Documentation 8 - Prototyping and Playtesting
Although I have refined the design questions and goal, I still can’t move on to the next step. I hesitated because I was afraid that what I have done is not working any more. Shall I go back and rewrite the script? Or is it better to redo the design from the beginning? Content wise, is the script making any sense? Would dads say the words the character said in my scene? Is it fun enough to give them a good experience?
“Why not put them in the twine in about 30 minute to do a playtesting, see how the players like it? “ Professor Clay said.
Yes, why not?
I started to put the scripts in Twine in the basic format without any design, image and sound. However, it was not a 30-minute work, it was a 20 hours one.
I decided to do a high fidelity one because I know I’m going to use Twine to make the game. Anyway I’m gonna doing in the end, why don’t I do it now, and save some time for the other things.
At the beginning, the first issue I met was shall I use Twine or Unity? As a text based game, Twine would be perfect to present, and easy to develop. However, some of my ideas are easier to code in Unity. Although I was not sure about the question, I used Twine to do the prototype this time. Then I had another issue, what is the goal for this playtesting? Is it to know whether the plan I had is working out or not? Is it to test the script working or not? Is it to know how dads like the game? After thinking about it several times, I decided to test whether the content/scene/scripts I designed is working. That is, is the main storyline achieving the goal of the game. Since it’s a text-based game, the efficiency of the advocacy is heavily dependent on the story. If the story is efficient enough to convey the idea, then I am on the right track. The next step would be adding features to enhance the gameplay with more confidence.
So I made two versions of the prototypes:
Normal Version: Players will play as a new father, Jamie, making choices to communicate with characters in the game to navigate through the postpartum life (4-5 months) without having his wife had postpartum depression. The gameplay would be around 30 minutes, and players will play all 6 scenes at one time.
2. Pseudo-Real Time Version: Players will play as a new father, Jamie, making choices to communicate with characters in the game to navigate through a day in his postpartum life. Players will play all 6 scenes at 6 different times that mimic the times in real life. They won’t know when and what is the next scene.
I used basic Twine story for the face-to-face scenes, and a template by Shindigs to put the scripts of texts in. I tried to build my own version of messenger stylesheet, but I found it so time-consuming, and it won’t help any of the goals in this playtesting. So I used the template which fulfilled all of my needs. The only problem is the template is developed in Twine 1.4, so I need to use different computers to do it.
I modified the scripts while I was putting them into Twine. I was so afraid that the story would be unrealistic and hypocritical. I wrote the scripts by adjusting stories of myself and ones around me. I try to summarize and combine the experience of many of us with the characters in the scripts. Then I connect them together to have a complete game experience.
After I made the normal version of the game, I started to work on the Pseudo-Real Time version. I had no idea how to tell the story before I put my hands on it. Shall I do it the same as the normal version? Or shall I do it in a different story?
Finally, I decided to do it as a one-day experience. Since it's real time, it doesn’t make sense if it’s a months long story. I modified the codes, and edited the text message that I would use with the link to send to playtester during the day.
I prepared the playtesting while I was making the prototype. The playtesting starts right after I upload prototypes to itch.io.
Playtesting
For the preparation, first of all, I need playtesters. I wrote down a list of potential testers that I could try to reach out to. They have different ages, ethnicities and occupations, but they have some similarities. Since the target audiences are the expecting Asian dads and new dads, I found many of them I know as the testers. Besides those dads, I also found some game experts so that they could give me professional advice about my scripts and game design.
I sent them the invitation and asked them if they would like to participate in the playtest. Fortunately, most of them are willing to do it. Then I started to schedule the time of testing. I did it on the next day after I finished the prototypes. There are six playtesters in total. Three of them would do the Normal version, and the other three would do the Pseudo-Real Time version. I sent them the notification a day before to make sure they are good with the plan itself.
Here’s the plan:
Normal Version:
Pseudo-Real Time Version:
Then the day came, I was so excited, so were they. At 9:30am, when the Pseudo-Real Time version started, everyone said they were ready, itch.io crashed.
I thought I sent them the wrong or unworking link at the beginning, them I found out that I couldn’t even log in or register on itch.io. 10 minutes later, nothing changed. I had to make the decision that I need to move the test to the other day, which will make me behind schedule. After I told everyone we need to delay the schedule, the website went back. It was 20 minutes late, and I have to decide again whether I’m going to do it today with the first scene delay, or wait the next day to do it on time.
I decided to continue, and I asked my playtesters. After they said they were ok with continue, I started the Pseudo-Real Time version playtesting.
The playtesting of both versions was successful. It was fun and highly-rated. We also had a lot of discussion about the game and the playtesting afterwards. Here is the form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSebfRIDTy4_faEnV3CeZ45YXyybGLF0OI38j9rtRmuwnw6C1Q/viewform?usp=pp_url
Here are the results and findings:
Playtester demography
Playtesters are all male, 25-35 years old. Many of them are professors, phD students and master students. One of them is a software engineer. Half of them have kid, and the other ones have none.
Observations
3 of the playtesters liked the story and thought it made sense a lot, while the other 3 liked it and thought it made sense.
I have covered all the topics in plan, but some of them are efficient:
Baby blues symptoms
Postpartum Depression Symptoms
Sources to self-access like EPDS
What is postpartum depression
Things can be done at home to help
While the others are less efficient:
When to see a doctor
Cause of the postpartum depression
Postpartum depression in new dads
Prevention
Treatment
Asians in the US experiencing postpartum depression
Playtesters of the normal version tends to feel the game is longer, and the ones of Pseudo-Real Time version tends to feel the game is shorter.
They all liked the messenger style.
The choices and the scripts are good, but could be better in terms of the wording and the context.
All of them resonate to Jamie.
Most of them learned information about postpartum depression, and all of them are better prepared for the postpartum life after playing the game.
The efficiency of learning wise is ok.
Most of them took 20-30 minutes to finish the game in total.
They have totally different opinions about the art styles like text color and images.
They have different preference of exploring the game again to unlock different stories and endings.
All the Pseudo-Real Time playtesters liked it so much, and they are preferred in this version than the normal.
Feedbacks
When I asked them: Would you say something as Jamie said? Please indicate if there is something you won’t say/you think is unrealistic? All of them thought they would, but most of them thought they would say it in a different way. Below are their answers:
I would be more polite with my mom.
Yes, I will, but in a less formal tone, and with some humor/jokes.
It is realistic, especially the sub-stories that summarize real scenarios in life, like career conflict and relation between wife and mother in law.
I would like to see a more 'soft' response from Jamie in the last (sleep training discussion) scene.
I think Jamie speaks pretty naturally. A few other characters had lines with small grammatical errors (it made the dialogue feel realistic).
Is there anything you feel offended about?
Most of them thought it was not offensive at all, except for some scenes to be intense but still no. However, one indicated that the mom scene was a little bit offensive.
The choices are limited. Some of them said there are no choices that they would say in the real world in the mom’s scene. Instead of standing by mom or by wife, they would say okok to mom and do whatever they want with their wife, that is, try not to piss any of them off.
Pictures, voice over are expected. Some tech issues like text display delay. The text contrast is exhausting the eye.
The final scene is kinda disconnected from previous scenes. Felt like a big gap in the plot.
In scene 3-2-1 there is an option 'You do what you want, then.', but actually the response is 'You do what you want, then. I will support you.'. (and I think the latter indeed sounds better).
There is one stage at the beginning (the doctor asks Jaime about how Christie is doing, something like that), I feel like there are too many options.
Script not made sense: 1) Mom part 2) Need smoother transition
It might help to do a quick proofreading session on the script. You might be able to get some help from the writing center on dialogue.
All of them approached the medium ending, which is the best ending they could approach in this prototype. Some of them said that it is more likely to choose the better choice since they could compare the choices, and they are calmer than they did when they are in the similar situation.
Playtesters of the normal version felt tired, and playtesters of Pseudo-Real Time version felt this made more sense, and it was more realistic.
Who shall take care of the kid when both mom and dad are busy?
More mini stories/random events are preferred.
Background settings are not obvious and some of them asked me who’s Jamie after playing half of the game.
Next
Now I have all the feedback, and the only thing I need to do next is clear enough. Although they have different opinions about time loop ideas, all of them liked the Pseudo-Real Time version which I never expected. But how can I rewrite the story into one day that they would still understand the process of getting postpartum depression? How can I make the transition naturally and the story make sense? How can I code it into a Pseudo-Real Time version? Is Twine available in terms of sending notifications and setting times?
There are many questions that await me ahead of the journey. What I am sure of is that the story itself is working. The goal of this playtesting is to know whether the new dads like the experience content wise and how efficient the scripts are. I think the answer is yes. They all like it, think it is interesting and learned from it. There are many problems in the scripts that I need to polish, but I am on the right track. What I learned from this is that don’t wait and hesitate when facing uncertainty, but to put your hands dirty to see if they are working.