How Fish Is Made (Playtest)

This is a Playtest-Report of the team Schrödinger inside of a bag inside of a bag for Game Design Fundamentals.

Playtest-Details

Numbers of tests performed: 9

Interview

What did the Playtesters like?

The majority of the people who tested the game really liked the uncertainty of it - how you´re never sure if you´ve made a right or wrong decision, or if you´ve even made a decision at all. The game has a rather unusual core theme and style (visual & sound-wise) and comes across as very intense. The illusion of choice, unexpected poetry in the dialogs and the feeling that there´s a hidden philosophy besides the rather obvious primary meaning of the game (literally how fish is made and the unethical consumption of fish) made for a rather interesting game.

What did the Playtesters not like?

The majority of playtesters were unsatisfied with the rather vague storyline. Some felt the game (although it shows a trypophobia warning at the beginning) was too disgusting or aesthetically unpleasing (sfx certainly matching that - which more or less attests to the good quality of the sound design). Most didn´t like how the game seemed to be sort of unfinished, how there was not enough dialog compared to the time spent just navigating the map. Most also were not satisfied with the ending at all. The pacing of the game feels rather slow - it´s like it has no direction. The ending didn´t have the impact that players were expecting with all the cryptic foreshadowing going on throughout the game.

Suggestions for improvement

Most players felt the ending wasn´t clear or impactful enough - they wish there would´ve been more to the storyline and more exploration into the world of the fish. They also felt the game would´ve benefitted from more dialog and lore-based activities rather than just endlessly "flopping" through dark corridors. Players wanted to explore their sense of purpose within the game and find out more about the dystopian (?) world or the real-life industry that the game was commenting on. As for the short musical performance, most felt the song would´ve sounded better if there was someone singing along to the subtitles appearing on the screen.

Game Experience Questionnaire Results

The table shows the average score of the Game Experience Questionnaire for each question in the Playtests.

Question	Statement	Average Score
1	I felt content	1,167
2	I felt skilful	2,2
3	I was interested in the game's story	2,56
4	I thought it was fun	1,89
5	I was fully occupied with the game	2,89
6	I felt happy	0,78
7	It gave me a bad mood	0.89
8	I thought about other things	0,67
9	I found it tiresome	1,28
10	I felt competent	1,89
11	I thought it was hard	0
12	It was aesthetically pleasing	0,78
13	I forgot everything around me	1,56
14	I felt good	1,67
15	I was good at it	3,22
16	I felt bored	0,78
17	I felt successful	1,5
18	I felt imaginative	1,61
19	I felt that I could explore things	1,61
20	I enjoyed it	2,167
21	I was fast at reaching the game's targets	2,67
22	I felt annoyed	0,1
23	I felt pressured	0,78
24	I felt irritable	1,1
25	I lost track of time	1
26	I felt challenged	0.67
27	I found it impressive	1,3
28	I was deeply concentrated in the game	1,78
29	I felt frustrated	0,56
30	It felt like a rich experience	1,4
31	I lost connection with the outside world	0,78
32	I felt time pressure	0
33	I had to put a lot of effort into it	0,67

Evaluation of the components

The 7 components of the Game Experience Questionnaire have the following mean values:

Competence (Fragen 2, 10, 15, 17 und 21): 2,38
Sensory and Imaginative Immersion (Fragen 3, 12, 18, 19, 27 und 30): 1,796
Flow (Fragen 5, 13, 25, 28 und 31): 1,52
Tension/Annoyance (Fragen 22, 24 und 29): 0,537
Challenge (Fragen 11, 23, 26, 32 und 33): 0.42
Negative affect (Fragen 7, 8, 9 und 16): 0.83
Positive affect (Fragen 1, 4, 6, 14 und 20): 1.67