Week 4 – Networking Demo & First Playtest

Intro

This week we first locked down an idea after pitching to Melanie. and then we successfully finished a working prototype for our networking & basic scene building features. On Friday we conducted a round of paper playtest ot test out a few of our design theories.

Technical Demo

Below is a technical demo showing our implementation for a networked lobby, and basic scene building feature.

First Playtest

On Friday we conducted our first paper playtest to test out our design hypothesis. We created a Figma board where two players build a 2D Scene together. each of them has their own canvas and half of the gallery:

• Player 1 has access to all characters & animals
• Player 2 has access to all scenery items and background

Upon completion, they will assemble all their work together into the center canvas.

Our assumptions were:

• The activity is fun and engaging
• Players did not need verbal communication to enjoy the experience
• They would prefer not seeing each other ‘s work in real time and having the “surprise” factor 

And we found out that:

• The activity is indeed fun and engaging!
• Players indeed did not need verbal communication to enjoy the experience
• However, they have mixed opinions on both experiences
  • The first one was sometimes frustrating because the scale did not match up

With these observations we will conclude a final plan for our experience design next week!