Our softs presentations went well this week, with fairly consistent positive feedback coming from the faculty. We presented our most recent prototype, which is nearly complete except for some minor bugs and an incomplete tutorial system. Both of these issues have since been addressed. In general, feedback was centered on the tutorial experience as well as some comments about UI items that remained unclear. One of the biggest things we learned while preparing for these short demo sessions, however, is that due to the complexity of explaining this game to a first-time user it is quite impractical to try and give players a hands-on experience if they do not have the time to invest in learning and playing the game. This is similar to our second playtesting experience in which most evaluators spent greater than twenty minutes playing without the tutorial system and most updated UI. The simple fact is that we have a complicated product that is as friendly as we are able to make it, while still being satisfactorily detailed to fulfill client expectations. As a result of this, we will be inviting the faculty that visited us, back for personalized introductions to the project, giving them a hands-on experience with the game, from registering, walking through the tutorial, and finally, playing the game.
As a result of this feedback we scheduled work time to deal with the few gameplay bugs and glitches that remain, especially around the balancing of expenses, as well as continued revisions to the tutorial system. Both aspects have been progressing well and we look forward to continue to iron out minor problems through the last week.
Also this week, in preparation for softs, we produced two videos, that discuss our project and how we arrived at where we are now, both our available on our project website. We established and added most of our content into our project archive, with more on its way as we conclude work. Finally, other loose ends and remaining deliverables, such as our Game Design Document are well under way. Our clients also got a chance to play the most updated version of our game this week, during our conference call, and were quite pleased with our progress, appreciating how the UI has evolved significantly. Last week they were able to send us some initial feedback from a pre-softs version and we discussed with them what we had tried to address and how, as well as what we were unable to address and why. Overall, they seem to have been quite pleased with how the project has gone. Now, we are looking forward to our final presentation on Monday, May 7.