finally, FINALLY, finally!!! 😀
a day with NO big nasty bugs!
NO crashes or memory issues! NO distracting character glitches!
NOTHING but smooth playing! I do believe we’ve solved all major issues. yep.
AT LAST we got to the heart of things and could talk with the player PURELY about what they were DOING in the game. She had played many games but had a casual attitude about it. Not a gamer per-se but a sympathizer. Because there were not other distractions we spoke with her mainly about those nagging questions of “what did that mean to you when you did x, y, or z?” and “in your opinion was it interesting to go there and do what you did and did what happened next make sense?” In other words, now, what we call the -Authoring Phase- has begun in earnest. Now we can test for content and not just for functionality. Her answers pointed to some glaring problems. So let’s polish up our narrative, fill in the gaps and start to make the game have better impact. Not only for the symapthizers to our weird game 😉 but for those who at first may not think its for them. With some work we can seduce some of those people into loving this little experience we’re making… At least, we have high hopes! We got lots of ideas watching todays tester play… now if one of you will slow down time and send us enough to work a few extra months…. hmmm, not going to happen, eh. Let’s see what we can do in the time that we have left! ONWARDS!
Tags: testers
like i said: 5 steps forward, 3 steps back.
if i have to be honest about today, i’d say that we failed to give this man the game he came to see (to test.) There was a bizarre error which prevented him from getting to the “end” of the game. this is the first time its happened. It was like, without the completion, the entire experience was lost…. even though there is no requirement for players to “finish” the game, these endings are somewhat essential closure on the experience of playing. Was it this lack of closure, of beginning connecting to “end”, which left him feeling that the game had no narrative, or is the game only appealing to those with an over-active imagination? …okay, i’m just thinking out loud but there was quite a bit of that today. also a serious question about a feature which solved a problem for a certain type of player was discovered to make the game lose suspense for today’s type of player. it’s the aimless wanderers vs. the instinctive navigators.
on the plus++ side today: no crashing whatsoever (memory issue solved), and the new collision system seems to be working out okay. the graphical changes (which only i know what the world has been through) are looking superb. but, some questions in my mind about the “mood” certain characters convey.
no, i can’t make coherent sentences or expressions of thought anymore today. there is another test tomorrow. maybe we will iron out some of these quandries and paradoxes and decide which players we can make happy and which will be left wishing we were making something more (or less.)
Tags: testers
