The Boaty way of playtesting
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As an artist it is very important to make players read the visuals meaning and how they make the player feel. It is very essential to get feedback from testers on the response the game gives to the player. By using survey and talking to the testers there was given a lot of great feedback. Orally gives more in depth of what the testers actually mean, if they for example do not have the feeling the game has a mysterious atmosphere to it and on the other hand by having a survey, not looking over the testers shoulders it gives them more time to think about their answers and honestly write down what they feel without hurting the game makers. There has been two playtesting so far, both for the Alpha and Beta. For the Alpha playtest we got 30 responses which is a lot compared to the 18 responses for Beta. The issue could be that the developers focused on staying at their games, because they all want to listen to the feedback instead of playtesting at other people’s games. That can make it hard to get good feedback when there is not enough of people playtesting, that is why it would have been better if there was invited people perhaps outside of Game Design, that way we would probably have had other results and more interesting feedback.
This blog focuses on art since I am the lead artist of team Ouroboros and for me getting feedback from the testers has helped a lot to polish and reconsider our assets for Gold. The common reactions from the testers where; more details to fit the overall look and make it coherent, make boaty look bigger so the different stages of damages will be more visible, which could also help with particle effect and making the UI cracked for when the boat gets damage. As an illustrator this has been very interesting for me to see the reaction from players when they play the game. It is a very different way of seeing art when people have to interact with it, compared to look at it and only by that feel something. In games you should always give the players visual feedback for when they break or gain things. A good advice for all new developers is to always take feedback with a grain of salt. Testers have their opinion and feeling how they look at games, but just because one or several tells you to change something does not mean you should. At the end, it is your product and your vision for how the game should look and feel. /Linda S. Khamphoukeo Lead Artist of Team Ouroboros  |
