of the testing process you will have mastered the most important
skill in game design.
Understanding FLOW
In the previous chapters of System Dynamics and Challeng, we talked
about flow and the flow of the game. What is "FLOW"? It is
the principles of an enjoyable experience. It is what the player should
be getting from your game. It is the optimal experience:
Flow is an optimal experience characterized by:
- a sense of playfulness
- a feeling of being in control
- concentration and highly focused attention
- mental enjoyment of the activity for its own sake
- a distorted sense of time
- a match between the challenge at hand and one's skills
The Path to Flow
1. Make it fun
Look at your task as fun. Establish rules, objectives, challenges
to be overcome, and rewards.
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2. Powerful Goal
As you play the game, remind yourself frequently of the overriding
spiritual, social, or intellectual purpose that drive your efforts.
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3. Focus
Release your mind from all distractions, from within or without.
Focus your entire attention on the game.
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4. Surrender to the Process
Let go. Don't strive or strain to achieve your objective. Just
enjoy the process of work.
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5. Ecstasy
This is the natural result of the preceding four steps. It will
hit you suddenly, by surprise. But there will be no mistaking
it.
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6. Peak Productivity
Your ecstatic state opens vast reservoirs of resourcefulness,
creativity, and energy. Your productivity and quality of work
shoot through the roof.
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"Contrary to expectation, "flow" usually happens not
during relaxing moments of leisure and entertainment, but rather when
we are actively involved in a difficult enterprise, in a task that stretches
our mental and physical abilities." - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Elements that make experiences Enjoyable:
1.A challenge requiring skills
2.A chance of completion
3.The opportunity to concentrate, merging action and awareness
4.Clear goals
5.Immediate feedback
6.Deep involvement transcending distractions and the awareness of time
7.A sense of control over actions
8.Absorption of self
9.Expansion of self through experience
Playtesting and Iterative Design
Broken up into phases, the iterative process includes:
- create ideas
- test ideas
- evalute results
- revise
- test again (go back)
- launch
Who is the Playtester?
- Yourself
- your colleagues that you trust
- the anonomous outside tester
Who is the ideal tester?
- students
- computer user groups
- advertising to demographic
- recruiting and screening
- phone interviews
- question related interests
The Target Audience
- reading your audience
- optimal diversity
- signing the NDA
- don't forget the snacks!!
The Playtesting Session
- no longer the designer
- become the investigator
- let the participants do the testing
- have them verbalize during play as much as possible
- be observant
- follow-up interview
- thank you gift!
Methods of Playtesting
- one-on-one testing; observe; interview
- group testing; observe; interview
- feedback forms; standard questions; compare results
- in-depth interview; verbal quiz
- open discussion; focus group; free-form or guided discussion
The Play Matrix
- intersecting Mental Calculation with Skill
vs. Chance
- intersecting Physical Dexterity with Skill
vs. Chance
- what games fall into each of the intersections? where does your
game fall?
Recording your observations and gathering data
- sample questionaire; page 211
- usability techniques
- Don't Lead!
- have testers verbalize; think outloud
- plot gameplay trends based on quantitative data
- test different versions of problematic areas
- rate gameplay elements on a scale of 1 -10
- use statistical analysis to tweak properties
- balance results with creative judgement
Controlled situtation testing
- force testing of specific areas
- the end of the game
- a random condition that rarely occurs
- special situations in game
- specific levels; team assignments
- new or improved features
The practice of playtesting
(using games similar to brainstorm models; i.e. Acquire,
Risk)
Excersises:
Test it yourself
Test with confidants
Writing a playtest script
Playtesting the game
Create a play matrix
Plotting a game you know
Gather quantitative date on your original game
Focus on 3 test conrol situations on your prototype
Reading Assignment
Review: Playtesting