Designing Games for Non-Gamers: Rapid Prototyping as a Design Methodology by Dennis Paiz-Ramirez, Sarah Chu, Allison Salmon, and Belinda Gutierrez
A short but good read. I photocopied it and handed it out to the GameOn team. Playtesting has such a nicer sound than usability testing. Below are some of the what I considered the best takeaways.
- Quick prototypes paired with frequent playtests allowed us to address any misconceptions we had about our target audience.
- Questions we asked during playtesting were: 1 – Can players determine the goal of the game? 2 – Does the game retain players’ interest? 3 – Do game scenarios make sense?
- Tutorials: we gave players information about the interface as it became necessary for gameplay.
- We learned that the tutorial should be explicit about what players can do in the game and should explain what happens when a player performs a game action. We also need to allow users to skip the tutorial and explore the game if they feel comfortable doing so.
- Keep [tutorial] content focused on the goal of the game.
- Highlight the game’s main goal first.
- Conduct frequent playtests.
Referenced
User Experience, Volume 10, Issue 4, 4th Quarter 2011 www.UsabilityProfessionals.org
p 11-13
