Revision Process

After getting the experience on its feet and running, the team brought in groups of players to test the game and ask them what they thought. Players were observed as they experienced the game and the team paid special attention to whether they understood the rules, knew when to watch the bunny, figured out the interface, noticed their impact on the music, and most of all, had fun.
 

Play Testing Round 1:

The first round of play testing was conducted primarily with members of the Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) and the Human-Computer Interaction Institute (HCII) and their families. Approximately four groups of people played the game and many had similar reactions to it.

The Interface as The Puzzle

Many players spent most of their time and attention figuring out how their turntables and drumpads affected the interface. In many cases, once they figured out how the selection process worked, they lost interest in the experience. Players also didn't communicate with each other because their attentions were focused on the small area of table directly in front of them. To address this, the team decided to design a new interface that was shared between the players so that there was a common area in which the game was played.

 
the original interface

Splitting Attention

Players didn't look up at the screen to watch the bunny dancing on stage, partially because they felt there was no connection between what they did and what Tokli was doing. In fact, some players wondered why there was the dancing bunny in the first place. The team felt that because the experience was freeform and players were not given directions, their attention was focused on the images on the table. As a result of this, the group decided to make a more directed experience that moved the players' attention from the table to the bunny so that they would know what to watch and when.

Understanding Your Impact

As the players select different buttons with their turntables, they affected how one part of the body danced and how one line of music was played. Many players did not connect the animated character on their interface with the animated character on the screens. Furthermore, they did not notice the impact they were having on the music. This was the most troubling issue because enabling people to collectively control Tokli and his band was the primary goal of the game. It was decided, in order to give the game a focus and help people understand what they were doing, that some structure to the experienced would need to be created. Tokli would now sing instructions and encouragement to the players as they played and the game became a collective game of matching, where each player had to match two cards. When all players matched their cards correctly, Tokli would do the appropriate dance. If not, Tokli would do a "broken dance" and encourage the players to try again.

Changes:

To address all of these concerns, many changes had to take place. The interface art was redesigned as a set of 16 cards, one of each body part in one of four colors. A series of states were designed and implemented in code to enable the team to achieve a more structured, goal-oriented experience. A timer was introduced so that the players only had a set amount of time to match their cards before Tokli either got his groove on or stumbled awkwardly. The interface would appear and disappear as the players were expected to play or watch Tokli. Much tuning was required to conduct the players' attention effectively. Finally, an instructional rap script was written and Josh Gad from the School of Drama was recorded as the voice of Tokli.
 
the revised interface
Play Testing Round 2:

With these changes integrated, the experience was tested with several groups of children ranging in ages from 10 to 17. 

Successes:

First of all, most people had fun playing the game. The countdown timer was understood. Also, people connected with Tokli more because the game forced them to watch him by removing all images from the table and because he had a voice. Players' attentions were conducted appropriately through sound and visual cues and for the most part, players understood the mechanics of the game. Some details remained to be addressed in the third round of revisions.

Players Wanted to Hit Drumpad to Select Their Card

Originally, the drumpad was intended to provide the players an opportunity to play along with the music. However, the overwhelming majority of players wanted to use their drumpad as a selection button to select the matched card. When players tried to hit the pad to select the card and found it did nothing, they usually went on to try something else, resulting in a loss. The group decided to give the players the ability to select the cards as they matched. In addition, the cards would disappear when selected, which would allow players to know who was still matching after they had made their choice and encourage them to help each other.

Difficulty Understanding Matching

Players had trouble understanding the mechanics of the updated interface. Many didn't understand that they had to spin the card in front of them around the table to the matching card, and those that did often thought that they had to match either the color or the body part, not both. To address this, sets of cards were shown on the screen during the introduction which indicated what a correct and an incorrect match looked like.

Cards Look Alike

At the beginning of the experience, Tokli tells the player to "match the cards to make me move". Many players had trouble seeing the differences in the cards, and few people understood them as parts of the dancing bunny's body. To solve this, the cards were made bigger, colored more boldly, and redesigned to look more different from each other.

Changes:

To help solve these issues, many more changes had to take place. In addition to continued revisions of animations and low-level code, the group also implemented changes as a result of player's feedback. The cards were redesigned and the bunny body parts idea was discarded because it was felt that the body parts detracted from the players' understanding of the interface more than it improved the game aesthetically. Instead, the cards became a bunny head, a guitar, musical notes, and a pair of maracas. The cards were also re-colored so as to be color-blind safe. The cards-to-match were placed on the outside of the ring instead of inside, so that they would be closer to the players' turntables. The color of the table and timer was changed to gray so that color-matching confusion was avoided.
Play Testing Round 3:

During the third round of testing, the button selection mechanism was implemented, the cards were repositioned, and color changes took place. In addition, dynamic camera movements and lighting changes were added to give the dancing section some more visual interest.

Successes:

Players had a better time understanding the matching, countdown and selection interface. This allowed them to play the game easily and instead focus more attention on the dancing show happening on the monitors.

Continued Revisions:

Through the third round, animations were polished, sound code was shored up, and idle states as well as endgame scenarios were implemented. Continued improvements became polishing as all of the major problems had been addressed.

the interface second revision

"three misses, you're out"


 
 
 

 

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