New terrain textures on bonus map test

Purpose

The main purpose of this test is to observe and analyse participants' satisfaction with our redesigned terrain, and through the test, further collect suggestions for the improvement of the new terrain. Observe and record the participants' behaviour by observing them as they complete the task. After the test, we will ask them several questions to further judge users' satisfaction with this function and collect specific improvement suggestions.

Process

Testers will be asked to participate in our testing tasks. We will introduce the specific steps and objectives of the task to the testers before the task starts, and give them a complete introduction to the rules of the game. As the testers completed the task, we recorded the user's reactions. Finally, we will analyse the observations and collected results to find out the problems in the functions and preliminarily determine the solutions.

Tasks

• Prompts the tester to enter the game and enter the first portal.
• The tester needs to avoid all the magma and nails.
• The tester needs to find the second portal.

Key questions we asked were:

• Are you satisfied with the entertaining of the new terrain?
• Are you satisfied with the difficulty of the new terrain?
• Do you have any thoughts about the design style of the new terrain?
• What other changes do you think we need to make to the new terrain?

Results

User 1:

• Observantions:

  • The tester completed all three tasks with ease.
  • The tester have lived a long time in the game.

• Thoughts about the new terrain:

  • The tester liked the magma and nail design of the new terrain, which fits the overall pixel style of the game.
  • The tester felt that the new terrain added to the entertaining of the game.
  • The tester wasn't very satisfied with the difficulty of the game, he found the terrain a bit simple, which made him bored.
  • The tester thought we needed to adjust the complexity of the terrain.

• Likes/Dislikes:

  • Likes:
    • Design style of terrain.
    • The magma and nail design is lovely.
  • Dislikes:
    • The difficulty of the new terrain is very low, which makes the testers bored and unchallenging.

• General Comments/Suggestions:

  • The complexity of the new terrain can be adjusted.

User 2:

• Observantions:

  • The user easily completed all the tasks.

• Thoughts about the new terrain:

  • The tester was satisfied with the entertaining of the new terrain.
  • The tester was not satisfied with the difficulty of the new terrain, saying it was too easy to pass.
  • The tester was satisfied with the magma block design, but he wasn't satisfied with the nail block design. He thought the white background of the nail block looked strange.
  • The tester decided to make the new terrain more difficult and remove the white background of the nail blocks.

• Likes/Dislikes:

  • Likes:
    • The overall design style of the new terrain is very much in line with the pixel style of the game as a whole, and looks very relaxing.
    • The magma block design looks cute.
  • Dislikes:
    • The white background of the nail block.
    • The difficulty of the new terrain.

• General Comments/Suggestions:

  • Make the image of the nail block into an icon image and remove the white background.
  • Increase the difficulty of the terrain by changing the arrangement of the magma and nail blocks in the new terrain.

User 3:

• Observantions:

  • The tester completed all the tasks with ease.
  • The tester seemed to enjoy the play style of the second map.

• Thoughts about the game over screen:

  • The tester found the design style of the new terrain very interesting.
  • The tester feel that the difficulty of the new terrain needs to be increased.
  • The tester was not satisfied with the nail's design because the white background made it look out of place with the terrain.
  • The tester decided that we needed to remove the white background of the nail blocks and rearrange the blocks in the new terrain.

• Likes/Dislikes:

  • Likes:

    • The design style of new terrain.
    • Magma block design style.

  • Dislikes:

    • The white background of the nail block.
    • The difficulty of the new terrain.

• General Comments/Suggestions:

  • Remove the white background of the nail block.
  • Add more nails and magma to the new terrain to make the game more challenging.

Summary

According to the research, it's not hard to see that all testers are not satisfied with the difficulty of the new terrain. The new terrain, they argue, has fewer obstacles and is easier to navigate, leading to boredom. In later design, we will increase the difficulty of the terrain by increasing the number of nail blocks and the magma blocks. And further optimize the arrangement of terrain, so that terrain will not affect the user's visual experience due to the increase of blocks.

All the testers agreed that they were satisfied with our design for magma. Not only does it fit the overall pixel style of the game, but the design is cute and gives the player a relaxed feel.

In addition, there are more than 50% testers were not satisfied with the nail block we designed. The white background of the nail block gives the player the illusion that the nail block is not part of the whole terrain. In the later design, we will change the image of the nail block into the style of icon, so as to remove its white background and enhance the visual experience of users.