Hi, for my bachelor thesis I made this little game with the most creative name “Sword&Shield” :p, to test different types of tutorials and their effect on motivation and immersion.
Now I need as much testers as possible. So if you have some time (20-60 min), I would like to ask you to play the game and answer the survey.
What do I doooooo!?
lol This looks great, just tried it out but can’t figure out how to get the sword…
got the shield! But while trying to get the sword, fending off that goblin suicide bomber is tough…
It is part of the concept. The game has to tell you, what you have to do and how.
But there is one version where you have to figure out by yourself. Please answer the survey, after playing one version (you don’t have to play through the game).
After that, you can download another version of the game just by clicking the download button on the website. Each time you start a new download you will get another version of the game.
For me, it is interesting if a game, where you have to learn everything by yourself, is more motivating and immersive, than a game where you get taught everything. Otherwise it can be just frustrating, if the player can’t figure out what do to or how. I need to test different types. That’s the reason why there are four different versions of the same game with different types of ‘tutorials’.
Hmmm… interesting concept. Kind of goes against all normal gaming traditions.
I too like when a game doesn’t hold your hand, and allows the player to figure out what needs to be done.
The problem with having to download multiple versions of the game is… nobody wants to do that lol
It took me quite awhile to get the first version of the game, this second version looks like it’s only going to be about 15 minutes (I have a 50Mbps connection)
I’d rather have one version of the game where it is open to the player to figure things out and at least uses normal conventions. (example- Fire Melts Ice)
Also, that survey… whew, feel like I should be getting a coupon in the mail for completing it lol.
I’ll try these out and give some more feedback
EDIT
Ok so the next game I downloaded was A.
This time instead of giving up… I kept trying for the sword the way I was before…
Truth is, I don’t even know WHAT I did to make it actually work, but I kept doing the same thing over and over and over… and over… and OVER…
Then something happened and I got it to work. Almost felt like it was a glitch, instead of a reward though.
The Boss fight was, mediocre. I couldn’t remember any of the moves from Game D, so I just spun the analog stick all over until I found a few.
I’ll go do another survey and put some info in there, so I don’t spoil anything here.
Thanks for your feedback. First I have to say that every tester hast to play just one version of the game. Every version is equal in level, tasks, mechanics. Only the way the game “communicates” with the player is different. I guess there was a little misunderstanding.
About the survey … I know its a little bit tough, but I need all the information I can get.
I am very thankful for your help and I hope you had at least a little bit fun :).
I liked it, next iteration should have some sort of visual aid, nothing too obvious but perhaps some particle effects to indicate the blast radius of the bomb goblin, also the “lock for combat” mechanism should be independent from the proximity of enemies, make it more like a “warrior stance” than an “enemy target lock” ; also a few blood or sounds to realize you hit the target since the bound box around the npc and weapons are in my opinion a bit small. The combo/gesture based moves for the sword is nice although a bit unforgiving, my gamepad it’s like 8 years old and it was hard, perhaps with a motion controller or a touch input could be more entertaining.
A few came bugs here and there but the game is fun, keep it up.
