Reflection #3: Throat Singing Game
For this design challenge, I reiterated on my Tuvan Throat Singing game. This game was a digital game that I made with Unity. I made a video in place of a playtest highlighting the reiterations I made to the game. I added the idle and singing animations, audio, and an x-ray mode. The x-ray mode allows the player to see the anatomy of the throat inside of the model.
For this game, I had two groups of playtesters. I play tested with my family members at home, and I presented a video in class. My family responded positively to my game. Not much explanation was required, as I had presented this project previously for our first design project. They thought it was interesting that I had added audio into the game. I believe that the audio really brought my game to life. The play testers also really enjoyed the x-ray mode. They thought it was great that they could have a transparent version of the model where they could see the internal anatomy, such as the throat and tongue.
Since my playtest was in the form of a video, the play testers knew what to expect from the game. However, had there been an opportunity to playtest with the file, I would have encouraged the audience to try out different things. For example, if someone wanted to move the mouth on their own, rather than the animations being triggered by the touch of a button, that would be something to think about. I know that if they give me those kinds of things to think about, I would have the opportunity to generate more ideas, and be inspired as to what I should add to the game.
I believe that if the play testers in class could play the game, they would have had a lot of fun with it. I think the they enjoyed watching the model go through the animations as I went through the different key presses. As I mentioned before, they seemed impressed at the x-ray mode.
I believe that the audio clips and the x-ray mode stuck out to my family the most. I had mentioned that the addition of the audio really brought the model to life, and that stuck out to me the most. Additionally, the variation in sound clips stuck out to me the most. It gave the model a sense of unpredictability and spontaneity. If the play tester was playing this game for the first time and they pressed different keys, they would notice the model singing different notes with different animations keyed into each audio clip. I think this aspect of the game made the model fun and exciting to play.
Most of the things that worked for this Tuvan Throat Singing game were the animations and the x-ray mode. Since I was unable to provide audio for my play testing video, the only thing that didn’t work with the in-class playtesters was the audio. It didn’t work only because I was unable to present the game with the audio present. If it were present, I think it would’ve made a great impact on the playtesters.
From this design challenge, I learned that players love interactivity. Also, when they know what to expect from the general concept of a game, they welcome surprises and spontaneity if it is in the same context, such as the changing animations and audio clips in this throat singing game. I also learned that players like to see something different. I think my x-ray mode hit the mark on that one, since they would not have expected an x-ray mode had I not told them.
In the future, I would re-import all of my assets into the project. The model was not as clean as I wanted it to be, and it really showed when the x-ray mode was activated. There were holes in the throat, and the transparent texture was applied to the tongue, which was not intended. I also would have tried to have cleaner audio. The audio that I recorded sounded grainy, and there was some background noise that was annoying. Another thing I would add would be to have that third throat singing style in there, as there are 3 main styles, and I only included 2. I think it would be fun to have all 3 in there, as it is one of the main styles used in throat singing. I would also key in more animations, and have all of the number keys trigger different animations, giving the player a wide variety of animations and throat singing styles to learn about.
