Playtest Success & Feedback
Our Playtest Day went successfully — we had 25 participants and received a wide range of valuable feedback.
User Experience & Interaction
- Many players didn’t realize they could only visit one location, leading to confusion and frustration. This needs clearer communication.
- Several tried to click the “Forum” button, assuming it was functional. Lack of feedback on disabled elements led to confusion.
- The log feature was heavily used by some players for decision-making, but others found it offered little help in early choices.
- Some players attempted to interact with elements (like phones or dorm items) after paths had ended, indicating a need for better flow or guidance.
- Players unfamiliar with games struggled more with navigation, while experienced players progressed faster.
Content & Narrative
- Some players felt disoriented by a lack of character context, especially when choosing between characters like Poli, Law, and Norma.
- Backgrounds and motivations were unclear to some users, leading to confusion about the relevance of conversations.
- Meta-questions like “How well do you understand this topic?” felt forced and unnatural in dialogue. Testers preferred these to be part of quizzes.
- Real-world references (e.g., CMU names/policies) created misunderstandings, making players think they were learning about actual school policies.
- Some players appreciated the new ideas (like content-neutral security fees) but felt uncertain about their accuracy. Suggestion: verify with a subject matter expert (SME).
Bugs & Technical Issues
- Several visual and interaction bugs were found:
- Cutscene/Background bugs in auditorium (disappearing or misaligned).
- Character misplacement, especially Law’s position.
- Sprite inconsistencies, particularly Poli’s expression changing inappropriately.
- “To be continued” screen appears incorrectly when exiting phone mid-scene, with a typo (“continued”).
- Buttons not resetting properly, e.g., “Meet the Team” stays highlighted.
- Profile screen back button doesn’t work when opened from the phone.
Replayability & Flow
- Some players replayed the game but were frustrated they had to go through the same prologue again.
- Strong desire for a chapter select or “skip prologue” feature to streamline replays and encourage exploring alternate paths.
- Some players tried alternate character paths but encountered blocked or bugged phone quizzes in second playthroughs.
Pacing & Reading Load
- Multiple testers mentioned there was a lot of reading—some neutrally, others critically.
- Skipping or fast-forwarding was instinctive for some players, especially those used to games.
- Players suggested the game might be better as a website for accessibility, due to the static nature and text-heavy format.
Player Suggestions
- Clarify what’s fictional vs. real to avoid misunderstandings about institutional policies.
- Add pronouns to profiles for clarity and inclusivity.
- Use Live2D or basic animations to make conversations more engaging (if time allows).
- Consider small visual enhancements (e.g., screen shakes, flashes) to make the experience more dynamic
Some of the points raised aligned with known issues, while others brought up unexpected bugs and offered new suggestions. We’re incredibly grateful for the thoughtful responses, and after reviewing all the feedback, we compiled a detailed list of features, fixes, and content needs moving forward:
Post-Playtest Task List
Narrative
- Court dialogue
- Endings
- Iterate Day 1 dialogue
- Auditorium joke
- Prologue: clarify step-sibling backstory
- Forum content
Design
- Affection point system
Art
- Adjust sprite positioning to match dialogue
- New sprites for the court scene
- Iterate speaker cutscene
- Refine character and background art
- Create cutscenes for court, main menu, and endings
Tech
- Skip dialogue feature
- Chapter/save-load system
Bugs
- Sprite/name mismatch
- Options bug (“another question” reappearing)
- Text message display bugs
- Forum display issues
- Hyperlink system for key terms
UI
- Add location names (e.g., gym, court)
- Improve phone UX (currently always shows 9:41, add daytime lock for review access, etc.)
- Complete phone UI for texts and forum
- Credits page
Sound
- Court BGM and SFX
- Auditorium SFX
- Ending BGM
Top Priority
- Court Dialogue
- Affection Point System
- Endings
- Cutscenes
The affection point system is tightly tied to the choice design in Day 2. Without proper values and balancing, the branching narrative can’t function properly. Endings are also essential for delivering closure and giving the scoring system actual meaning—without them, the player’s decisions lack weight.
Medium Priority
- Cutscenes (new ones for Day 2 & endings)
- Skip dialogue feature
- Phone functionalities (text messages + forum)
- Chapter/load/save system
For a narrative-heavy game, visuals are key to maintaining player engagement. Cutscenes give us a chance to emotionally amplify story beats and break up long passages of text. Even rough versions will help — we’ll polish them later if time allows.
The forum must also be functional by Soft Opening. Since the button is already visible in the UI, leaving it inactive will confuse players. Similarly, text messages are a small but essential way to convey transitions and off-screen events — they’re more visually appealing and intuitive than just using in-dialogue exposition.
The skip feature is another must-have. Currently, Day 1 takes around 10 minutes to play through, mainly because of slow text display. Adding this function will help with both replayability and user pacing.
Lower Priority
- Background and sprite refinements
- Hyperlink explanations for legal/academic terms
- Iterating older cutscenes
These are all improvements we’d love to make, but only after higher-priority systems are solidified.
Production Reflections
Looking back, we realized that not having a game designer has led to a few structural oversights—like not implementing the affection point system from the start. It became clear through this playtest that scoring systems need to be in place early to inform branching choices and dialogue structure.
Our approach in Day 1 was to write full dialogue and choices first, then assign affection point outcomes based on how each character would logically react. While this made sense narratively, it left the overall system unbalanced. Going forward, we’ll design with player choice and system integration in mind from the start.
Fortunately, now that Day 1 is mostly complete, building Day 2 will be much faster, as the core mechanics and pipelines are already in place.
Next Steps Before Soft Opening
- Finish all top-priority features and content
- Selectively complete medium-priority items based on workload
- Push all remaining tasks to post-soft sprint