Neon White Blind Playthrough Study Data #1

 This will be a series of collecting info on players and using said info to understand player behavior better and how to build a good tutorial.

Due to my lack of professional behavior I have a hard time stomaching idiotic gameplay unless said person is funny and or charming. That being said; said results can be helpful from the first level.

Player 1 (male)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMwqfWuEsq8&t=543s

Player 1 performed the worst of them all; effectively sucking at the game, player 1 lacking intelligence; very hostile to audience members and not understanding basic logic as of how the water works until it was too late.

Player 2 (female)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qj8l0UfKKH8&t=1362s

Player 2 dealing with her audience but still trying to do the gameplay, having trouble for the given level at hand and avoiding parts where she instead jumped over said parts.

Player 3 (male)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6vsWQeAgUY

LV1

From the players I have studied only 1 out of the 3 on the first level were able to figure out to stay in the water for longer to build up speed with player 3 being the only one to try to think outside of the box.

Player 3 attempted on the 3rd attempt going through the archways and where the game devs wanted players to travel.

LV2

Player 3 was able to logically figure out how he still needed to make it from the exit from there. (time stamp 9:00)

Player 3 changing over controls; this could show that some controls are less intuitive for players when playing these kind of games. The aim assist being not very invasive and if anything, a throw away mechanic unless you're a pro.

The player needing to rely on the golden hand to tell them where the time save section is.

Conclusion so far

I may need more play data but this is helpful; hint systems can be hand hold-y and not teach the player a damn thing. The idea needs to be reinforced in the player's head as of what they can and can't do. Otherwise they won't be able to figure it out.

A lack of reinforcement doesn't teach the player.

Furthermore; just because you design a game around encouraging the player to think outside of the box doesn't mean they always will; if anything it's often the case from what I'm seeing that players aren't taking the approach that is needed to think outside of the box.

The average player for games don't care to explore game mechanics and try to be clever, it's a handful of players that seem to have this mentality.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Psychological manipulation #2 Big numbers

 This is a fine balancing act for players but the goal of the matter is to keep going for the big numbers and keep the big numbers with them getting bigger, and bigger then you get the picture. With this not only having one set of numbers get bigger but having the other numbers get bigger as well. You need some form of system to keep the players wanting the numbers to get bigger. For idle clicker games you use the reset system to get the player coming back; with the MMORPG system you scale down those numbers in updates so you can keep numbers getting bigger or use the shared power system for the players to use. Personally I like using an XP reset system; once the XP hits max for the level, the XP subtracts from the XP cost bringing it down to 0 and as thus allowing that big number of XP to still feel big. Then you might be asking about the player leveling up which there is always the COD reset level system where once the level hits a big enough number you have it where the progress...
Read more

Power Creep

 Power creep can be both a good and a bad thing. With power creep you have it where players are being fed more powerful items or cards where they ditch old equipment for the new toys and make it so players will actually use it. On that same note you're trading the learning the items/ understanding how to make oneself more powerful through strats by relying on your given powerful new toys and making players throw them away again once more toys do show up. It's a useful investment strat for card games but does get boring for games where the only thing you have to look forward to is bigger more powerful numbers instead of different strats/ tactics you've never seen or used before with the bigger numbers feeling meaningless. Person experience; with Yu-Gi-Oh playing the rogue format was more fun even if I lost because I wasn't losing to the FTK format and actually scaled down in power with having fun seeing different strats/ tactics, that the limitations that were self impos...
Read more

Deck Size matters

 Small decks These kind of games make it where the game is being given a more consistent/ predictable strategy. The outcome being much more predictable but having it where players are dealing with mill and burn strats far too often making them busted. Large decks These kind of games make mill/ burn strats basically useless but have less reliance on consistent drawing what you want; however in a game where search abilities exist with the more search power the more options that open up and remove the down side of having a larger deck becomes.
Read more