Happy New Year! We had our December thesis milestone two weeks ago. Here is all the feedback we received from faculty, alumni, & classmates. It had a fair amount of bugs & design issues. It was the first time we threw everything together in a digital form though! So we think of it a little bit as a vertical slice.

Special thanks to Chris Kindred and Claire Carré for helping us out with voice acting on the latest prototype.

Some of the “official” feedback from the department: “While the overall concept is interesting and original, you need to make sure that players understand how they are meant to interact with the game. Some reviewers were confused and could not figure out the basics. Several were put off by having to listen to the lengthy conversation. There was some concern that many players will not have the patience to figure things out without more structure and feedback.”

What we introduced in the December build:

1. We added an introduction with voice over to give directions to the player. This was framed narratively as orders from a commander, and meant to keep players within the world of the game and not implement direct game UI elements or tutorials.
2. We had players tune the radio to access the “number station” / encrypted message from commanding officer.
3. We wanted players to get at least one whole word from the incoming transmission correct so we required that players spell out the word “general” entirely correct before progressing.
4. We had the light blink on the headphones & radio to indicate when players can interact with those objects.
5. We had the conversation play and the map appear in the last 30 seconds.
6. Players could select a city on the map based on the information in the conversation overheard via wiretap.
7. We had three endings: a “win,” a partial “win,” a “loss.”

What playtesters said:

1. Takes a while to get the word “general” right.
2. Most players had no idea to use the keyboard to type the directives at first.
3. Not obvious to click on headphones. Missed the headphone cue.
4. Hard pan left on the audio felt like they were in the room it was happening in versus overhearing on wiretap.
5. Didn’t realize when successful: “I marked an X on a map and I had no idea what I was doing. It just ended.”
6. Wanted something mindless to do while listening. Needed something to fill in the time.
7. Issue with the typewriter / keyboard interaction: the paper doesn’t roll so the writing goes all over. There is also no way to delete or use backspace. Wanted a new sheet of paper.
8. With the map: didn’t like how they felt locked in with one answer at the end. Wanted a way to confirm their selection.
9. “The clue I get from the code didn’t feel like it had a connection to the wiretap.” Playtester wanted it to feel more like espionage, i.e. connect a wire or use a switchboard to trigger the conversation.
10. With decoding: “Is the typewriter broken? Not clear that it is a 1 to 1 translation.”
11. Playtester thought that the “conversation” between Poppy & Vera was actually a transmission from commander.
12. One playtester thought they were on the telephone and talking to another character. They thought they were Poppy and did not know they were an Officer following orders and spying.
13. The conversation felt long & they lost focus. Wanted an option to record the conversation or playback. “This felt like a good simulation for gathering intel, but boring.” Felt like the game is asking a lot from players. Compared it to answering questions on a standardized test.
14. It was clear that while the game is in a fictional location, it is set in Asia.

Main suggestions from faculty playtesters:

1. Have players spy on different parts of the day or have players interact with archives instead of live conversation. (i.e. Her Story)
2. Have players be more involved with the process of espionage. (i.e. Spycraft the Great Game)

Possible solutions / things to try / things to address:

• Problems: Most players had no idea to use the keyboard to type the directives at first.
  • Only have the typewriter & radio on screen while taking the directives. Move to the desk after the directives are written correctly.
• Problem: “What can I interact with?”
  • Have an operating manual to indicate what players can or can’t interact with and how to interact.
  • Visually highlighting objects in different ways.
• Problem: The conversation felt long & it is easy to lose focus.
  • Break up the conversation. Some issues we are encountering are historical accuracy. How were recording devices used in 1945 Chinese espionage / military intelligence? A lot was transmitted via radio.
    • There was the Magnetophon & Wire recording, primarily used in Europe. They were used mostly to deceive opposing powers into believing there were identical live broadcasts from multiple cities or to simulate sonic deception on the Western Front.

Questions we need to address:

• Do we want to utilize an archive mechanic? Where will this take the game narratively? How does this affect our current timeline for recording voice overs & editing audio before May 2019? How does this change the script & how would this be written and paired with intelligence gathering?
• How to code everything…?? How do we not stray too much from our strengths in visual & narrative design?
• What more can we do to capture the spirit of wiretapping without losing too much of the player’s attention, but also not rely on text?
• Should we shift the direction of the game so you are not spying on civilians? This would alter what you hear, the voice overs we need to record, and take the focus away from narrative and more on the simulation / action of spying. (i.e. working more with wires, encrypting outgoing messages in addition to the decryption mechanic)

What we will try next: Break it up into three days. Instead of all at once, decode once a day, listen once a day, report once a day.

• Rewrite the script. New draft to reflect new day. (Maybe Poppy is staying at Vera’s for 3 days)
  • Make possible endings for each day?
  • Write text for newspaper on board for back story and world building. 
• Make three scenes.
• Highlight the objects.
• Make list of what players can maybe interact with.

Hope we have a new prototype to share in the next month! Cheers!

-Mandy & Emperatriz