Eventfull weeks behind, renewed sights ahead.

This week was all about trying to be everywhere at once. Warming up on Monday 13.2. we went to Oulu University to meet few students of early childhood education. They tested our demo and gave some valuable comments from the educators point of view, which was something we had been long hoping for. Then Polar Bear pitching filled our schedules for the rest of the week, we participated in game industry meetup, EdTech matchmaking and networking parties. Furthermore Game Industry meet up offered fresh vision on many aspects of game development and we got information about important events on the industry.

TIETOMAA SPEED TESTING

We had an opportunity to participate in Tietomaa's Speed testing event where we had a chance to have our Demo tested. Kids arrived at our testing table in pairs or small groups to try out our demo, and afterwards they filled in a short feedback form. Although there was only one group close to our target age group, all the feedback was very much appreciated. Most of the testers seemed to enjoy more of the puzzles and right from the beginning it was clear that older the player, more interactivity they needed to enjoy the game. We witnessed also a completely new solution to the most challenging paper prototype.

Later that week Sami Nyyssölä, UI design talent from Overtowered paid us a visit to give us guidance on that front. We discussed ways and importance of making the game progress visible for the player and how that is necessary for user satisfaction. And of course as we talked we beckoned him to test our high difficulty paper prototypes. All in all we gained some valuable tips and will definitely keep them in mind.

MEETINGS, MEETINGS, MEETINGS.

We had to push ourselves to get the story finalized and set crystal clear focus for everyone as well, regarding agreeing on the mechanics of the remaining puzzles… So we sat down and discussed - a lot.

After pizza, refreshments and few pots of coffee we had scraped many of the original puzzle mechanics and created new ones. However now we all agreed that our fresh puzzle ideas required the player to plan their moves more ahead than earlier in order to pass the levels. Of course this claim will have to be tested to be certain which is next up.