1st round of playtesting is over… whew!

Well, we finished our first “vertical slice” of the game on Monday, so it was time to hold the game under public scrutiny to see if we were on the right track.  And after two days of playtesting, we’re pretty happy with the results – the game was very well received!  Of course, there are always a few hitches and bumps early in development, so playtesting gives us a chance to weed out any elements of the game that confuse or frustrate players, and tweak design here and there to make the game as fun and intuitive as possible.

Why are these playtesters so essential to a game’s development?  Simply because it’s extremely hard to accurately “judge” a game when you’ve designed and built it yourselves.  Things that seem super obvious to you (“of course you should try and pull that red lever we plopped in the middle of the screen!”) might not make any sense to a player (“red levers are NOT meant to be pulled – that was a straight path to suspension back in the day, lady!”).  Playtesters can often have a more critical eye than you – for the same reason parents always think their own kids are the cutest, we can sometimes hold a blind eye to certain, ahem, “problems” with our game.  (Luckily our playtesters are quick to point those out – thank you!)  And sometimes, a playtester will have a moment of brilliance and suggest a superb idea that we had never thought of!

So what happens, exactly, during a playtest session?  First, we ask the player general questions about her gaming background/preferences to see where she’s coming from.  (If she’s a relatively new gamer, we won’t be too worried if she hits a few hurdles in our game.  If she’s a seasoned veteran and can’t beat our first level, then we definitely have a problem.)  Then we pretty much unleash the game on the player, watching her play and answering any questions she may have along the way – but trying to interfere as little as possible, to more closely replicate the experience the player would have at home.  (Yes, some players get a little nervous with a bunch of us in the same room, watching their every move in the game… so we do have to take that into consideration.)  The session ends with a slew of questions for the playtester, asking about everything she liked or disliked in the game, any frustrations she had, and any opinions she had on the art, music, or any other aspect of the game.  Sometimes we’ll also show some screenshots of features we’d like to include in the future, just to get a general feel for how it’s received.  The whole process is usually a pretty enjoyable experience for the tester, assuming we don’t scare them too much (hey, giving your opinion to listening ears should be fun!).  And we always learn a ton.

Anyway, we’re already gearing up for our next milestone… and soon we’ll be able to (finally) officially announce the title of our game… check back in mid-December!

2 Responses to “1st round of playtesting is over… whew!”

1. Spider says:

   December 15, 2009 at 2:38 pm

   I notice you don’t have the system requirements for the game listed on any of your pages.

   WHY would I preorder if I don’t know that it will work with my computer?

   Reply
2. passionfruitg says:

   December 16, 2009 at 1:32 am

   Hi Spider, thanks for pointing that out! We’ve added the system requirements here, under each Order button :)

   http://passionfruitgames.com/pre-orders

   Reply