Posted: August 14th, 2022

Game Log #6: Playtesting and User Research

Game Log #6: Playtesting and User Research
The game’s premise is that the player is an alien from outer space. Humans are invading and
they must defend their planet in a tower defense game against humans.

This assignment was originally going to be a report on playtesting sessions you had to conduct for your group project game. Instead, it is now a report of a plan to conduct a playtesting sesssion (experimental design). Although this assignment is related to your group project, this is an individual assignment.

The first step in completing this assignment is to go through the following material:
https://slideplayer.com/slide/10272056/

After reviewing the material, you will prepare a document where you’ll describe how you would conduct playtesting sessions to evaluate the “beta” version of your game. You are not asked to conduct such an evaluation; just report out on your plans for a hypothetical evaluation. This report should contain the following:

Your name, your team name, and the title of your game.
Your goals for playtesting and motivations (e.g., I want to see how players with different skills are able to navigate through our game; emotion reactions; what are our visual communicating; what are they learning) and why this is important for your game’s success.
Your target population and how you would recruit them. For example, targeting a specific age group, specific gamer skill profiles, etc. Why are you targeting theses? What are your plans to find participants go recruit a representative sample (a group of people that represent the variety in your target population)?
Method
What data are you planning to collect from your participants? This can be surveys (before and/or after gameplay), observation notes, gameplay log data produced by your game or a combination of these. How will you use these data to improve your game?
A description of the process for a playtest session. This includes any instructions you plan to give participants, a description of the setting where playtesting will occur, what portion of your game they will play, when will your playtesting session end (time-based, or based on completion of certain game tasks), etc.
What questions will you ask your participants? If you have surveys, show the questions you’ll include in these. If you plan to take notes of observations, describe what you will be looking for to record.
Student’s First Name, Middle Initial(s), Last Name
Institutional Affiliation
Course Number and Name
Instructor’s Name and Title
Assignment Due Date

Game Log #6: Playtesting and User Research
Student Name
Team Name
The Title of Your Game
The main goal of the playtest will be to analyze and understand the experience of gamers during their gameplay of our beta version of the game. The aim of playtesting for the beta version of the game is to identify whether the game is internally balanced, complete and fun to play. The playtesting will give me as a game designer, more information about the user experience and how it can raise awareness among the players. From the playtest, I want to identify with the different skills of the players to understand their capability in navigating through the game to have fun in the process. The playtesting also aims at identifying the emotional reactions of the game players for the beta version of our game. The playtest will focus on identifying the game better and in the eyes of the game players.
The game tester will experience the game through playing and communicating the problems in the game. The goal of the playtesting for our game is to see how the players react to the game difficulty. The playtest will also help in identifying and gathering more additional information on tutorials and mechanics. The playtest will give information about the introductory reactions concerning the game. It will offer the opportunity to engage the players and customize the best use of controls, interaction, and emotions. The playtest will increase the success and achievement of our game by enhancing the ability of the game to be fun and exciting to many game players.
The target population for the playtesting of the Beta version of the game will be gamers with three to four years of gaming experience and between the age of fifteen to twenty-one. The target group must also be players with specific skills in their profiles; game players with skills in shooting, and solving puzzles and with the understanding of most game user controls from at least five different games. Their profile must include adventure, action and strategy gaming experiences. This target group will effectively test the capability of the game to satisfy the target market and the whole gaming community. Representative samples will be obtained through the use of purpose and quota non-probability sampling.
The methods to use in the collection of data in the playtesting are questionnaires, surveys, and interviews. These will be administered during the gameplay at designated moments, after the gameplay and also specified questioning on the general gameplay experience with the player. The data collected from these methods will be supplemented by the gameplay log data collected by the game. The data will help focus the efforts of game improvement on the ineffective and inconvenient elements of the game design. The data collected will point out the problems of the game from the players’ perspective.
The process of the playtest session will involve preparing a script that will be followed in sections during the test. The procedure will begin with welcoming and thanking the playtesters for their participation, clarify that the process is only to test the game and not a competition of their skills, let the start the gameplay and ask them to be free to react loudly when playing the game. At the end of the play, the playtesters will be interviewed and be allowed to offer any additional feedback and finally, thank the playtesters for their time, assistance and the feedback.
The playtester will play the beta version of the game from the start to the quarter-way; the part where the Human invasion part of the gameplay starts and ends; which will be given a maximum of two hours for each playtester to complete. The playtesting will be conducted in a game shop in the city randomly chosen. The questions to be asked in the questionnaires and the interviews will be more like; How much time do you think you played? What was your gameplay strategy? What did you feel about your ability to control the outcome of the game?

References
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