The Miraculous Journey Of Bowser
Step 0: Document your prototype
My interactive fiction prototype was still on paper for this playtest. I kept the story very similar, where Bowser (the Jellycat hippo) gets lost from Town and Country’s Paper Source and needs to find friends along the way and learn life lessons to find his way home. The main changes I made from my last playtest was that I made the story longer, added in more choices (3 choices instead of 2), and made the choices more ambiguous. Additionally, I made the decision to just have a happy ending (and added saving Ellie the Elephant), but have different ways of getting there. Finally, I added more depth to the characters and story!
Figure 1: Playtest prototype, featuring the real Bowser.
You can find the version I used to playtest with here.
Step 1: Playtester Demographics
| # | Date | Name | Age | Gender | Testing Environment | Other comments |
| 1 | 10/20/2025 | Ryan | 23 | M | Played paper prototype | Gave feedback on story / mechanics |
Step 2: Player Observations
| Player name | Insights | Pre-playtest | Observations | Post-playtest |
| Ryan | Was curious to explore more endings | He already knows all of my stuffed animals, so may be biased to like the story |
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Step 3: Identify Issues/Fixes
| Description of issue | Severity | Type of issue | Change To Be Made |
| Some of my scenes were mislabeled. | Low | Usability | I already fixed the labels |
| Some choices were still too obvious (e.g. most people will play with Cork) so “bad paths” will never get explored. | Medium | Content | At some key points, make all the decisions “bad” / have some sort of consequence |
| There could be more consequences for actions (ex. Bowser gets coffee spilled on him is a good one, but more stakes would be nice) | Medium | Content | Add in more consequences, maybe ones that affect his friends and Bowser needs to make hard choices |
| Some nice story points never get seen because the player didn’t pick a certain option | Medium | Content | Honestly this can’t be avoided, but I’ll try and make sure all the paths get equally nice writing / story beats |
| There were fewer choices in the later half of the story – felt like too much reading | High | Mechanic | I’ll add in more choices to the second half – need to find ways to change up the story more |
Step 4: Summary
Overall, I would consider this playtest to be successful in creating empathy. The player felt engaged and emotionally connected to the story, which I’m super happy about. I feel like I made the right choice to have one happy ending, because otherwise my story of hope and finding friendship doesn’t work. However, I do think I should still add more varied paths (easier vs more difficult paths) and more types of choices, which I will work towards before my next playtest.
