Musu.bi Playtesting
Testing the game and talking to experts
Throughout the development of the game several talks with experts and a first playtest of a short version have helped to get the ideas further and more realistic. Among others the idea has been presented to Bec Barnett, Co-Director at Relative Creative, educator and specialist about decolonizing design and games in Australia. Janette Müller, systems thinking specialist and artist in Austria, has been interviewed for input as well. Both liked the first general ideas but it was too less of a real game, more like a toolkit. Bringing the idea of a robot in has helped to create a real story and motivation for the children to engage with the game.
After further development I presented the ideas to home educated children I interviewed earlier in the process of the project. They were aged between 12 and 14 years and both, as well as the parents, liked the idea, the design and the background behind it. On a scale from 0 to ten (with 0 worst and 10 best) they all rated a 9-10.
After creating the first design drafts and building the prototype, I had the chance to playtest the game with two children, aged 7 and 10 years old. They are both attending the local school in England and are talented with creativity and reading skills. During a very hot summer day and with the social distance regulations of COVID-19 they got the opportunity to test a short version of Musu.bi.
The purpose of the testing was to see if the children can understand the instructions in the logbook on their own, if they manage to do the tasks, if the graphics are attractive and the story is catchy and motivating as well. Even though there was an age gap of three years between the two girls, they both engaged very well with the game and it was easy for them to understand. If the younger one didn't understand something in the first place the older one explained it to her and helped her. They even exchanged "Emergency Call" cards among each other. Including a break in between the testing took about 2,5 hours. They had to accomplish 8 tasks in total and due to the short time frame they had a given time to do them as well. The original game wouldn't have these short time frames and has more tasks to do.
The younger one wasn't focused in the end anymore and solved the tasks the way she wanted to do them without really caring on the described task outputs in the logbook. This showed that the game is more suitable for older children.
Both did very well and it was very motivating and empowering to see that the concept and idea works well.
After the final presentation of their project (crabs and sharks) they filled out a questionair for feedback. I took notes of all the comments during playing the game and concluded with some minor changes on the layout and graphics for the game in general. Since the whole concept is based on a long time frame, the functionality and success couldn't be tested, but it was great to observe that they understood everything and enjoyed playing it a lot. Their mother also told me that it is a great tool and she will use some of the tasks I introduced to them for their future distance learning situation with school due to Corona. It inspired both, children and parents, to learn differently and explore things on a broad level.
Both rated the game on a scale from 0 to 10 with 10 points. They had tasks they liked more and tasks they liked less which shows that each child has individual interests and styles of learning. It was a great experience, for me and the children, and now the development can be continued with the insights of this afternoon.