P1: Playtest prototype (American Dream)

by angmao | Posted on

Version 1: Description of your prototype

Step 0: Document your prototype

We changed our prototype significantly from our first draft to address the fact that players had little to no agency in our previous iteration. The biggest change we made was to scrap the Game of Life-style board, add in more active choices, and introduce the concept of time through a structured year and season system. Players now must strategically choose between gaining skills, choosing visas that optimize for different things, improving their career, attempting extraordinary achievements, or falling in love (with a US citizen, of course). All the players are competing for the single remaining spot for U.S. citizenship through multiple victory paths. 

You can find our full updated rulebook here

Step 1: Playtester Demographics

# Date Name Age Gender Testing Environment Other comments
1 10/6/2025 Tiffany  22 F Played paper prototype on table  Gave feedback on quality of instructions and 
2 10/6/2025 Dan 22 M Played paper prototype on table  Gave feedback on limitations of actions
3 10/6/2025 Ryan 23 M Played paper prototype on table  Gave feedback on confusing rules and other usability improvement areas

Step 2: Player Observations

Our observations of our playtesters as they interact with our prototype. 

 

Player name Insights Pre-playtest Observations Post-playtest
Tiffany
  • Confusing instructions explanation
  • This game would be ideal with 4 players 
  • Too easy to get a job for some players who are lucky 
 International student who is going through immigration process “This is too real”

Had significant background knowledge on the topic because of this. 
  • Instructions were initially confusing to follow because explanation didn’t touch on card categories as much 
  • Felt that this game would have been more fun with 4 players so there’s more players to trade skills with
  • Felt it was too easy to get their first job since she got lucky and had all the skill cards necessary
  • Card categories are helpful. Not as intuitive in beginning -> categorize cards in your explanation
Dan
  • Felt stuck with not enough skills to get a job
  • Confused about how to get a H1-B visa 
 International student who is going through immigration process “I’m actually trying to get an O1 Visa right now…”

Had significant background knowledge on the topic because of this. 
  • Players with not enough skills to get their first job should have more ways to acquire skills other than just waiting for a “buy skill for $8K card”
  • Confused about getting an H1-B visa. Thought that if a player gets a job, they automatically switch their F-1 visa to H1-B visa.
  • Wish he didn’t have to wait a long time while he was “stuck” with insufficient skills -> that made the game less engaging
Ryan
  • Unsure of skill card intentions—do players hide or show them to other players?
  • Thought initial $5K given to each player is useless
 Domestic student who hasn’t really had to think about the immigration process before

Parents were immigrants who went through the process though so had some background knowledge 
  • Confused about whether players were meant to hide or show skill cards in their hand to other players
  • Felt that the $5K given to each player was useless because you couldn’t do much with it 
  • Got the hang of it (using skill cards) as the game progressed
  • Overall thought the money management system could have been built better so money is more useful 

Step 3: Identify Issues

From your observations, identify and document the issues, problems, and challenges that playtesters encountered while interacting with your prototype. 

 

Description of issue Severity Type of issue Suggested change
Would be nice to have space for player’s skills Low Usability Create space for skills cards on players’ placemats 
Difficult to distinguish cards because they were all white and just included “W” for “Work” and “E” for “Education” Low Usability Rename “W” to “Work” cards and “E” to “Education” cards. Consider color coding the back of cards.
The team kept forgetting to move the needle on Season and updating Year and found it annoying to do so. Medium Usability Assign a designated player to keep track of the Season and Year
No special skill cards (e.g. sabotage, trade, take, lose a card) came up in the skills deck High Mechanic Add more special skill cards in skills deck
Player with not enough skill cards for any of the jobs in the market couldn’t do anything and had to wait High Mechanic Allow users to acquire skills in some other way 
Once a players cashes in skill cards for a job, there’s few ways to acquire skills again  High Mechanic Add skill cards in Work cards deck
No reminder to check all players’ F-1 visa status in Year 6. Medium Mechanic When changing the Year tokens, have the Year 6 token be a special color or have some reminder to check F-1 Visa status
Hard to keep track of all the rules mentally  High Usability Have a board in the middle that shows the different paths to victory / requirements. Players thought the player mat was useful so a board in the middle would be as well. 

Step 4: Highlight Key Evidence

Player name Pull quotes Key Insight
Tiffany
  • “I really appreciated having clear categories for the different types of cards such as “Work,” “Education,” etc but I wish this was more apparent in the instructions explanation cuz these instructions weren’t as intuitive. I was confused at first but this later made sense to me.
  • Categories are useful for distinguishing different types of cards (should explain categories more in instructions) 
Dan
  • “I think the biggest problem was that there was nothing for me to do for the first few career rounds because I didn’t have enough skills to apply to any of the jobs” 
  • Need to add mechanism to allow players to acquire skills during the Career phase
Ryan
  • “Overall I thought this was an interesting game but it’s a little confusing having to think about so many rules at once and what moves you can make at different seasons. Maybe I’ll get better after I play more though”
  • Show paths to victory in middle of the board to make rules more clear 
  • Write rules in Seasons (e.g. “Fall: New job opens up, Winter: Promotions open up…”)

 

Step 5: Changes to be made

Before After Status
No space for skill cards in placemat Create space for skills cards on players’ placemats  Need to change
“W” and “E” white cards Color-coded card categories with full name “Work” and “Education” In progress
No one is responsible for updating Season and Year Assign a designated player to keep track of the Season and Year Done
No board in the middle led to confusion Updated board in the middle with paths to victory / requirements  shown (ie. H-1B to O-1 to EB-1 to victory).  Need to change
Lack of special skill cards means little to no random events (e.g. sabotages, trading etc), leading to potentially poor engagement  Add more special skill cards in skills deck In progress
Players can get stuck if they don’t have enough skills during the Career Phase Allow players to acquire skills by using cash or by drawing from the Work deck (add skill cards to work deck) Need to change
Players forget to check F-1 Visa status in Year 6 When changing the Year tokens, have the Year 6 token be a special color or have some reminder to check F-1 Visa status In progress
Too easy for some players to collect all types of skills -> easily get a job Change up the ratio of different skills in the deck (e.g. “Technical” is rarer so there’s fewer Technical skills overall)  Done

 

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