I got feedback from 4 people on the game prototype
Player 1 – My partner
He enjoyed the game, felt that it was fun as well as interesting. He enjoyed the visuals and felt that the music helped the game feel cohesive. He liked the sense of atmosphere. He was impressed with the final product given that I did not know how to make a game when I started.
Player 2 – Julian (module lead)
It was interesting and satisfying to watch Julian enjoying and laughing during the minigames. They are supposed to be fun as well as being strange and a bit serious (if you think about it).
Julian suggested that I should introduce elements of choice to help the user feel invested in the story and want to play again.
Could have some sound effects for the drunk men.
Likes the music and there is not too much text. The art works well.
Talked about the idea of who is the audience for the game.
Possibly wanted more of a sense of danger or something bad to happen.
The minigames pulled the user out of the story but overall seemed to work.
Observer 1 – Visiting lecturer
The visiting artist lecturer watched Julian play and said they really liked the visuals and the music. They believe the story was a common one and people would get it.
They suggested working on the text so that it looks more hand drawn and applying a similar strategy to the buttons. This would help pull the visual elements together so that it feels like the character’s voice is also part of the interface.
Player 4 – Student colleague
He really enjoyed the music, the sense of threat and danger created by the visuals and the sense of not knowing what the character thinks or feels about his strange dreams. He really enjoyed the story too.
Final thoughts
I felt a bit anxious about people playing the game, but also enjoyed seeing how they engaged with the work and responded to my creative intentions. Overall the response was positive and the game seemed to ‘work’. As a prototype it is relatively glitch free and it shouldn’t be too hard to make iterations based on the above feedback.
It would be useful to then do some more formal play testing with prepared questions and maybe this will help me get closer to working out where the game could be shared.
