Articles:Further Thoughts from Steve Swink on Game Usability
From unthinkMedia
Contents |
Types of Testing
Experiential Testing
Experiential testing where the game is " playtested" to compare the actual live experience a participant has with the game with the designs intent.
These results are likely to be a humbling experience for the designers, since they will get an unfiltered dose of how the game actually works.
Defect Testing
Defect testing is where quality assurance takes place. Through the QA process, bugs are identified that prevent the software from working as intended.
Usability Testing
Usability testing is involve "debugging experience". Will Wright said, "designing video games is half computer programming, and half people programming"
Testing Tips
- Test smarter, that does not necessarily mean more
- there are no guaranties about how a player will interact with your game, the only guaranties are the "sign post" that you place in the game.
- we can modify rules and constraints to help guide the intended behavior.
- if you feel you are losing objectivity it is a good time for playtesting.
- challenges are multiplied the longer they are ignored and more people join the team.
- identify if challenges are due the intended design, or due to some other reason that needs to be investigated.
- make sure that game's challenges are not obfuscated by confusing interfaces.
Clues of experience
- Physical
- Facial
Usability Experience
Known as "got it/don't got it" behavior. A player will either figure out the mechanics or not.
In order to test for a behavior w/o invalidating your results have the user complete a task that involves the behavior you would like to test. For example if you need to test a "Boost Button", have the user do a task that requires the use of a Boost button to complete.
The author suggest that with proper planning we could test for experience in one swoop.
To get descriptive accounts of experience, break the game down into moments.
Test Plan to test both Usability and Game design
Usability
- What are the "got it/don't got it" behaviors?
- What must the player 1st understand?
Experience
- What are the important moments of the games and their desired experience?
- What should they be thinking/feeling each moment?
- How will we know we achieved the specific behavior?
Challenge
- What are the intended challenges of the game?
- Is there a clear distinction between Usability and Game design issues?
Outcomes
Be sure to look at issues at a high-level and brainstorm many possible solutions instead of settling on one.
Be transparent with your team, this way changes will make sense. "look this is what we are trying to do. I'm going to have you build this thing and test it out, but if it doesn't work we may have to try something else."
Interesting Quotes
"...no one will ever read text if they have the ability to skip it...The player must be able to engage with the core challenge without reading instructions"
Will Wright said, "designing video games is half computer programming, and half people programming"
"without a player, there is no game"
"a videogame is fundamentally a system whose output is participatory human experience"
