For initial play testing I had five of my classmates play the game and answer some questions relating to their experience. Testers were first shown a short description of the game and controls:
“Kurranji (koo-ran-jee-ee) is a hungry cassowary looking for a feed. Interesting fact about cassowaries, their poo grows trees. Use the “arrows” to move Kurranji, “space” to jump and “v” to poo.”
The game was then started, and players were left without any other feedback. Once the play session was complete, I performed a short interview. The initial questions were:
What are your thoughts on the theme?
How did the controls feel?
What did you think of the Gameplay loop?
Do you have any additional comments?
After the first playtest, I also added an additional question to this list:
If anything, what did you learn about cassowaries?
For the last couple of playtests, I edited some of the questions and added another, making the final question list:
What are your thoughts on the theme?
What did you feel where the threats in the game and how did you react to these threats
How did the controls feel?
Can you briefly describe the Gameplay Loop to me?
Did you Learn anything about cassowaries
Do you have any additional comments?
(Note: Changes and additions from the original list have been highlighted)
The evolution of the interview questions was driven by a lack of helpful information generated from my initial test. I required more information which is why I added the two questions. The re-wording of the gameplay loop question led to more engaging and useful feedback.
Learning Outcomes from Initial Playtest
Theme – Most testers reported that they enjoyed the uniqueness of the theme though they also wanted to see a more realistic representation of features such as the trees. At this stage of development, feedback like this was to be expected as I had not put a great deal of time into the game world.
Threats – The only threat in the game at the time of testing was that of falling off of the level. This was reported by the testers and the majority even suggested adding more threats.
Controls – It was reported across the board that the controls were simple and intuitive. One tester suggested a tutorial level to help explain the poo / tree growing mechanic.
Gameplay Loop – Most players understood the gameplay loop and reported it as expected. Some players recommended adding more ways for the player to engage. For example, adding a score counter or some enemies.
Learning about cassowaries – There was a mixed response from testers with this question. Some players did not trust the fact that cassowary poo grows trees and simply thought it was a fun idea for a platformer mechanic. To change this, I could reference real research and also incorporate the learning aspects into the level more. This could be achieved with text pop ups when certain events are taking place. One tester suggested adding more cassowary facts when the player either finishes the level or dies and has to restart.
General Comments – Most of the additional comments were positive though most testers asked to see a more detailed game environment. For example, changing the place holder tree to a real tree model and displaying a short animation of it growing.
Bugs – Playtesting highlighted one major flaw in the current build of the game. The way it was scripted, whenever “v” (the button to grow a tree) was pressed a tree would appear in the position of the player. This meant that if the player held in the button, then trees would continuously spawn. This created an unpleasant overlap of platforms and the massive number of platforms also led to framerate drops.
