Postmortem Reflection

 

In terms of the concept and premise came from Dylan Ryan. Arthur Peixoto and I, as the group members, playtested it and gave him practical and creative feedback. It was very efficient to have one person in charge when there was a consensus, especially when our given production time was not extensive. Each group member could give feedback based on their own game experience and propose improvements from different perspectives. The downside was simply that there was not enough time to playtest together more than once, which was an important tool that would allow feedback to be collected as the game was played, and we could discuss the changes right away. For future game projects, I think it is essential to find as many playtesters as possible. In addition to team members, we should also test with more people unfamiliar with the game and the project, as their feedback is often the most authentic because they have no preconceived biases.

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For the product, we actually had three versions. There was a version from before the mod played in the class, which was actually slightly more complex. The advantage of the second simplified version was that the rules were clear enough to understand, and it was friendly to novices. Relatively speaking, the shortcomings were also noticeable. Due to the over-concern about the time constraints, the simplified game was a little monotonous. Specifically, the players advanced by rolling dice, with no specific obstacles from the game itself or from opponents, and no more options except collecting existing tokens. The playtesters also highlighted these points in the class. Therefore, we needed to improve on the rules and design. Then, we had our third and final version. We went back to our original idea of making dice have more variance and made some improvements in some aspects. Examples of improvements are listed as follows:

 

• Players can choose any number within the number they rolled, which offers the players more active choices.

• The sun moves forward 3 steps instead of 2, which enhances the tension of the game. Since the total number of tiles and the steps the sun takes each turn are constant, the time of the game is controlled but faster.

• Tokens on the map are slightly adjusted to make players choices dilemmatic: they were asked “take tokens or move yellow forward?” for example.

 

After a series of iterations, there was still some space for improvement, as time permitted. For instance:

 

• Change the values of tokens on some tiles to make it even more challenging to make decisions.

• Pause the sun in the first round; the players start with some distance from it, giving them more opportunities to pace themselves.

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As a team member, I was very proud to participate in and complete this game. The current version was a significant improvement over the previous one. As a game designer, I was happy to see an idea turn into a product as well. Good games are not created just overnight, and play-centric design plays an essential role in the entire design production. When necessary, I need to step out of the designer zone, let the player in, and record the most authentic feedback. With every iteration the game will continue to grow.

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