Iterative Story Design
Play-Testing Augmented Reality
This project will build on the work of the Location Based Storytelling Studio group from Fall 18 which produced and ran an initial play-test for an AR game about climate change. During Winter 19, we will continue play-testing and refining the game while gathering feedback from players through surveys and interviews. Can playing a game really impact attitudes about climate change? Which is more impactful--a game designed for “fun” or a game that’s more transparent about its educational goals?
Faculty and Staff Leads
Project Details
2019 Winter
Important Questions
- How do you design a game with the intention of maximizing a learning outcome or incentivizing behavior change?
- What’s the right relationship of irl time to in game time?
- How do people behave while playing large scale location based games?
- What is “balance” in a game and how do you design for it?
- What motivates continued play?
Sample Milestones
- Week 1-2 Getting up to speed and study design. Students new to the project will play around with the game and we’ll go through the feedback from the first playtest. We’ll then decide on hypotheses for the second playtest and a time frame, sample size and research methods. We will consider deploying fairly small design tweaks during this phase.
- Week 3-4 Initial playtest. Students will gather a diverse sample of players and conduct surveys and interviews before during and after gameplay.
- Week 5-6 Synthesis and design refinement. Students will gather the results of the initial playtest and produce a plan for any changes to both the game and the research methods that need to be made (midterm presentation). We’ll implement changes and begin a new testing cycle.
- Week 7-8 Second test and final presentation. Class will probably end midway through the second playtest but we think that’s ok.
Outcome
A new refined and playable version of the game, a presentation of “lessons learned”.