“The best way to learn games is to play games. The best way to make games is to work.” – Alan Emrich
Your Weekly Homework Game:
You finished that last week! Concentrate on your Graded Course Project Game this week.
Your Graded Course Project Game:
Completion, Part II: Blind Testing: Last week, you did some In-House (Alpha) Playtesting. That is, you taught the game to others (and you probably joined in too) and the game was playtested under your direct supervision. Again, your goal was to get the game into better shape – developing it to an improved (Beta) state suitable for Blind Testing next week.
So, this week in class you had a chance to have your game playtested by your classmates and, hopefully, they’ve given you useful feedback. More importantly, you should have made some useful observations watching them play. (What parts did they like? Where did the game slow down? Did they play anything wrong because they didn’t understand something? How was the pacing of play? Was the game’s overall length in time right? We’re they loud or quiet when they played – and was that a ‘good thing?’)
This week, you are to incorporate their feedback and your observations and iterate the game yet again, this time developing it to a more polished (Beta) version. This should be a version that you could hand to anyone and have them learn, play, and enjoy it – cold – with no outside help or guidance from you at all.
So bring the ready-for-final testing Beta version of your game to class next week. We’re having a second (and final) playtesting jam session in class where you hand you game to a group of playtesters but you can’t be there to help them. If they have any questions, they’ll have to use your game’s rules (only) to find the answers! If they have any comments to make about your game, they’ll need to make them in writing in the form of notes written on your game’s rules. In other words, written communication only will be allowed for this playtesting session. One question to test the quality of your documentation is: Did they have to reference the rules too much just to keep playing?
This is your last in-class chance to get player feedback on your game. Use it! Next week, bring the latest (Beta) iteration of your game to class and be ready to hand it off to others to lean and play on their own.
Exam #3 is next week:
Next week there will be the third course exam (worth 35 points) on the terms, concepts, and principles from the material presented in Lessons 7, 8, and 9. Be sure to study the Lesson Review Sheets handed out in class and make sure you've read all the Required Reading material found in each week's assignment links.
