SciCom Center – Dev Blog – Week 10 – Apr 1, 2022

This week, we continued the refinement process and implemented art assets and updated game rules. We also set up several playtest sessions and tested the demo with other ETC students, visitors from simcoach, and also testers with different backgrounds in a large ETC project session. 

Content Update

Since last week, we have had more specific Pitch topics (Ex: “Combat health misinformation” vs “Combat science misinformation” ) to help Designers come up with ideas. Also, the pitches now consist of one ‘Topic’ and one ‘Requirement’. We also added requirements that are non-serious, but not completely implausible (Ex: “Opens only at night” or “Primarily targeted towards visitors’ pets”)

UI/UX and Art

We have implemented most of the art assets and UI elements.

Playtesting

We have 8 groups with around 1-4 testers each group to test our game. Overall, the testers enjoyed the game and have conversations during the pitching experience. 

Here are some feedbacks we received from testers:

1. Some testers didn’t know it is a local multiplayer game so it is maybe better to have a tutorial or change the terms to indicate that at the beginning.

2. The designer role may need more information on the topics other than asking the investor role. A reminder system or glossary could be helpful.

3. The winner page on the investor’s screen should let the winner(Designer) have a strong, positive feeling so we could add some animations or have larger fonts. One of the barriers is that currently we can only show the winner page on the investor’s screen but not the designer’s.

4. Some of the buttons should be repositioned since players may miss them before noticing they can scroll down.

5. UI and texts can be more simplified and unified so players won’t miss some important information.

Next Steps

For the next week we will continue working on updating UI/Art by changing visual hierarchy and also finding the best way to give players positive feedback after winning(and potential rewards). We will implement a designer reminder system and fix typos and inaccurate terms.