Week 8: Second Playtest

Monday lecture with Dan Emmerson:

Prepare for the second playtest

Before playtest

Before Thursday, I completed the core game loop required for the vertical slice, ensuring that the main progression flow of exploration, interaction, and feedback was functional. At that stage, we were waiting to merge the peacock mini-game, which was being refined by our Technical Designer, Ollie.

On Thursday morning, Ollie and I worked together to troubleshoot and adjust the integration of the mini-game. During this process, we also sought support from Ross to help identify and resolve technical issues affecting the merge. Through collaborative debugging, we were able to resolve the key problems shortly before the scheduled playtest.

Although the mini-game was successfully debugged in time, it was unfortunately not fully prepared early enough to be included as part of the formal testing session. However, this process highlighted the importance of early integration testing and close collaboration between design and technical roles, ensuring smoother implementation in future iterations.

During Playtest

During the playtest, we continued using the same strategy as in the first testing session: rotating roles within the team and ensuring efficient feedback collection and technical support. At least two team members stayed with the project at all times — one was responsible for observing and documenting player behaviour and feedback, while the other provided technical assistance if any issues occurred during gameplay. The remaining team members had the opportunity to visit other groups and playtest their games, allowing us to gain broader insights into different design approaches and interaction patterns.

The feedback we gathered from this playtest: