[Project 4 –Interactive Fiction (IF)] The Future We Deserve : Checkpoint 1: Playtesting

As a game author, I realized that my story included too much information that didn’t drive the story of the player’s decision. My text was mostly explaining the scenery, equipment, or little behaviors of the character(which may be important but too much of it might drain the players). I realized that since this is a text driven platform, I focused on trying to describe everything through text. After this playtest session, I realized that this shouldn’t be the case. Since it is a text driven platform, I should be giving room for the player’s imagination. No matter how much I describe what my futuristic gadget will look like, every player who plays my game will think of a different looking gadget. It will always be different no matter what. However, if I inform them of the function, outcome, and the consequences of using the gadget, the players will naturally imagine what the gadget will look like in their mind - giving them the opportunity to be more engaged in the story. Their imagination will start to lead the story. I thought text would help with the engagement of the story but it was actually blurring the player’s engagement to the story. My three advice is to: keep the story direct, limit text in explaining things and focus on explaining the consequences, and have a clear ending from the start.

As a playtester, I saw different ways I could capture the player’s attention. For example, Tia’s story continued to be action packed with crucial information which helped drive the story forward. Very few panels felt like it wasn’t contributing to the story. Tia also gave the players very distinct options to choose from (unlike me who provided wishy-washy options) to lead the story. I also very much enjoyed Yu-an’s story. It was mysterious and her choice of using first person narrative really invited me to be in the story and the character’s head. First person narrative won’t work for my story because the player needs to be more aware of the other character’s behaviors. My three advice is to: be aware of different narrative styles, observe how space is used, and observe your character’s connection and relationship with the other characters.