Playtest, Start!

PLAYTESTING IS SCARY!

(but man is it fun!)

     As writing this, some early-alpha playtests have begun! The playtests include 3 levels of the game of varying levels of quality/completion. I have always heard of how important playtesting is, and I have dabbled in it through some classmates previously-but this time, I was more serious about it. Because of that, I've learned quite a lot!

The Setup

     During this years GDC, I was present for Tencent's playtesting talk. I learned from this talk that when playtesting, the ultimate goal is to understand what experiences are sticking with the player, as these stand-out memories make up the core experience. Using their talk as a guide, I created a playtest setup to use so I could verify if the game's recipe was working- as well as the level and gameplay design. I created a Google Form for each level, and an additional one for the game as a whole. Player's would go through each level one by one, filling out the level form after. At the end, they fill out the general form. These forms are linked to a Google Sheet that allows me to collect data based on responses! Playtesters also record their experience, so that I can observe and make cross references. 

Generally, the forms ask questions that allow the players a chance to talk about what happened. Questions such as: 

• What experiences made you feel excited?
• Anything that felt really fun? What happened?
• What was your least favorite part of the level? What happened?
• What was your favorite part of the level?
• Was there a point where you felt confused, frustrated, or bored? What happened?

Additionally, the forms show players visuals of areas of the level, and ask them to select any listed emotion that resonates with it. 

This questions helps a lot with identifying how players are feeling about certain areas! Of course, this is not the whole story, but it gives me points to begin investigations at.

The Evolution

     Throughout the playtest, I would review feedback and make immediate changes, that way the changes could be tested immediately during newer players' playtests. I often hear not to do this, but it was actually incredibly beneficial!

After just a few responses, I was already noticing common issues(not related to pic, just wanted to show how it looked then!) 

While reviewing, players were not understanding the mechanics of character movement used to perform vertical jumps. They were also not understanding the utilization of flip kicks. This was causing a lot of problems down the line, so I knew I needed to act.

I extended areas in the tutorial level to focus on reinforcing vertical movement, and I added a new area that shows the usefulness of the flip kick. Previously, the area the flip kick tutorialization was in relied on Boost Orbs, so players naturally thought that flip kicks needed them to be performed. Whoops, my bad.

There were of course, many other changes made, too man to list actually! I also fixed bugs and changed certain aspects of the movement(such as ledge grabs.)

What's important is that I made these changes, and immediately saw results! Players who played after these changes had much higher retention and understanding of these mechanics!

There have been a few more playtests now:

As the data set gets larger, the data will become much more valuable! Up next, I have more changes to make in riverside ruins to decrease the amount of backtracking low-skill players are doing currently. I will also need to make many changes in Lilypad Labyrinth, as it is MUCH TOO DIFFICULT for players currently. The playtime is also way longer than intended, and player enjoyment is actually very low for it(an outlier 9 boosted it in the screenshot with small data pool of current).

While its hard to hear feedback(sometimes negative), overall playtesting is proving to be a really fun experience! Not only that, but the game is becoming better through this process.