Devlog Journal 7

In class this week, we learned about how people interact in making decisions in games. We were assigned our group to have ideas for a shedding card game we were to create at the end of last week. This week we were asked to finish the following for next week: we were to write the first draft of our rules for our game, create a prototype deck of cards with artwork on them, determine the card layout and preamble to explain the theme of the game, and bring them to class on Thursday next week. For our idea, we chose to go with Andres's idea. The game was called Gotta G. O. (Get Out), which has the theme of someone packing a suitcase and going to the airport as fast as possible because he's gotta go! To start with our card game project, we delegated two roles to everyone in our group:

Martin (Me) - Project Management and Playtest Lead
Will - Art Direction and Art Implementation
Andres - Narrative Design and Game Design
Molly - Technical Writing and Materials Construction

As you can see in the list above, I was delegated the Playtest Lead. Which is what I will be talking about the most in this devlog.

Before I am able to playtest, Molly has to write down the rules of the game so I may follow the gameplay of Gotta G. O. properly when I playtest. In class, the playtest leads were given a series of questions to answer when we played our games in hopes that we could answer those questions in a way that could improve the gameplay of our card game project. The questions were very much related to the decision-making that players make when they play a game. Answering these questions in a way where I consider how others interact with Gotta G.O. will be integral to finalizing the rules for Gotta G.O.

Zach Hiwiller states in chapter 10 of  Players Making Decisions, "The goal of designers is to give players agency in areas where they require it and to remove it in areas where they do not need it." Zach explains beforehand that agency is the ability to act on their own behalf and that a player who can only make decisions that do not affect the game is not agency. This statement made me think a lot about how we should design our card game.

Another factor for me as the playtest lead is of course testing out the game itself while keeping these questions and statements about agency in mind.  My original plan was to playtest our game by myself and my group. After all, Macklin and Sharp say in Chapter 11 of Games, Design and Play: A Detailed Approach to Iterative Game Design, "Game developers are great playtesters early on in the process because they have a trove of knowledge about games and can provide very detailed feedback."  However, it is more effective to playtest with different audiences to get their feedback and to see how the rules of our game can be changed. But I was not sure with whom I should playtest our game.

So my solution was to playtest with my roommates and class acquaintances who were available to play our game. This way, I can get feedback from players who have never played our game.  Macklin and Sharp say in Chapter 11 of Games, Design and Play: A Detailed Approach to Iterative Game Design, "New player playtests are those that involve people new to the game. They are best for core game and complete game playtests to help see how new players will learn and enjoy the game." Having around 5 new players to playtest our game should be effective as they can give us much more thorough feedback as we polish our game.