The waterfall methodology is one of many methods out their on moving through with creating a project.
In reality, the waterfall method is outdated and will punish projects whose purpose is to always iterate and constantly.
Regardless, the waterfall method introduces an important concept, testing.
Keep in mind that a game is as strong as it’s weakest link.
User-Centered Design
User-Centered Design is a form of testing that puts your users front and center in the development process.
When creating games, realize that your main target audience are the users that buy your games, stay as loyal fans, and support any and future games you may release.
Your core fans are the ones drawing pictures, keeping the community alive, and ultimately keeping the project moving forward and funded (such as crowdsourcing or outright purchasing your games)
One form of user centered design is called usability testing.
In essence, you place your users first, studying to find out what it is they need from
your product, or in this case your game.
User Experience
If this is your first time doing or approaching usability testing I recommend looking into one thing:
User Experience
User experience can be broken down into two topics:
Ergonomics
Psychology
Usability testing does not necessarily mean testing only UX, rather that testing UX is a part
of usability testing; arguably the most important thing in video games.
At minimum, get at least 1 person to test your game because the reality is that usability testing has tremendous benefits.
So, how many users do you need to test with to improve your game?
Well, Tom Landauer & Jakob Nielson came to the conclusion that 1 user increases insight into the problems of your project by 33%.
Five users give you about 80% of insights into problem areas of your project.
Anything more than five testers does not do too much in terms of benefits gained.
In a sense, with one user you will be able to find about 33% of problems in your game.
The actual numbers may be debatable, the most important thing to note is that zero users give 0% insight into the problems of your game.
Questions to ask your usability testers
It’s important to have questions to ask your users/testers.
Here are some questions to think about.
Name three things you liked about the game
The answer to this question means that these are the parts of your game to strengthen
Name three things you did not like about the game?
The answer to this question are warning signs of bad things to come.
These are the parts to focus on.
You are as strong as your weakest link
How does the game make you feel?
Listen to how your usability testers describe their answers as it’s an answer that combines music, animation, and gameplay.
If your players aren’t feeling anything, then most likely your game is unmemorable and will need to be reworked.
Is there anything confusing about the game?
If your usability testers ask you questions while playing the game, then this is a red flag that needs to be looked
at immediately.
Ask follow-up questions and zone in on exactly what is confusing the usability tester.
Transcript
Godot Tutorials is not sponsored by or affiliated with the Godot game engine. In this episode, we will be going over the following a recap of the waterfall method, basics of testing, more specifically, usability, testing, the basic strategies for testing. And lastly, where to learn more about testing. So again, we have a waterfall method. We went from game concept to game design to coding, and now we are in the testing stage, the testing stages where we go and share our game with other people to give us feedback or constructive criticism in order to improve our game.
And so from testing, we go back to coding and after we code we test again to be given back more feedback or criticism to head back to the cutting room to adjust and improve our game. And we end up in this loop until we have a game that the users are satisfied with. And then we move forward with releasing the game. As a matter of fact, testing any project and especially video games lets you see which specific part of your project is weak and needing of improvement. Just remember that your project or game is as strong as its weakest link.
As a matter of fact, I would say that your core fans are the ones drawing pictures, keeping the community alive and ultimately keeping your project moving forward with money and funding, such as crowdsourcing or outright purchasing your game on Steam. There are multiple things you can test for. Some people like to test raw data. For example, Google likes to make decisions based on the data it collects from its users. However, when it comes to game design, you can do that too. But I recommend going the user centered design route. Now, what exactly is user centered design? Well, it's a form of designing a product that puts your core users front and center in the development process for your project.
In a sense, your main target of users are the ones to buy your game, stay as loyal fans and support any and future games. You may release. One form of user centered design is called usability testing. Now, what exactly is usability testing? Usability testing is the study of how humans relate to a product. As a matter of fact, I would go one step forward and say that usability testing can be implemented onto any of your projects. For example, you can use usability testing to see if a refrigerator is hard to operate or missing a necessary feature.
Or perhaps testing that new Nintendo switch console is as easy to work with as your R&D team says it is. Usability testing can be used for software, in essence. In short, usability testing will help ensure that your application maintains good usability among your users. Now, what do you focus on with usability testing? And this can vary by product or application. But because we are dealing with video games, I would say you need to focus on the user experience, the ergonomics and the psychology of your user.
For example, if you are testing a game, how does it play? Well, with users that play with a mouse and keyboard versus users who like to use an Xbox One controller. Considering that your game may be for Windows 10, another example of ergonomics is how does your game play when someone's using the Oculus VR headset versus the Microsoft VR headset? On top of that, take into consideration psychology, for example, if you're making a horror game, how well do your users take it or are they too scared to do something or are they not scared at all? And so, in a sense, usability testing is an art form that gets better the more you practice doing it.
Now, usability testing does not necessarily mean testing user experience or UX, but testing user experience is a part of usability testing and arguably the most important thing in video games. On top of that, in video games, you may also hear the term player experience an either or is fine. One thing to make sure that you do is to at least test one user for your game, your application or your product. And that is because there's data to show that usability testing actually improves your products as long as you are implementing the feedback you received from your testers.
And so if you look at this graph here, you can see how many users you will need to test with in order to improve your product or more specifically, your game. And as a matter of fact, on Lutter and Jacov, Nelson came to the conclusion that one user increases insights into problems with your project by thirty three percent. As a matter of fact, if you test against five users, five users will give you 80 percent of insight into problem areas of your project and or video game. And as you can see with the graph, anything more than five doesn't really add much.
But the more the merrier for your project, of course. And so even though the actual numbers may be debatable, the most important thing to note is that zero users to test against gives you zero percent insight into the problems of your project. And so it is better to test with one user versus no users. So the basic strategy of testing is as follows. First, you need to play the game yourself self test, and then after you need to find people to share your game with basically finding your usability testers or the people you want to test with, then after you need to receive feedback from your testers, you need to adjust based on the feedback and then you need to go back to your users and present them the new game so that they can give you more feedback.
And as you can see here, you can sort of see this loop and this is what we call the feedback loop. You get feedback, you adjust your code or your game. You give, in a sense in new updated game to your users, which give you back more feedback. And as you can see here, through iteration, through your feedback loop, through constant testing, your game should have less problem areas. Now, again, usability testing doesn't guarantee success, but it does minimize risk that when you send your game out there, you can sort of predict that if your usability testers enjoy your game, that the mass market will enjoy your game.
If you do usability testing rate and at least with usability testing, if you're usability testers find the problem with your game, then most likely everyone else will find the problem with your game. And then after your feedback loop, which is up to you, how many times you want to iterate testing, you move to the final product, which is just polishing. So let's go through each one step by step. We'll start with playing. So first you want to play your game and in your game you have a game design idea and all you're trying to do is make sure that to the best of your ability, you are achieving the desired result.
The problem is that you have a bias towards your own game and that's OK. Who in their right mind wants to criticize their baby? The countless hours of hard work putting into your project, the more you work on something, the less likely you are to unbiasedly criticize your product. In this case, your game. On top of that, the more you play your game, the more you know about your game, the more you know the rules to your game. So perhaps at the start of the project, you were in fact a good tester for your game. But as the project is further along its development lifecycle and close to closing, you are the worst person to test your game.
And that's again, because you've been living with your game for so long, you know how to play the rules. You know the little tricks. You know what you're supposed to do to jump. For example, the solution to this is to always test with other users, especially those who are new to your game. This means you need to bring in fresh blood to test your game. And fresh blood gives you a fresh perspective on your game. They can see something that you cannot. The next step is to find a way to share your game. You need to find users to test with whether the testing will occur at your place, your house during everyone's free time or a game link on each Daryle with a survey that they need to answer.
At the end, you need to find a way to not only send your games to be played by others, but you also need to find the right people to test with. And this stage is very important. If you don't find the right way of testing with your users, the information you get back will be meaningless and therefore a waste of time. For example, we know that you are your own worst tester, but family and friends are next on that list. And this isn't because they hate you or anything. Actually, it's quite the opposite. They love you. Hopefully they love you enough to not want to hurt your feelings.
The incentive to lie for family and friends is strong because they don't want to deteriorate the relationship they have with you. And that's amazing. And of course, expected perhaps they know you have been working tirelessly and are stressed working on your game. If they know this, if they know that you are in fact stressed or feeling down, maybe even depressed, I hope not depressed, but feeling stressed at least then they don't want to be the one to add onto that. Now, if all you have is friends and family for testers, that's OK. It is important that you emphasize with friends and family that you are testing the product and not the end of.
As a matter of fact, you should be telling every testor that you're only testing the product and not the individual, that your family and friends know, that it is crucial that they are honest to you about how they feel with the game, that nothing your friends and family say, express or feel will damage your relationship with them. And as a matter of fact, it would mean the world to you. And it's true that if they are upfront and honest with you about how the game makes them feel, it will make you happy to know that truth. And of course, lastly, if you can find testers that are strangers, there is no incentive for them to lie as they'll tell you how they feel naturally most of the time.
Now, once you find a group of testers and a place to test, you need to receive feedback. And as a matter of fact, this can debatably be the most important aspect of your game, maybe slightly under finding the right users. Now, when it comes to user critique or user feedback, you have to be careful with yourself. People are vulnerable to negative feedback. This is true for me. And, you know, one can escape this. The most important thing is to recognize that the critique or feedback you receive from your users and testers will enhance your game.
So let any and all ego about your game disappear. Just be open minded. Listen, don't criticize. Do not debate the feedback you receive. Just accept it and find a way to use that feedback to improve your game. One last thing, and I want to emphasize this because this is very important is to never criticize the feedback you get. It does not benefit anyone. As a matter of fact, it will do the opposite of benefiting. It will actually destroy the relationship you have with your users and testers, and it will leave a bad emotion in them that they will most likely never give you feedback, even if it's good, constructive feedback.
So just make sure to thank your users, your testers for their time, because you will need them again, since this is an iterative process. Now, once you have your users critique or give you back feedback, the next thing to do is to implement changes to your game based on the feedback. Now, once you've implemented features or changes based on the feedback from your users or testers, then you need to have your testers test the newest and latest iteration of your game based on their feedback. And this is called the feedback loop, where you continue to get user critique and implement those changes to then again, give it back to your testers for more feedback.
You continue to do this until your users give back a majority of positive feedback and then move on to finalizing the game. To put it simply, again, testing is an iteration process where you test, adjust and repeat until satisfied. Lastly, once everything's done, you just need to polish your game. Perhaps you want to make the music some clearer or your animations smoother. As a programmer, you want to start finalizing the code to make it reusable, readable, perhaps, and even start working on optimization as well. From here on out. It's just pure polishing of your game, of your code until the date of release.
So again, when you are in the phase of getting user feedback, it's important to have questions to ask your users, your testers. What I like to do is ask them to name three things they liked about the game. This is so I know what I need to keep and strengthen during the polishing phase. Of course, I need to also ask three things that they did not like about the game. And this is the part to focus on during the adjustment stage, because remember, your game is as strong as your weakest link and that could be your animation. That could be maybe perhaps your game is not optimized, laggy a little bit.
Maybe it's the game design. Maybe you're creating a horror game that the user's not really scared about playing. There could be many things. And so just ask your users name three things you do not like about the game. On top of that, always ask them how the game makes them feel. How does the music make them feel? How does the animation make them feel? How does the gameplay make them feel? And lastly, while your users are playing your game. So it was good to keep an eye on them if you're there with them and if you're not there with them, at least ask them if there was anything confusing about your game. And this is important because if there is a point of confusion in your game, that means you need to focus on it because confusion is a red flag, especially if they are asking you lots of questions about the game because it means that your game is not properly explaining itself well to the user.
And so if they are asking you questions, most likely they're going on the Internet all the time to ask those questions when the game is released. And so, as a matter of fact, the most important thing is if your user doesn't understand something about the game, that needs to be addressed immediately. So lastly, I'm going to leave some usability testing resources that you can learn more about to improve yourself. The first and most important one is the usability website provided to us by the government usability dot gov. It basically has everything from theory to forms that you can have your user sign.
I'm not a lawyer, I'm not your lawyer. So make sure that when you look at the forms to find a lawyer to approve what your users are signing next, I have two recommendations and they are books. The first one is Don't Make Me Think by Steve Crook. The second is called The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman. Leslie, I want to leave an article to you from Base Camp Chapter. Thirty four contests in the wild. I'm going to leave links in the description down below, so feel free to check these out. The useability dot gov website and the beast QEP website are free. The books are not.
You got to pay for those. However, I do recommend the books. Well, that's all I have for you in this episode. Thank you so much for joining me. Thank you for clicking the like button and thank you for clicking the subscribe button. I look forward to seeing you in the next episode. Have an amazing day.
