The second iteration of the project was tested at the John Hansard Gallery exhibition on March 21st, introducing the game to an older audience demographic, meaning feedback from this group provided relevant insight into how effectively the game appeals to its intended users. To support structured feedback collection, an in-game feedback form that links to a Google sheet was implemented by me, improving both the accessibility and volume of user responses. In addition to this, targeted secondary playtesting was conducted by me after uploading the newest game build to Itch.io. I chose a handful of individuals within the intended demographic, who are familiar with narrative-driven games, to playtest the second build.
| Feedback from the Implemented Form (Both groups) |
|---|
| – For me personally, the character didn’t seem to load correctly, she was a… blob? I think you should GET RID OF THE asterisk and display it visually instead of text. I think in the first part of the stream, the comments should be on the live chat and not at the bottom of the screen. I loved it, the art style is so cool, and I like the mini game, can’t wait to see how this game progresses! |
| – I LIKE THE ART STYLE AND THE OVERALL DESIGN OF THE GAME; IN TERMS OF ASSETS AND COLOURS. I FOUND THE LACK OF PUNCTUATION IN THE VOICELINES JARRING. I think that at times the voicelines of chat and zarah speaking are a bit too much, could be worth shortening this as I feel a lot of the comments from chat are kind of just the same thing, either positive or negative. The START button for the moderation minigame could be outlined in white to make it more visible, although aesthetically it looks nice, its hard to know where to look in its current state. FIX TEXT FOR THIS SECTION TOO :3 |
| – The 2d webnovel charm created by the games opening sequence is nice but its kinda ruined when the view becomes 3d. The idea is good but its executed poorly and I think it could be improved by removing the capsule and the WASD movement. I’m not sure if this was on purpose or not but the wasd was relative to the character and not the player view which made for some really awkward controls. Instead of this approach, I think a really nice way to incorporate 3d into the game would be to position the camera somewhere in the room such as the bed and have the different objects in the room be interactable. the camera being placed in the room and the objects being interactable would make it much more immersive. i also think the anti-aliasing on the 3d models is a bit jarring and could be improved with some general unity lighting tweaking and generally if the room was lighter, it would give more life to the environment. the dialogue scenes are nice however they’re kinda under stimulating and it would be nice if there was some different facial expressions or idle animations from Zarah to make her feel more human. i love the way the live chat moves on the screen during the moderation mini game, it should work like that during all the dialogue from the chat, including the beginning and ending scenes. one small critique is that the chat doesnt auto scroll down as more messages appear as it would on a real streaming site and its something that would be a little annoying to some players. the section with the green screen and white text could definitely be improved such as implementing the live chat back or a simple looping animation of something would be better to keep players more engaged. some of the chat dialogue isnt really needed and makes the game feel a little bloated. “at the moment right now” and other small grammatical errors makes the game feel less polished and harms the experience especially as a web novel which mainly focuses on dialogue. apart from all that i love the idea of the game and it definitely has potential |
Feedback from this stage highlighted clear improvements in visual appeal, with players responding positively to the art style, colour palette, and overall aesthetic direction. The moderation minigame was also well received, indicating that the core gameplay concept remains engaging. However, several critical issues were identified, particularly in relation to user experience, clarity, and system cohesion. For example, players report confusion with the transition between 2D narrative elements and 3D exploration, suggesting that the shift in perspective disrupted immersion rather than enhancing it. This was further compounded by unintuitive movement controls, where input was relative to character orientation rather than camera perspective, leading to disorientation and frustration during navigation. This was supposed to be fixed, as this was identified during the first build playtest; however, due to unforeseen circumstances in team progression, I was unable to make this change for this second build within the short deadline we had. However, this added criticism further solidifies the importance of getting this adjusted for our third build. I will make this a high-priority task, aiming to fix this first in our continued development.
Additionally, feedback indicated that dialogue systems require refinement. More specifically, the actual narrative text. Players found that excessive or repetitive chat messages reduced engagement, while grammatical inconsistencies and lack of punctuation negatively impacted the perceived quality of the narrative. This is particularly significant given the game’s reliance on dialogue as a primary storytelling method. UI clarity was also highlighted as an issue, with elements such as the buttons within the first minigames tutorial screen lacking sufficient visual hierarchy, making interactions less intuitive. For example, the start button within the minigame was difficult to identify despite fitting aesthetically within the scene. As these are not my roles within the game development, but I still hold responsibility in communicating feedback to my teammates, I will pass this over to them to act as constructive criticism and aid them in improving their work for the betterment of our game production.
In response to this feedback, several design changes were identified for further iteration. These include refining or reconsidering the implementation of 3D exploration to better align with the game’s narrative style, improving control schemes to ensure they are camera-relative and intuitive, and reducing unnecessary dialogue to enhance pacing and clarity. Additionally, improvements to the UI design, such as increased contrast and clearer visual hierarchy, will be implemented to guide player interaction more effectively. Narrative polish will also be prioritised through consistent grammar, punctuation, and the introduction of character sprite expression to improve immersion and character choice to hold more impact.
This stage of development demonstrates a continued iterative approach, where user feedback directly informs our design decisions. By critically analysing both strengths and weaknesses, the project is able to evolve in a way that prioritises player experience, coherence, and engagement, aligning more closely with industry expectations for user-centred design.