Play Testing Conclusions

I've recently had the chance to let a few more people play test Pachinguys, some of them adults and some children. Here’s what I've learned:

1) the tutorial only achieves half its goal, while it does seem to do a good job in teaching people the basic controls (what can be moved and how). It fails miserably to teach the core mechanic (drop a guy on the trigger to activate same colored things).

Possible solutions: I need to break up the tutorial over (at least) two levels, one for the basic controls (a simplified version of the current one) and one that assumes knowledge of the controls and focuses completely on the core mechanic. I'll probably have to add a graphic overlay explaining the interaction between triggers and elements. Hopefully graphics will help clarify the function of triggers. A big red button that screams "drop something on me" ought to do it.

2) The boss fights work, work well, and are not too difficult for children.

I was worried for a while that the boss fights were just too difficult for the target demographic (kids). However I have watched several kids (ages 8-17) play them and they all seemed to really love them, and (more importantly) all managed to solve them in a reasonable amount of time.

On a personal note, there is nothing more rewarding then overhearing a child playing the game saying "oh cool! I get it!”. This is a very positive sign that I'm going the right way about things and has renewed my resolve to actually get this game out to the market at some point.

3) The annual steam summer sale is terrible for productivity.

No new Pachinguys screen caps so you get this instead.

The demands of work and social life have increased a lot lately, leaving less time (and mental energy) for pachinguys. And there is still a lot of work left even before the dreaded graphics run. But thanks to some very positive and encouraging feedback I still have faith that the game will make it to the market in (hopefully less than) a year.