TAJA EMMANUS
Learn about Playtesters
I wanted to get honest opinions form playtesters throughout the process. From the moment that there was a player character and an environmnet, I brought on players with great incites.
"I found the dumpster to the left of the hospital, but I couldn’t interact with it ."
"Maybe a cooldown on prompt time?"
"Odd interactions with the toilet in the first bathroom."
"There was no indication of what button to press when on the first screen to progress."
"The stairs are confusing; I thought it was like a gift shop/cafe area. If you throw in an EXIT sign it would be clearer that there is a path there."
"Can't find buttons for pause menu or journal."
Age: 23
College student with plenty of gaming experience. Loves seeing how the medium can evolve and change.
Persona 01
Age: 20
Fast food worker who enjoys gaming casually, mostly story driven RPG's. Interested in writing and seeing how that translates to a more interactive experience.
Persona 02
Age: 16
High school student who plays games to relax, considers themself 'gamer.' Interested to see how their experience as a player changes how the game is made.
Persona 03
Creating Player Journey
Drawing up concepts, I wanted to put an emphasis on exploration without making the maps overly elaborate. With that, I was able to create a simple environment that requires exploration for items to be found and notes to put together the story.
Iterating on design
I went through several evolutions of the game. Reworking the items menu to serve more of a description and item indicator rather than allowing the player to use items whereever they wish.
BUGS
Player character would move through and past a trigger and the trigger activating twice
Player character being stuck on a section of the bridge
Music restarting between scenes despite fact that they were the same track and was functionally no reason for the track to restart between scenes with the shared song
STATIC BACKGROUNDS
Scenes were easy to read and navigate through but were 'static.' Meaning while it was easy to understand the environment that didn't mean it held the player's attention well throughout the experience.
To combat this, I decided where appropriate, to add animated sprites of grass and water to make some of the more open areas more palatable.
Distractions
A few things that disrupted the player experience while playtesting included;
Looped music through every area that eventually blends into the background made it frustrating to some players, while complete silence tended to bore them. In response, I found free to use game boy music[1] that I implemented between different areas.
In addition, I added a character with minimal interaction that seemed to frustrate players as they couldn't recruit them in any way. To combat this, I added extra elements of interaction includeing; trying to get them to move, giving them a flower, and having their internal voice on the radio.
DISSECTING ENGINE
One of my biggest challenges was learning the engine I was planning to make the game on in a way that I understood most (if not all) necessary moving parts. To achieve this I took a sample project that the program automatically comes with, broke down each variable and code block, and did minor variations to understand each element function and form.
DECLUTTERING UI
Decluttering UI took into consideration many aspects of what people would need menus for, understanding how they would interact with them, and how to create functional menus. I wanted to keep designs simple and clean.
PROMOTING EXPLORATION
Maps consist of sizeable yet constricted areas. Paths players can take are clearly shown while allowing them (some) freedom of movement.
Takeaways
I learned a lot from Longwalk; understanding the logic of basic mechanics, creating readable lo-fi assets, and knowing when to change course when something isn't working how I expected.
Conclusion
Game design is a long process that requires the patience for yourself, the game, and the process itself. I want to try and make more games like this and experiment with other mediums of game design as well.