Test your board game with friends/relatives WEEK 9

So I was able to get my family to help me out with a playtest which consisted of my dad, my stepmom, sister, and stepsister. At first they were a little bit confused so the first round I explained any rules they didn't understand (we went over how to play and the rules before we started). For the second play through I put in a few barriers (or rules if you will) that made them think more effectively of how to use their battle points, for example, instead of being able to use all 25 of their battle points, they were limited to 15 and couldn't use special cards. I noticed it made them think more tactically about the game when we switched back to regular rules. Overall the feedback was really good, they liked the concept of the game but made sure to note that some of the rules needed to be clearer for better understanding and better gameplay since there were some things that weren't addressed, like what happens when you run out of battle points and a certain consequence card that was unclear.

WEEK 8 Exercises 9.4, 9.5, and 9.3

9.4 Script

Today we are conducting  a playtest for our game. As you begin to play please keep in mind that we would like you to answer some questions. Firstly let us know if you can understand the rules clearly and if any questions or concerns come to mind. Next think about if your objective for the game is clear. You will have to make a few choices as you play so let us know if you see what they are. Is the game fun for you to play or is it difficult on any level. With those basic questions in mind go ahead and open up the game, set up and start.

9.5 Playtest Analysis and Results

So we were able to get a group of four people who hadn’t played our game yet to help us out with a playtest. First we just had them play a single round with no special setbacks or anything. They were able to understand the majority of the rules clearly although there was one rule that caused a loophole which we actually forgot to include. The players thought they staked claim on a entire section of territory but in actuality no one really owns a whole section and each player starts off equally. Once that was cleared up there wasn’t many problems to report. The players seemed to enjoy what they were doing and made some fairly easy choices when they played. After the first round we went and randomly placed everyone’s battle point representatives on all of the territories and gave them a limited amount of battle points and we asked each of them what they would do when given a certain amount of battle points against a certain player who may have had more or less of them to see what types of situations would effect their decisions to buy a unoccupied territory and when wagering against other players. One player pointed out if he had to wager and then had a choice to buy the next round, it would depend on if he won or lost the wager and how many battle points he ended with and of course he would have to factor in if he pulled a consequence or special card and him and another player agreed that it was slightly due to chance.

9.3 Recruiting Playtesters

So the playtesters we got together were in a age range from 19-24 which is our game's main target demographic. They weren't doing anything at the time when we asked them so they were more than happy to help out right when we asked, which we weren't expecting so we were slightly nervous jumping right into the playtest session.