Here are some observations and thoughts with my in-class playtest for my Titanic based narrative game. The main focus of this first playtest was the timing of key events. In this realm, the playtest was a success. The player experienced the initial uncertainty about the situation, then the initial calm of the evacuation, then the quickening turn into a panic as events progressed, and then the final silence at the end.
However, there were not as many meaningful actions that the player could make as I would like. While the player could travel to as many parts of the ship as they would like, there was very little reason to do so. In this playtest, the player simply rested in their cabin on C-Deck until being woken up by a steward, proceeded up the aft staircase to Boat Deck, and then waited until a lifeboat was available. I also worry about how engaging the game would be in its present state if extended out in time to be more than 15 minutes.
Thankfully, I think a lot of this can be fixed by what I already plan on adding next with is actual recurrent interactable people with dialogue and conversations. Perhaps, if you meet someone friendly you might desire to follow them around, or if you see someone needing help, or other potential types of people. This will I think also give players more connection to the story, rather than just feeling like it is just themself, and thus more potential stakes.
