Testing/Prototyping Course Part 5 Principles

Posted on by PJ Parent

First go check out part four or start at part one

There was a lot of material in the course and I won’t go over all of it but I will end with a few of the prototyping principles we talked about:

1.       Embrace the beginners mind – make sure people who have never seen the game (or any game) can pick it up and use it quickly

2.       Don’t fall in love with your first ideas – be willing to change everything and anything

3.       Expose your work early – seek criticism and improve based on comments (repeat)

4.       Learn faster by failing early and often (and cheaply)

Are you playtesting something right now?

Do you have a printable/downloadable version of your game?

As always – let me know

PJ

Testing/Prototyping Course Part 4 Feedback

Posted on by PJ Parent

First go check out part three or start at part one

The fun part of the course for me was delivering the prototype and getting feedback.  Giving and receiving criticism are difficult to do.  For me though the material of the course was easy as I wasn’t invested in in like I might be if this is my game design.  The two feedback mechanisms that were discussed:

Ritual Dissent –                  you present your prototype in a few minutes (5 in our case) and then you turn your back to the group as they work with it and only give negative feedback.  You write notes like crazy but don’t turn around or interact with the reviewers. (and yes I think this is a card title in several Cthulhu games)

Unknown Name –            this method was the opposite – you present your prototype and they give only positive feedback as you all interact with it and ask questions.  This was easier in that you can interact with the people directly.  (and yes I know I had one job of getting the name ….and I failed – we’ll use Ritual Consent…… or maybe not!)

Both of these could be helpful for developers and testing.  The important takeaway for me was that most people don’t want to give negative feedback to your face. Having some way they can give negative feedback anonymously or without seeing the impact of each negative comment might allow for more negative comments – which might make for a better game.  The other part was that the feedback is organised.  It’s done in all positive and all negative groups and not just a huge dump of both.  This might help provide some of both – so you don’t walk away thinking it’s all bad (or all good).

The Bamboozle Brothers have written a great article about feedback –

 https://inspirationtopublication.wordpress.com/2010/09/11/step-12-honest-feedback-honestly/

Has anyone done a form for feedback?

Let me know
Comment on this and then go read Part 5

PJ

Testing/Prototyping Course Part 3 Levels of Prototypes

Posted on by PJ Parent

First go check out part two or start at part one

They covered levels of prototypes specific to industry design – think solutions to problems, but for game design I think the first two are what designers use with themselves or their design team.  The third level is what we would view as a prototype and the fourth is more what I think about when you are looking to provide a demo to a company when you want to sell your game to them.

We’re going to post some of our early creations when we start the design process.  Do others do this?  Do people worry about others stealing their ideas?  Or borrowing the best parts of them?

Let me know
Comment on this and then go read Part 4

PJ

Testing/Prototyping Course Part 2 Test Cards

Posted on by PJ Parent

First start at part one

We talked about test cards – cards that spell out what you are testing and how it will show as a success or not –

We believe that….

To verify that we will do ……

We will measure……

We are right if ……..

These could be useful in the game deign – for example –

We believe that this game does a really good job of letting players experience the buildup (hoarding) of cash in banking and real estate

To verify that we will keep track of the amount of cash they collect and keep at the end of the game

We will measure how much cash they spend vs. how much they keep

We are right if they have saved up the most (and brag about it).

This idea can help clarify if the game is doing what you want it to do or what you think it does.

 

As a designer, do you check to see what the game does?

Do you check to see how well it does that?

Comment on this and then go read part three

PJ

Testing/Prototyping Course Part 1 Early Description Not Matching the Final Product?

Posted on by PJ Parent

In my day job I get to go on training – when a course came up on testing and prototyping I signed up.  There was lots of great material.  I’ve broken it into different parts but the first:

Does the description of the early product (possibly in a blog post) create an expectation that’s met by your playtest prototype?  For games – you want to change the game as you develop it – because of that your initial description might no longer fit.  Do you go back and change your original description?  Do you leave it and risk the issue of someone buying the game based not on what it is but on how it was originally described?  Has this happened to anyone? (If so let us know in the comments below)  What do people think?  I’m tempted to leave the initial description but to add a note to it to say the game has changed/evolved and it’s now more like (whatever it’s now like …..)

What do you guys think – is it a nonissue?

Link to Part 2: here

PJ

Card and Board Game Prototyping – Quick and Cheap!

Posted on by PJ Parent

“Prototypes are built so that designers can think about their solutions in a different way (tangible product rather than abstract ideas), as well as to fail quickly and cheaply, so that less time and money is invested in an idea that turns out to be a bad one.” (https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/stage-4-in-the-design-thinking-process-prototype )

Get it on the table quickly. Don’t take it from me – listen to any podcast on game design or go to any seminar at a convention and you’ll hear this over and over.  Test your idea quickly to see if it’s any good.

Here’s an article that that talks about it – get it on the table quickly: (http://www.popularmechanics.com/culture/gaming/a11376/stop-reading-this-and-go-build-your-own-board-game-17314604/ ) (and check out the game here – http://www.collapsecards.com/ )

To be able to do this without fear (and without real risk) it needs to be inexpensive – Cheap!

You are going to work on several prototypes – the goal is to evaluate an idea quickly and make sure it fits the game experience you want for your players.  If it’s a card game you will go through lots of iterations and lots of cards. Keep it simple to make sure you can do it quickly and cheap so you don’t go broke testing a bad idea.

Your first (and second and third) ideas might not be that good.  So you need to be able to toss them out (or save them for the next game) and keep the mechanics and ideas that work without breaking the bank.

For cards start with this video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0t6PBypahI from James Ernest of Cheapass Games.  I originally bought blank cards off amazon and I thought 500 would last me a few games – nope.  I went through 200 in the first prototype of Fight Card!  I used the blank cards and markers to create the initial idea of the cards just writing down the effect I wanted the card to have.  The picture here is the prototype of Fight Card! – glass beads (from the dollar store) for counting life and markers to create new or rapidly edit cards as we go.

If you need physical components then a 3d printer is a great option to look into – if you don’t have access to one try these guys – https://www.3dsystems.com/ or look to your local library to see if they have one.  If you have one and like it – mention it in the comments below and if you’ve used an online print service do the same so people know what’s out there and what’s good.

Make changes and get it back on the table …quickly.  Rapid is the idea – each time you take out the crap or add in the greatness play it again but do it as quickly as possible.  When we were (and still are) developing Fight Card! we had limited time to play-test so we ended up taking longer than we wanted to get it released.

Once you find yourself playing it through and not changing it then you might be close to a product – on to the next steps!

This is the first step in getting to the end product; but not the only one – the message we heard repeatedly at Gencon – release the thing! Get it published.

Tell us what you’re working on – this is the great spot to do so ….. no one’s looking here anyway – go for it – let us know and tell us how you’re prototyping it and what you are using to do this quickly and cheaply!

PJ