Is it intuitive?
- Overall this is about the “learnability” of the game. Is there too much complexity? Can we do a good, concise job explaining it? Is strategy intuitive? These are important questions to answer because if our game is too complex, it will fail to sustain players who will likely get frustrated.
- We would build a role prototype. I think a good prototype to test this would be having first time players play two rounds and time whether the second round was completed quicker than the first (i.e. the rules have been learned and digested so strategy/mechanisms become more intuitive). We could then ask participants (after completing both rounds) about their experience learning the game and how the second round differed from the first.
- I imagine the prototype experience will reveal many points of confusion. Since our game is likely to be a narrative game, I imagine there are parts of the narrative that will make sense in our heads as game creators but that might not quite come across successfully to new players. I hope this prototype will reveal pain points.
Is it fun?
- Games, simply put, must be fun in order to sustain themselves. So, it is vital for the survival and success of our game that it be fun.
- We would build a look and feel prototype for this as this gets at the aesthetic spirit of the game. We would need the game to be as flushed out in detail as possible to provide enough info to players on whether the game is fun or not.
- It might not be that fun at first, especially if there are pain points with regards to confusion about rules. But the point of this prototype is to discover what isn’t working and why, so I assume with more iterations, the game will become more fun.
How do users interact with each other in the game?
- Because we plan on building a social game, it is important to understand what social dynamics come out of our game. This information could then be used to market to the appropriate audience.
- This would likely require an implementation prototype where all the mechanisms of the game are laid out and available. With this, we will be able to uncover the social dynamics at play.
- I assume we will be successful in understanding social dynamics since our game requires interaction/talking.
