During our in-class playtest, I noticed a few things about my interactive fiction (IF) prototype!
First, the medium I’m using to present this story seemed to work well! Both playtesters found it interesting, and I think it’s something worth continuing to explore. While parts of the story were a little confusing, they were still able to grasp the general narrative. The playtester mentioned that he wished some of the doodle animations were faster, which is something I’ll look into adjusting as I polish the VM (virtual machine) more!
I came away from these playtests with two major takeaways:
Removing Player Self-Insertion
Originally, I designed the experience so that players would insert themselves into the story. However, during both playtests, I noticed that people had difficulty imagining themselves in the scenario.
Afterward, I talked to a friend who brought up an interesting experience they had while playing Emily Is Away. They described feeling an emotional conflict because the character they were playing was sometimes kind of a jerk, yet their own name was attached to that character’s actions.
I want to avoid creating that same conflict in my game. Instead of asking players to imagine themselves in this situation, I want them to step into the shoes of an established character. I think this changes how players approach the story. Rather than thinking, “What would I do in this situation?” they’re encouraged to think about who this character is, what they’re going through, and why they might make certain decisions.
Players Treating the Login as a Puzzle
This also made me reconsider how the username and password work in my game.
Previously, players could enter their own name as the username and choose whatever password they wanted, since they were supposed to be the person who owned the account.
However, both playtesters immediately treated the login screen as a puzzle! They started searching through notes, files, and other parts of the interface, trying to figure out the correct username and password. This wasn’t originally an intended dynamic, but I actually found it pretty interesting.
I ended up playing into this behavior by having players discover the character’s name through notes and use the “Forgot Password” feature to answer security questions about Leon, the person they’re playing as.
I think this unexpected behavior opens up an interesting opportunity to use the login process as a way for players to learn more about Leon, rather than simply treating it as a way to access the story.
Moving Forward
The story itself is still something I want to explore further. So far, people seem to resonate with the idea of losing a close friend because they move away. They’re especially curious about how I’ll explore the gradual drifting apart that can happen afterward.
I want to continue exploring how this friendship changes over time, how distance affects the relationship, and how the player might experience those changes through the mechanics of the game.
