Description and conclusions about Color Bear's playtests and iterations. By Denise Moraes Pinho

1. ColorBear
This is my project: http://pt.slideshare.net/DeniseMPinho/after-prototype-project
This is my digital prototype last version: http://nisegames.esy.es/game/menu.html
A written reflection on your experiences testing your game. Did things turn out differently than
you expected? Would you test your game the same way in the future?
I've been testing my digital prototype on the course foruns since the last few feeks (Since
November, 9). I had collected feedback from many users like Mixmaxmin, Natehalo and Katie13.
And with their feedbacks I made many iterations on the prototype till I get to the last version on
the link. After that the user Sr6169 let 7-8 year old students play my prototype and helped me
with the feedback, since I don't have access to children for testing. I have already tested it with my
parents.
I think things turned out very different than I expected. There where very simple things that
players don't understand, even the adults, mainly the change of rules on the first grade's game.
I think these playtests helped me a lot to understand where my game fails and where I need to
adapt things for children understand it better and teachers can work with it properly. But in the
future I would like to observe children interacting with it myself. Because it's the experience from
which we collect most helpful feedbacks.
An overview of how you iterated your game based on feedback and observations.
There was many iterations since November,9. My first prototype was very simple and boring. You
can see a video of it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MbyU5sSc3o
First feedback
After first feedback I added the bear and the bear history, this would help to work on the
concept of identity.

2. Second feedback comes when I made my first digital prototype
After second feedback I added different shapes to game, according to children's age. For
kindergarten (simple shapes as squares, triangles and circles). For preschool (simple polygon
shapes as lozenge). For 1st Grade ( more elaborated simple polygons as pentagon and octagon).
After second feedback too comes the idea of creating a point-to-point game and add more
challenge and gameplay on color admixture game. This would increase child's engagement.
Third feedback comes after the first iteration on digital prototype
After third feedback I changed right click on kindergarten's game for double click. A teacher has
told me at this age they need to pactice the double click, and that they start to use right click only
on third grade. A Nanny has told me too that the kid she is minding has played the game and has
troubles with right click. So I I removed this barrier this for increasing child's engagement.
After third feedback too I added sound feedbacks; changed the fonts on the buttons and added
colorful buttons. A teacher has told me that fonts would be simple because kids on this age are
learning how to read. This teacher told me too that each button could be with a different color,
because kids that don't know how to read could be oriented to click on buttons by the color.
Finally, feedbacks with sounds (not text) would help kids who don't know how to read too.
The fourth feedback comes when the teacher let kids play the
game.
After the fourth feedback the main thing was that kids don't understand the change of rules on
first grade's game. I had already observed this with adults. No-one could play it, some thought it
was a bug and got stuck. It was a surprise because for me it seemed simple. So I need to
reformulate this with simple and clearer rules.
After the fourth feedback too I noticed the need of a preloader on my game, because some levels

3. take too long to load. This is confusing children and harming the engagement and needs to be
changed.
After the fourth feedback I noticed the needing of clearer feedback and instructions, mainly for
kindergarteners.
A brief list and explanation of the type of testers (no names please!) you engaged with. Were
you able to test with your game’s target audience? If not, explain why you chose your testers,
and how they will give you information about how your target audience would respond to your
game.
Well, first I had some tests with adults. 6 adults had tested this game. Even though they wasn't the
target, I think I could collect valuable feedbacks from them. Because if a game is difficult for an
adult, it is very likely that a child as young as 4 will not understand either.
After that a nanny and a teacher had played it. Because i think they are adult people that are close
to children and know better their knowledge and limitations. These feedbacks helped me a lot
with the technical part to understand where game was unfriendly to children.
Finally this game was tested with one preschool children, two kindergarten children and a 1st
grade classroom. And this gaves me important feedbacks about how game would work on the
target audience.
The questions you used for testing and a few comments on why you picked certain questions
Before testing i want to make sure that testers had the minimum knowledge necessary for playing
through two questions:
1- Have you ever played a digital game?
2- Do you know all the color’s names?
During testing I want to make sure that game is playable, enjoyable and if there is being some
learning , through eight questions:

4. 1- Are you having some doubts?
2- Are you having any trouble with the controls?
3- Is the game being fun?
4- Are you understanding game’s objective?
5- How do you know you’re making the right thing?
6- How do you know you’re making the worng thing?
7- Do you remember the names of the colors you just mixed for create this new one?
8- Do you think this stage is being too difficult or too easy?
After testing I want to make sure that game was playable, enjoyable and if there was some
learning, through eith questions:
1- What was your main trouble playing this game?
2- There was any fun in this game? What were the most fun elements in this game?
3- What did you liked in this game?
4- What didn’t you line in this game?
5- There were any confusing elements in this game? Did you think something was so confusing
that you can’t move on?
6- How many attempts did you need for making the right color admixture?
7- How many time did you need for understanding game controls?
8- How many time did you need for understanding how game works?