Feedback from Interactive Prototype 2

This week we had conducted testing of our second interactive prototype. The procedure for testing was very similar to the previous testing session for the first interactive prototype. I had set up and displayed my game on the screen. I had also assembled my yoke and connected it to the MakeyMakey.

A video of a test subject using the yoke to play the game is below.

I believe the testing session was a success and I had received some very good feedback. I sat down with the users as they were playing the game with the yoke and I asked them several questions:

• Do you think it is easy to move the player with the yoke?
• If not, please say why and offer any suggestions.
• Now that we have the yoke, do you think the player speed and acceleration or deceleration should be adjusted?
• How difficult is it to shoot with the yoke?
• Do you have any suggestions to improve on this?
• Is the placement of the new-game button on the yoke suitable?
• Do you think adding the bubbles around the letters are a good idea?
• If so, does it make it easier to shoot the letters?
• If not, why is it a bad idea?
• Do you have any other alternatives?
• Should I remove it completely? 

Summary of feedback

Player movement

Now that the yoke is involved, all of my testers were very happy with the movement system. According to the testers, the player is very easy to control with the yoke. I had asked them about adjusting the speed and acceleration/deceleration, and they responded by saying that it were no issues at all. In fact, the smoothing of the movement feels even better now with the yoke.

The yoke

Overall, players had liked the yoke. They loved using it to play the game and they mentioned that it was very fun controlling the player with the yoke. One person even said that the big orange button to shoot was very intriguing and addicting to use.

Some players mentioned that it is now actually much easier to shoot with the yoke.

The only issues some players had with the yoke were regarding its form factor. Some said that the yoke was too wide, so when holding it, it was difficult to reach the centre-button without moving their entire right hand. Additionally, there were complaints by two people who said that the tilt was too steep when rotating the handle to move the player. In other words, players didn't like the amount they had to rotate the yoke just to move the player. I will address this for the next prototype by redesigning the yoke handle to be smaller.

Gameplay

Overall, players were happy with the game itself. I had stated to them that a lot of the issues from the previous session are still present because the main goal of this session was to test the yoke.

Players liked the idea of having the bubbles around the falling letters because it gave them a visible, larger and uniformly sized hit-box when shooting letters.