Group project reflection - the joys and trials of playtesting

My favorite aspect of the game design project was the process of playtesting the game prototype in different stages of the design process. From bodystorming the experience of sound-based interaction to testing the difficulty of our game in its later form, I enjoyed the process of reflecting and receiving feedback on a variety of aspects of our game. 

In the beginning of the project, when we were still very unsure of where the concept was heading, it was exciting just to think about all the possibilities. Trying out the experience of blind navigation through sound stimuli was highly inspiring, and it was augmented by our benchmarking exploration of other existing sound-based games. When we were self-testing, it was interesting to see how my own expectations were either confirmed or denied by the experience of actually trying it out myself. It is one thing to come up with an idea for a mechanic that sounds cool, but knowing if it will actually work and be cool in reality is a whole different thing. Self-testing during the concept development phase is extremely important, and although I think we spent a little too long lingering on this phase and not leaving enough time for better implementation, I'm glad we had the chance to explore what we really wanted to do with this game. It would have been worse if we had committed to a concept and mechanics that we didn't really like and got stuck with it for the rest of the project.

Playtesting on others was also a highly informative learning experience. The most difficult part for me in playtesting (and with user testing in interaction design in general) is leaving the tester alone to explore the prototype, to not interrupt and help them too much. When we were playtesting our mid-fi prototype this was particularly important. We wanted to see if our game "made sense" as it was, but I felt like I had to explain certain aspects of the game anyway. But because I kept myself from explaining to the tester what the game was about and how to play it, we got more meaningful feedback as we watched the testers figure it out on their own. Certain aspects that were unclear became obvious, and we could then move on in development to improve the game experience.

I think the most beneficial part of this course has been the in depth iterative design process with the strong emphasis on testing and reflection. This was a good opportunity to hone my user testing techniques and learn why and how it is important. Although I don't see myself going on to design games (but perhaps play some more games than I used to), I did get a lot out of the process of designing a game from start to finish.