My game, tentatively titled Undying Love, is a narrative-driven IF game where players take on the role of Vincent, a middle-aged man on the verge of a divorce, who finds himself trapped in a time loop inside the world of Romeo and Juliet. To break the cycle and return home, he has to guide Romeo and Juliet toward a healthy version of love, learning, in turn, how to mend his own broken relationship. The player’s choices subtly affect both Romeo and Juliet’s relationship as well as his own, with each loop revealing new insights into how to fix everything.
Playtest Overview (10/19)
After my first playtest, the main feedback I got was that the paper prototype made it too obvious that choices didn’t really matter. They also said that the options felt predictable and didn’t feel like they made a significant impact on the story.
For this round, I wanted to test whether the revised branching choices felt more meaningful and distinct. Instead of a full narrative playthrough, I used a simplified version of the story focused solely on decision points and their consequences, using my visual choice map to help the player navigate.
The player was a college-aged woman with no experience in interactive fiction games but an interest in board games and some role-playing games. She mentioned that she enjoys social deception games but typically doesn’t gravitate toward narrative-heavy experiences like D&D. She didn’t see the first version or know anything about the game, as I wanted to test if the story of Romeo and Juliet needs extra context. The entire playtest took about ten minutes since I cut most of the story text, allowing her to focus on the decision branching. She played through twice, ending with both Romeo and Juliet dying the first time, and only Juliet dying the second, so the branching story did make an impact on her result.
What Worked
The player was drawn to the flashback sequences between Vincent and his wife, saying they helped her connect emotionally and understand why Vincent was probably in this world and what was at stake. She also liked the love meter mechanic (just simple text for now) and said it was satisfying to see when her choices contributed to either a healthy or toxic relationship. I was glad to hear that the small dialogue shifts made her stop to think without feeling like she needed to choose an “obvious” answer. She also mentioned that the introduction felt like a good setup, and that Vincent didn’t need to be overly confused when waking up in Verona because the idea of some kind of karma behind it was strong enough that it didn’t require a lot of explanation.
What Needs Work
One thing I noticed is that the player could often predict the result of each branch. Because we were playtesting without a time limit, she had plenty of time to reason out which path would lead where, which made the decisions feel a little too safe. She also wanted more context about supporting characters like Friar Lawrence and Mercutio, since she only had a general sense of Romeo and Juliet and the missing story scenes made those interactions feel thin and a bit confusing. Looking back, I think cutting so much intermediary text made the game’s pacing too quick, leaving out some of the emotional buildup and immersion that makes the player’s choices more meaningful
Future Changes
Based on this playtest, I plan to reintroduce the narrative parts between major decisions to give players more context and tension. I’ll also likely expand the character introductions so that players unfamiliar with Shakespeare can still follow the dynamics. Given that the players I’ve talked to so far felt like they understood Vincent’s predicament well, I’ll keep Vincent’s introduction. Finally, I’m considering adding a small “love meter” that shows how each decision contributes to different relationship outcomes across loops. In this playtest I only had text after each decision to say what that choice leads to, but I think it would be more immersive to see your choices contributing to growing their love. I also want to add timed choices to keep players from overthinking and to make the moments feel more instinctive. Overall, I think this playtest helped me see where the character building and player awareness could be supported while still keeping the mystery consequences intact.
