The Art of The Play Test

Disclaimer:

Most of the projects that I will be doing are for a game that I am developing on my own code named Project Ninjio. In short, the game is a story action driven role playing game (common referred to as an action RPG). It features 2 uniquely styled areas, one in which the cities are built to flow along with nature, and the other where the cites are hyper futuristic. The game is set in a futuristic China, where after a large war, the country is split into the two settings described above. The game is built in the Unity 3D game engine.

The Art of The Play Test

What is play test?

So I have recently given a few of my friends the opportunity to playtest Ninjio and another project that I have been working on. A playtest is a good opportunity to allow outsiders, in my case anyone but me, to play the game while it is under development. The playtest allows solo creators like me to gain valuable feedback on the game and allow for some excellent suggestions for changes and features. Although I would like to list all of the changes and suggestions that I got from my friends during their playtests of both things, I feel that listing all of them would not make sense to anyone who hasn't played Ninjio or my other project before. However, I am more than willing to list the things that I have learned about how to properly carry out a good and productive playtest.

What makes a productive playtest

A good look at how a developer can use playtests
to get feedback from gamers

Ill be honest, most of my playtesting sessions are very casual in nature. Most of the time I will ask my friends, or anyone who I think would like to play the game, if they would want to playtest the latest build of my game. I think that this very casual nature of my play test results in some very good and truthful suggestions and reactions to the game, although I always come in with some sort of questions to ask for people.

I remember one time when I was watching someone play through Ninjio's boss fight and realizing that the person did not switch weapons that they used, using the low damage output shuriken attacks instead of going back and forth between the melee and shuriken attacks as the situation called for it. I asked them if they even knew that they could do that, and the did not know that you could. I then asked them how I could encourage the use of all the attacks and the person suggested that I make the default weapon that the game start you on to be the high damage, but high cooldown, melee attack. I made this change and then asked another person, who hasn't played the game till then to play it. To my suprise, they ended up pressing as many buttons as they could (even ones that closed out of the game!) to see if there was another weapon they could use.

It is the simple process of seeing an issue, asking questions, and listening that makes playtests so vital for all game developers.

This week's work log:

Monday March 12th: Finished texturing all objects in the Long Hallway scene

Tuesday March 13th: Redid the character portraits and added Bing Nu and Ji Xie to the dialogue character system.

Wednesday March 14th: Made a fountain for the new section of game codenamed the Fountain Scene.

Thursday March 15th: Continued working on the fountain for the Fountain Scene.

Friday March 16th: Started texturing the fountain for the Fountain Scene.

----- ----. ----. ----. ----- ----. ----- -----     ----- ----- ----. ----- ----. ----. ----. -----     ----. ----- ----- ----. ----- ----. ----. -----     ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----. ----- -----     ----- ----- ----. ----. ----- ----. ----. -----     ----- ----- ----. ----. ----- ----. ----. -----     ----. ----- ----- ----. ----- ----. ----. -----     ----- ----. ----. ----- ----- ----- ----. -----     ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----. ----- -----     ----. ----. ----. ----. ----. ----. ----- -----     ----- ----- ----. ----- ----- ----. ----. -----     ----. ----- ----- ----. ----- ----. ----. -----     ----. ----. ----. ----. ----- ----. ----. -----     ----- ----. ----. ----- ----. ----- ----. -----     ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----. ----- -----     ----. ----- ----. ----- ----- ----. ----. -----     ----- ----- ----- ----. ----- ----. ----. -----     ----- ----- ----. ----- ----. ----. ----. -----     ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----. ----- -----     ----- ----- ----. ----. ----- ----. ----. -----     ----. ----- ----. ----- ----- ----. ----. -----     ----. ----- ----. ----- ----- ----. ----. -----     ----- ----. ----. ----- ----- ----. ----. -----     ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----. ----- -----     ----. ----- ----. ----- ----. ----. ----. -----     ----. ----. ----. ----. ----- ----. ----. -----     ----. ----- ----- ----. ----. ----. ----. -----     ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----. ----- -----     ----. ----. ----. ----. ----- ----. ----. -----     ----- ----- ----. ----- ----- ----- ----. -----