FMP_Devlog_5_Playtest and Feedback

There are 3 major playtest during development. First is the demo level playtest. The second one is the cutscenes, the third one is complete version.

First playtest, I found 6 playtesters to play my game, the opinion varies greatly. My partner said that she hate to rate in the game. And she suggested to add some transition level like rating between little animals and human to start with. And that become the idea of tutorial level later. The major problem is about the UI. Although I set the canvas at 1920X1080 resolution. But 2 playtest participants including my course leader said that it does not show correctly in their computer. Furthermore, there are questions about input system, dialog box and some minor programming problems.

Figure 1: UI problems in the first playtest

For the UI problem, I have to say that my knowledge about canvas in Unity is quite weak after months. As a result, I have some tutorials about the pivot and anchor in Unity. And it took me a whole day on adjusting and playtesting to fix it. I put all the elements from the background to canvas, makes the game happen only on UI level (except for the dice). And then reassign each elements’ anchor, pivot and position to eliminate problems. Gladly to say that it is fixed without any bug.

The second playtest is the minor one, only to test the narrative design. I put the intro and ending cutscene to see whether players understand the story. Fortunately they are aware of what is going on this time. And then I discussed the ending design with my course leader Prof. David King.

The last playtest, also the biggest one, is the feedback of the complete version of my game. One thing to celebrate is that no sudden bug occurred during the test. Almost all participant thought that this is a complete game rather than a prototype. But more opinion about narrative and feedback have been mentioned.

The most critical one is raised by my course leader. He said that there are inappropriate content in level 2 and level 5. I misused words to describe mental health and misuse a history figure to express myself. Actually as a non-native speaker, making a game that contains sensitive content is stressful. I don’t know about the boundary where players would feel offended.

Each level has some chance of offending some groups of players so it’s rather hard to filter inappropriate content. Luckily playtest is the most efficient way to cross out the errors. What my course leader said is really helpful and touching – to learn about sensitive content in a second language is even tougher. So I can only pay more attention on the words used and history mentioned.

At a higher level, I have discussed feelings with many playtesters. Some of them are a little confused but surprisingly some of them are fully aware of what I am trying to express. And even more, one playtester told me something I did not think about. He said it does not matter who kill the protagonist in the end, it’s all karma and it is inevitable. That’s why I can later explain the idea better with other playtesters. And about the ending, David and I discussed a lot by splitting players into different endings that they like. It is important for me to stand a point but it is also important for them to choose a side. And that’s why I insist on making another ending after submission.

Thanks again, for all the playtesters. You are the reason that I make the game.

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