Testing for a game:

• self-testing  ( technical running, expressing)
  
• peer group
  
• people we don’t know
  
• target audience
  

The main question in our mind: Does our game prototype answer the expressing goals?

After we self-testing our game, we asked our classmates, my mom and other people to playtest Maiden Pink. Our testers including people who play games a lot and people who barely play games, our peer group in the class who already know what’s going on and people who are the first time to see our game.

Method: we asked the game players played the game twice.First, we asked them to play the game as they normally would and provide feedback as they normally would.Then, we asked them to lay it again and ask specific questions while they are playing for example if they noticed that change in the music once the daughter is moving too far from her mother, or did they understand that they can throw seeds on the monsters, etc.

Questions asked:

• What is the game about?
• What parts in the game contribute to understand the concept?
• Can you describe your first time experience of the game in one word?
• Did you understand the controls, interface, gameplay elements, and level/reward system?
• What do you like or dislike about the game?
• How is it feel like when it play the role of daughter?

Comments from my mom

• It’s a game about mom and daughter, it seems like the character need to protect her mom
• The character can’t be away from her mom
• Protection
• I don’t play games a lot, it is a bit difficult for me to throw the seed very quickly to save the mom. I feel like the reward is that mom being safe, punishment is mum getting hurt
• I like this game. It reminds me that I never let me going away from my sight when I was little
• It reminds me of you instead of my own mom.
• I would like to see the next scene working and I hope the character can grow up

Comments from Ramona

• A game of obeying
• The text and the story, the design of the character is helping to convey the relationship; the mother comes off as a mystical protector I feel confident about following through the journey
• Exciting (and beautiful)
• On first play, I didn’t see the UI buttons in the top left but once they were pointed out, I found it easy to refer to them; the WASD keys and E key also felt easy to use but perhaps the E is too close to them (my lack of coordination found it a little difficult)
• I really like all the conversation with the Mother character and I loved interacting with her and seeing where the story will go
• The role of the daughter feels like the role of a protege and it makes the game feel more intuitive and safe

Comments from Yuval

• Trust between the mother and the daughter
• The text
• Emotional
• I didn’t know what keys I should use. I have previous experience as a gamer so I just tested and found them. I didn’t notice the UI very well.
• The design and conversation. I didn’t like that it ends without knowing what will happen next.
• Makes me want to explore the environment more (run around like kids often do).

Self-reflection:

One of the main reason for joining in our team in Maiden Pink is that I have a very close relationship with my mom. My dad is always busy with working in another city and I spent most of my time with her. My mom is a very strong woman who holds up the umbrella for the family and always trying to protect me. However, I used to be a rebellious young kid who is very naive and occasionally brought some troubles to my mom. Until then everything changed, I went to study abroad for my bachelor degree in the UK. I have to face and learn everything by myself in another country, I would say that time in the UK becomes the most important time in my life, which completely changed me.  The story in Maiden Pink basically reflects and matches my life experience. So when Roxanne talked about the idea of making a game about Mother and Daughter, it immediately attracts me. Before actually working on this game, I have a strong desire to let my mom play it and see her reactions. And recently she was just happened to visit me in Toronto and I think this is a great opportunity. As she doesn’t know English, I have to translate everything to her while her playing. I can see some tears in her eyes even as the fact that she would never cry in front of me. However, it didn’t evoke her own childhood memories but the old memories of the parenthood. She said to me, “it reminds me of you were a little girl.” Some comments from my mom are very valuable, she wants to see the character grow up as just like her hope to me all the time.

The other thing that happened in our playtesting time, one of our team members, Dikla, felt so touched and cried. Our game becomes a very strong emotional stimuli especially to a woman who is away from her family and works hard to survive in another country. It’s actually our purpose to show from the angle of a woman’s changing process form a self-abased girl who depending on other’s help to an independent person through our game.

We would like to ask more women to play the sketch of Maiden Pink and record their emotions and feelings if we have the opportunity, it will then become very useful for our future development of Maiden Pink.

Links to the videos:

My mom - https://youtu.be/Cl41-f7jMpI

Ramona - https://youtu.be/upX1F4lnObQ

Max - https://youtu.be/UQPbVhLAW0k

Tommy - https://youtu.be/Wn9tzv9FtaE