Dev.Log Entry Violet

During this week's reading in the Game Design Workshop text, the focus was on playtesting. Some things that stuck out to me most were preparing yourself for negative feedback, the best type of playtesting, and how to set up a playtesting experience. Often, as with a lot of endeavors into which we sink a good amount of time, it's hard to hear that there might be something wrong with it. Playtesting focuses on figuring out what works, and more importantly on the things that are not working during gameplay. Although it may be difficult to hear criticism you may not have expected, at the end of the project having this valuable data to continue your project will be one of the most important aspects of your game. Once the basic development stages have been established, setting up a testing environment with members of the target audience while asking the players to "think out loud" is one of the best approaches. I have found myself sending a game to friends and explaining it right off of the bat. This could be detrimental in my understanding of what the user may not be able to figure out on their own, and in the end, could also become a failed game!

This week, I played a new game that's less than a dollar on Steam called "Hide and Seek". In this game, there are players who can become either someone who is hiding or someone who is seeking. You are able to look at an object and click to become that object and find a good spot to blend in to stay out of sight from the seeker. One downfall of the hiding team is that if you move to try to spot where the seeker is at the time, you can give away your position. It's almost left a bit too much up to chance. I have also found a really good hiding spot early in around and ended up just sitting in that spot as a statue for the whole game!

There are a lot of power-ups or collectibles available throughout the levels. It would be helpful if one of them could help you get the location of the seeker so that you can move to a new location and become a different object as a hiding player. The seeker can take a shot at any object, and once they hit you (as an object) the object yells, "OW." which immediately gives away the location and transforms the player from that object into their starting character. So, it's pretty fun, there are some interesting ways to move around and a team-building activity due to so much downtime and for other hiders to tell you where the seeker is located! I would include the main hiding mechanic. The layout of the game is well done for what it is, but not being able to see something if you've hidden against a wall is unfortunate. I guess that means you must pick your objects and hiding spots wisely!