Introduction
The puzzler project in term 2 of the VR Nano-degree was designed to help the developer understand the importance of iterations and user-testing. Imitating the life-cycle of a project really cemented my understanding of what is needed to create an application that caters to the intended audience. This project took us through everything from figuring out who your audience is, tweaking the project based on users’ experience from testing the application, and finally creating something presentable to the public.
Gameplay
When you begin the game, a prompt will allow you to start the puzzler dungeon. You’ll be taken into the structure and 5 blue orbs will be presented in front of you. Like the game “Simon Says”, the orbs will light up one-by-one in a specific pattern, and your job is to imitate the same pattern to complete the game. Choosing the wrong pattern will result in a failure with a chance to reattempt the pattern
As seen in this video, you enter the dungeon and proceed to see a pattern played by the five floating orbs. Successfully imitate this pattern by clicking on them in succession and you’ll complete the puzzle! You’ll then be taken to a prompt to restart the dungeon, and it will take you to the first prompt again to attempt the puzzler dungeon again. In the video, I purposely press on the wrong orb to show what a failure looks and sounds like
Development Process
Target Persona:
Name: Alex
Occupation: Sibling of close friend
Quote: “I’m glad you came along! You’re my special friend”
Experience Level with Vr: None
Motivation: Alex loves to try new things and is excited to dive into his friends’ interests
Sketches:
User Tests:
Test 1: Overall Mood
Question: How do you feel about the overall mood about the game? Give me initial impressions of how the environment makes you feel and whether it changes as you progress through the application.
Feedback: The user felt that the application was too bright and didn’t fit the mood of a “dungeon” game. The backdrop was far too lightly colored and the user felt no sense of “creepiness”
Changes: Added dimmer lights and changed the backdrop of the application to be more fitting of a dungeon-like mood
Test 2: User Interface
Question: How do you feel about the UI of the game? Please tell me whether it’s user-friendly and how easy/hard it is to navigate through the game.
Feedback: The user felt the UI of the game was appropriately placed and the size was okay. The placement of the initial UI can be more forced to be looked at first, though.
Changes: Placement of the first UI prompt was moved to a more obvious place.
Test 3: Movement/Speed
Question: Did you feel any kind of discomfort while playing the game? Please describe how comfortable you are with the speed/movement of the game as it progresses.
Feedback: The user felt the speed of the movement was appropriate. It was smooth, controlled, and neither too fast or slow. The dungeon setting felt “claustrophobic”, though.
Changes: The overall size of the dungeon was scaled larger to let the user feel that there was sufficient space to move/look around without being uncomfortable.
Test 4: Game Logic
Question: Is the objective of the game easily understood? After figuring out what you’re supposed to do, how easy was it to accomplish the goal of the game?
Feedback: The user felt like the pattern was playing too fast and though he could keep up with it, those inexperienced in VR might not be able to. Sphere placement was also too close and the user had trouble accidentally pressing an unintended orb.
Changes: The placement of the orbs were spaced out a little further apart to prevent accidental pressing and the speed of the pattern was decreased substantially.
Conclusion/Future Development
The puzzler definitely helped recreate the life-cycle design process of a VR application. The insights from user-testing greatly helps identify issues that the developer might turn a blind-eye to. It provides valuable information to help cater the application to the general audience. As far as future development, many environmental effects can be added to create a sense of “urgency” in finishing the puzzler. Perhaps playing suspenseful music as the user spends increasing amounts of time failing the puzzle or even scaling the room down over time will create that sort of claustrophobic uncomfortable feeling to increase the urgency of finishing the puzzle.