In week five, we did a playtest. Because we hadn’t finalized the mechanics, we had many arguments about what those mechanics should be, and no one could convince anyone else. This prevented us from implementing the mechanics in Unity. Our tutor suggested that paper-based testing was a very good method, so Maria and I collaborated to create a paper version of the game mechanics. One was an idea Oliver had originally written in his GDD, and the other was our newly added graphic and color mechanics.
My responsibility was to record players’ feedback. After recording, I found that more people found the word game more challenging, but a large number of people were confused after playing, not quite understanding which answers were correct. Other feedback suggested that the graphic and color puzzles were a bit too simple, but the mechanics were clearly expressed, which was an advantage. Misty gave me a very good suggestion after playing the game, which was very helpful in setting up NPC affinity. She said that in one of her previous games, each word was tied to a score, and selecting a word added points, which was easier in terms of game coding than rigidly specifying the correct answer. The idea that there isn’t a single, fixed correct answer is also very helpful. During testing of the mechanics, we found that players express themselves differently, meaning that the so-called correct answer wouldn’t convince everyone.
My personal approach involved setting up the protagonist’s (the character the player identifies with in the game) basic character profile, his backstory, and his responsibility to allow players to experience the difficulties of communication for people with ASD. Therefore, I particularly emphasized his desire to make friends (having just transferred to a new school), because people with ASD generally don’t crave proactive communication.
