COMP 7970

Playtesting

Cheryl Seals

sealscd@auburn.edu

COMP 7970

Assignment

Read Chapter 8 Game Design Workshop: Designing,

Prototyping, and Playtesting Games By Tracy Fullerton, Chris Swain, Steve

Hoffman http://www.tar.hu/gamedesign/

gamedesign0057.html

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Playtest & Final report

Select playtesters: friends/classmates, not on team 5+ required; plan the playtest (see rest of slides) Observe playing your game

– What is harder/easier than expected Interview them after

– What was fun about the game– What could be improved: short & long term

Improve the game based on comments! Read and follow directions on:

http://www.eng.auburn.edu/~sealscd/COMP7970/project/Group_Project_Specs.doc

COMP 7970

What is Playtesting? The “most important” activity in game design It is NOT:

– Casual weekend gaming• Just “play the game and gather feedback”• might not reveal real issues with the game

– Internal Design Review with team• Designer & team play the game and talk about the features• Need real players

– Bug Testing by QA team for debugging• QA team goes through and rigorously test each element of software for

flaws– Focus Group Testing

• Marketing exec sit behind two way mirror watching sample group play and discuss the game with a moderator asking them how much $$$ they would pay for game

– Usability Testing• Systematically analyze how user interacts with your software by recording

their mouse movements, eye movements, navigation patterns, etc.

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What is Playtesting?

It is– Something the designer performs through the

entire design process – Getting insight into how players experience game– Informal/qualitative structured/quantitative

• Somewhere along this continuum

– Answers questions• Is the game functioning the way you want?• Internally complete?• Balanced?• Fun?

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When do we Playtest?

Iterative Less fundamental changes as process

progresses “Let’s wait till we have a beta product…

Players will get the best experience”– NO!

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Model for iterative game design: Playtest, evaluate, and revise

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Steps in Playtesting

Selection Recruiting Preparation Controls Analysis

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Recruiting and Selection

Self testing– Reveal glaring problems

Then testing with friends– Not objective

Then test with strangers– Selection is important– Target demographics– …but widest selection possible (AOE II case study)

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Age of Empires II Case Study

Graph of player Errors over time

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Running a playtest session

Don’t talk too much– Use a script

Let the user make mistakes/figure things out “It’s the game that’s broken, not you” Think Aloud

– This practice has players talking constantly while playing– Can be distracting, but can give some good insight

Interview/survey– Beware of leading questions

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Running a playtest session

Don’t be defensive– Beware…testers will want to please you]– Really!

Groups generate ideas Individuals evaluate Can use groups, individuals, or combination

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The Play Matrix

Core aspects of all interactive experiences Stimulates discussion Have tester analyze gameplay using matrix Should your game be moved in the matrix?

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Play Matrix

COMP 7970

Running a playtest session

Note taking critical– Video or audio recording

Interview– Game specific questions needed– Don’t wear out your participant

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Playtest data

Objective or subjective Quantitative or qualitative? What can you measure?

– Develop clearly defined questions to answer with data Test control situations

– New feature, special event, common technique, the end of the game