Playtesting experience

Today our group went to playtest our 1st prototype of our boardgame at funan centre.. and well I have to emphasise one more time... it's cos it's the least crowded place in the town area on a weekend, nOT personal favoritism!

Through playtesting, what was taught during the last lesson really come to life... the whole idea of the system. Playtesting is really about interacting with the entire game system - the board, the pieces, the dice, the cards... everything. As we played one round, we made changes here and there, and I was surpised how a simple element in the game can affect overall gameplay (which also means we're doing things on the right track as we created meaningful play, yeah!) I shall highlight some of the things we encountered, and it will prove that every change we made had an effect on the gameplay and the system.

1. Number of face cards. Our game had a simple objective - to get 4 cards that will make up a full face. How is the face that we make determined? Before game starts, players would choose face cards from a deck and place their cards on the board. They are NOT supposed to match the cards they draw in game to the one they made on the board. Instead they are to match the faces of other players. Hmm.. a bit hard to explain without illustrations, but will show in class how it is played. Anyway, the number of cards will determine how long the game would be and its impending difficulty.

2. Dice: One or two dice? Intially thought 2 dice would make the player fly... but it's the objective to complete moving around the board as soon as possible, so one dice would be sufficient. Some minor things like how the dice is thrown was even mentioned (dun throw the dice to the deck of cards!)

3. One major element that will change the system was where the 'danger zones' on the board are put. We had placed where 'miss a turn' was too frequent and causes much frustration to the players. So we shifted some of these zones to other places and find that it works well.

4. There's much element of luck in the game. For the 1st round, one of our grp mates won in under 10 mins, but the next game went on to 15 min and more. Right now i think it is still alright as after one round, the players are itching to play one more round, so hence there's much replayability in the game.

5. Penalty system was revised, our grp talked about how 'harsh' the penalty should be, and come to a agreement that too harsh a penalty can really spoil game. An example would be if in snake and ladder, you reached 90 plus, but a snake made u drop back to zero. The player would probably lose the motivation to carry on.

6. The shouting of 'face-off' when the player is about to gain a full set of face adds a strategic element to the game. It is examplified in games like Uno or even mahjong, where a player can declare last tile to win. This would heighten the excitement and tension the rest of the players would feel.

With playtesting, the system of the game was so much more vivid than when we were merely describing to each other how the game is gonna be played. Also apparent was the unwritten rules that we identified. Things like how the dice should be thrown, how much time a player has to move his or her counter were mentioned.

I would like to thank Peiting and Roger for the quick and useful prototype, that was made with very low cost but very high efficiency. The prototype allows us to see the gameplay mechanics in action and troubleshooting on the spot. Can't wait to get the final prototype done and have a go at it in class!