DECO2300 Interactive prototype #1 reflection

This week I conducted my workshop demonstration for my game, Minestructor. My testing sessions involved gathering a pair of students and having them play against one another in a few rounds of Minestructor. I sat myself beside the students in question whilst the testing session was in progress and enforced certain rules that had not been encoded into the prototype. After each testing session I found there to be consistency among the feedback that I received.

Every pair of testers began their testing sessions, relatively unsure of the rules and the way they were meant to play. Many testers had to be reminded that it was 'their turn' throughout the testing session. Multiple users suggested enforcing turn restraints and or declaring with more clarity and audacity as to who's turn it is at any time. This wasn't exactly one of my feedback questions, but was nonetheless valuable feedback, users consistently agreed that setting out 3 turns per player was absolutely more desirable than enforcing 1 turn per player.

Users consistently declared that the mine count was appropriate, whilst many ended up activating a mine before reaching the finish line, they done so knowing full well their moves were a blind risk. Because so many players ended up taking many risks in order to race to the finish, it was no surprise that many players preferred to play with three lives as opposed to only one. The use of obstructers reinforced this response, as some users forced their opponents to traverse narrow strips of the field through exploiting the extreme size of the obstructers.

It was on the topic of my obstructers that I received the lions share of my feedback. Many varying points of view were presented to myself. Suggestions were given to adjust the impossible advantage that obstructers could give that ranged from limited their size and quantity, to allowing players to use their own obstructers to destroy those of their opponents.

Out of the numerous suggestions and valuable feedback I received during this testing session, it is apparent that I need to re-work my implementation of obstructers.