Criticism / Feedback

Comparison with Previous Playtests

The group size for this playtest, along with the responses, are incredibly limited as compared with the previous two playtests. This comes down primarily to a lack of desire for others in the class to test games, as production is over and no changes will be made going forward. Instead, this playtest's goal was to get people's opinion of what would be the final product. Unfortunately, I was only able to gather a few participants for this and as a result I do not believe the results of this playtest are exactly indicative of the actual quality of the opinions that people will have of the game. Not to entirely discredit the responses. This post will still go through and analyse them to gleam some insights into people's opinions on the changes we've made to the game - as the three people who playtested this time around were also part of the group that did so before in alpha.

Quantitative Data

Overall enjoyment remains mostly unchanged from the last two playtests. On average, it's a decrease, but that is likely due to the small sample size rather than any actual change in game enjoyment. Concerningly however, clarity hasn't seen much change despite efforts to do so (e.g. implementing audio, VFX in important places, button prompts etc.). This could likely have to do with the fact we've moved the console you interact with in the overworld / introductory segment into a room off to the side of the station. While it is the only room you can enter, I erroneously decided not to spawn the player closer to the room. 

Difficulty remains around the same point that it has almost the entire project - a solid midpoint between being too easy or too hard. However, I did have comments of the game being "too easy" from two of the participants, but it's hard to gauge if they're being serious or not, as both of them are my friends. From more unbiased playtesting in alpha / beta, it's been shown that the game ranges from hard but enjoyable to neither hard nor too hard. 

Qualitative Data

Qualitative feedback has shown that players really enjoy the art and maps that have been implemented into the game. Almost all of the reviews mention how they enjoy the posters on the walls of the station and train - likely because they're all references to the games made by the other four synoptic teams. An issue brought up by all three is that there's a potential for the player to get hit before they fade to back at the end of a dodging segment. This is something I would go to fix immediately if it were alpha or beta, but there's quite literally zero time for it at this point. When we present our games in London, I do intend to spend some time bugfixing in the days leading up to the conference.

Feedback Review Chart

No document this time, I felt it was easier to just type out my reflection of this playtest directly onto my portfolio

Reflection

My biggest actionable takeaway I can get from this playtest is that I need to do some serious bugfixing prior to our conference in London this June. The quality of the game has remained consistent with feedback provided in alpha and beta, which I believe confirms my reflections from the previous two playtests that we have been on a good trajectory throughout synoptic, with most of our issues pertaining to new bugs that have just revealed themselves.

To improve feedback gathering for future projects I work on, I will aim to try and adapt my questions to better fit the sample size I am provided. For example, with smaller sample sizes it might be more proactive and beneficial to tailor more qualitative feedback where I can get players comments on segments of gameplay, rather than their general thoughts of the overall game through quantitative feedback. Additionally, there's little reason to include quantitative questions this late into production. We aren't really looking for general direction anymore, as we've reached our destination. Rather, we're seeking how to specifically improve parts of the gameplay as according to playtesting, which helps us to quickly fix major bugs or unintentional interactions between mechanics before shipping the game off to general audiences.

Overall, while I'm happy with where we will be leaving off the project, I think there are some bugs I need to fix before we show the game off to industry in London this June.