This week we learned some things about game testing, which is very timely since the test is next Thursday.
Explanations like this really helped us determine what we needed to do in game testing. We needed to use it to identify any technical issues and ensure that players understood our design, knew what they needed to do, and understood how the game was played.
Furthermore, this test allows us to clearly identify which parts of the GDDs we received are popular with players, which parts players would like to experience more of, and which parts players are less interested in. This will help us adjust our future design direction.
To be honest, I felt a lot of pressure when I first saw this because we don’t have a complete system or art assets yet. But then, when they talked about the greybox, I understood. We don’t need to create a fully-featured game in the first test. Instead, we need to create a simple greybox to test the features we need and to gauge player preferences. We can add the art assets later.
The process looks just like the example the lecturer gave.
My work
I received the hand-drawn main menu interface from Adi, and then used it as a basis to create our main menu, including exit and start functions. I’m not sure if we’ll use the continue game and settings functions later, but I’ve kept those channels open for future additions. Deleting them if needed is also easy. However, because I received the image on Friday night, I haven’t had much time this week to complete more work.
I realize this is a problem. If we keep delaying the submission of art assets, we basically won’t have time to test or modify them ourselves. If bugs appear, we won’t have a chance to fix them. I plan to discuss this issue at next week’s meeting.