Random Event Sprint 4: User Testing

Propose for Testing

The reasons for user testing

In this Sprint 4 teamwork, our group's goal was to further optimise and develop the project based on the currently completed "Map Flooding". In order to make this Sprint more relevant to the overall game environment and to make the game more interesting for the players. Therefore, during the development of Sprint 4, we have set up a User Test to evaluate the overall value of the project and to provide feedback from players.

The purpose of this user test was to confirm the completeness and user satisfaction of the development of the 'Flooding Bar' and 'Sand Flash' options so that the development team could confirm the completion of this section and to determine the functionality of the system.

This test is an expansion and addition to the functionality of the completed Sprint 3 project, the 'Map Flooding Random Event' system. This involved re-interviewing the design concept, presentation and functionality in order to obtain valuable user comments to improve the functional testing of this Sprint.

You can Click here to the page for Map Flooding Improvement Feature in Sprint 4, and Click here to find the design for Map Flooding.

Test Tasks

The process of testing

The main body of the test is divided into two parts, one for the "Flooding Bar" and the other for the "Sand Flash".For both we use different test methods for evaluation.

(1) For the "Flooding Bar", we are eager to know:

• User satisfaction with the design's graphics, progress bar changes and game interface.

• User's operating habits and how the graphics obscure the overall interface.

• Whether the user is satisfied with the speed at which the progress bar runs and has Flooding's progress changes.

• Are there any flaws/bugs in this system that the user thinks there are or areas that need improvement that we can fix.

(2) For the "Sand Flash", we are desire to to see:

• Are there any flaws, gaps or salient points in the design philosophy of this system and which are the elements that users can identify with?

• Does the implementation of this design into the game perform as the user expects (after understanding the system)?

• Does the inspiration of the "fading squares" suit the player's taste and would it be interesting to put in the game?

• Any inspiration or idea can be taken into account.

Key Questions for Testing

The methods we used in this test and some details of the testing process.

Flooding Bar:User-Testing

Let the players experience the game for themselves and then ask them how they feel about the experience. And find feedback.

Users will be given a time-limited test to try to understand how well the new features of the system perform. The tasks are as follows:

• Experience the whole process of 'Flooding' based on the system designed by the programmers.

• Try to complete the entire campaign within the time limit and experience two different game endings.

• The 'Flooding Bar' progress bar changes to give a sense of how the different stages of flooding affect the overall environment of the game.

For each task completed, the tester was recorded the time it took to complete the task. After all is complete, they will be asked the following questions:

1. Did you feel the reliability of the interaction between the different systems during the game?

2. What factors significantly hindered the process of completing your task?

3. What do you think of the overall design of the Flooding Bar and is there anything that could be done to improve it?

Sand Flash:Interview

Respondents will be aligned with the user testing section of the previous section, i.e. to satisfy respondents with a basic understanding of the game's setup and gameplay.Here are the questions:

1. What are your thoughts on adding such a time limit system to an RTS game?

• Is this system made to meet the expectations of players?

2. How do you think this system will fare at this stage of development? How does it differ from the spells you know in other games?Do you think it would be good to include a multiple ending format with the current game?

• Used to understand how satisfied users are with our development results and how well we fit in with mainstream gaming.

3. How do you think the design of this system interacts with the overall functionality of the game?

• This is used to understand user satisfaction and psychological expectations in the operation and interaction sections.

4. Do you think there is room for higher improvement in the system? What do you think is still missing in terms of design and functionality?

• Get player feedback

Testing result

User#1:

Testing result for Flooding Bar:

FeedBack:

1. From what I experience, It seems the whole system is running quite reliable.

2. A subtle disaffection is that the flood seems to come so fast, and the flooding bar is a bit too ambiguous (in showing the stages of flood).

3. Refining the flooding bar (perhaps by implementing more stages?)!

The overall design of the "Flooding Bar" I think is great and adds the right amount of tension to the whole game, making it a much better experience for the player.

Testing result for Sand Flash

• Answer 1:Quite remarkable! Never seen games do so, yet it makes the game harder~

• Answer 2:Personally, I think the game does an okay job of interacting with the features and it's not very different from what I used to play.

• Answer 3:It works just fine...(since the overall game looks not that charming)

• Answer 4:Hmmm~ I guess, room for improvement are quite large for this game~

User#2:

Testing result for Flooding Bar:

FeedBack:

1. The whole game runs well.

2. The design inspiration for this Flooding Bar is great, but it seems that the production staff didn't do a good job. Because it runs really fast! No so fast!!!

3. I think some more interesting things could be added, such as the tiles variation.

Apart from a few minor detail issues, the whole feature is well thought out and the inspiration is great.

Testing result for Sand Flash

• Answer 1:Ha, the edges make the game interesting.

• Answer 2:No, I don't think so. The way this game interacts is very different from what I usually play.

• Answer 3:It works well, but...(since the overall game looks bad)

• Answer 4:Well, I think there is still plenty of room for improvement.

User#3:

Testing result for Flooding Bar:

FeedBack:

1. The game runs and allows the player to do many things.

2. The Flooding Bar is still relatively rough and could be more elaborate.

3. There is still much room for improvement and I hope it can be improved.

Testing result for Sand Flash

• Answer 1:The Sand Flash design I think is a further addition to the 'Flooding Bar' and makes the gameplay seem more logical, which is good.

• Answer 2:The interaction system is not very good overall and I hope it can be improved.

• Answer 3:The whole game was too short and I wish I could have added some more time to the experience.

• Answer 4:There are many areas that could be improved, such as art design, appearance mode changes, etc. I hope this can be improved.

Result Analysis & Conclusion

In this game design for Sprint 4, the main objective of our team was to improve the functionality and user evaluation of the 'Flooding Bar' system and 'Sand Flash'.

For Flooding Bar Test

The entire progress bar is divided into five stages, each relating to the five levels of "Flooding". They are differentiated as follows.

1.Normal, when the weather icon has not changed and the sea level is normal.

2.Sea level has risen slightly, but the weather icon remains the same.

3.As the sea level continues to rise and the mainland begins to be submerged, the weather icon changes from its original icon to 'Rain'.

4.The map is mostly submerged and the game screen starts to fade in brightness.

5.The map is completely submerged in seawater and the "Flooding Map" random event ends.

This is an interesting design, as it allows the player to experience a sense of tension while accelerating the game and triggering the 'drowning' ending.

For Sand Flash Test Our group's original design for this was to animate the individual sand cubes being submerged by the sea as a way of representing the overall process of submersion.

Because different flooding speeds affect the speed of the entire game process, our group also speed-adjusted the design process for this animation.