Studio: Firesquid (publisher)
Team Size: 8
Role: Internal Playtester
Missions: Onboarding and FTUE testing of the game catalogue.
Missions Duration: 2 months
Description: Firesquid is an indie publisher specialised in strategy games.
They founded the TactiCon: a digital convention hosted on Steam celebrating strategy video games. And co-host the event with the publisher Hooded Horse.
My contribution to:
Tutorial analysis
Reviewed all the tutorials panels of the game to report missing elements and propose solutions to improve the onboarding of features.
Title: GREAT HOUSES OF CALDERIA
Genre: Grand Strategy / Resource Management / Singleplayer
Studio: Resistance Game
Reviews: 400+ on Steam
Game Description: Great Houses of Calderia is a Feudal Grand Strategy game focusing on family dynamics & stories.
You play as a Noble Family that aims to rule Calderia. Use your family members to compete against rivals to rise in the ranks of Calderia—produce, trade, scheme, bribe, and battle to build your legacy of power!
Problem: In grand strategy games, the features can be met in a non-linear order. It is primordial to have clear, coherent and autonomous tutorial panels.
Solution:
- I mapped the relation between every screen that can be open and compared the quality of the content in tutorial panels.
My approach:
- Played the game and noted my first impressions about the exposition of features.
- Mapped on a whiteboard every game screen in their order of succession. And wrote comments from the earlier notes, then compiled the notes from other testers.
- For each screen, I listed the title and content of each tutorial panel and linked it to which feature it related.
- Highlighted mistakes or misleads in the content of panels, based on the previous notes.
- Benchmarked how similar games did their tutorials to find ideas on how to solve issues related to the current content. And shared it with my team lead.
- Wrote a report about the issues found and the solutions proposed.
- Presented the report in a call with the devs from the studio.
First time user experience analysis
Reviewed the game from a new player point of view, highlight which (important) features are understood or not, to help the studio build their tutorial before the early access release.
Title: USC: COUNTERFORCE
Genre: Turn-based Tactics / Difficult / Singleplayer
Studio: Angry Cat Studios
Reviews: 200+ on Steam
Game Description: Lead your Space Commandos in a revival of turn-based squad tactics inspired by UFO/XCOM and Aliens.
Problem: The difficulty was to make a team – already deeply accustomed to the complex systems and strategies of their game – realise the point of view of first time players.
Solution:
- Showed the studio I understood their game in depth to build trust.
- Made a quantitative study on which features are the most useful to learn for complete beginners.
- Highlighted which useful features in their game were misunderstood due to a lack of teaching.
My approach:
- Played the game a lot, noted my first impressions and understanding of features, then compiled the notes from other testers.
- Highlighted which features were used the most in our playtest, and to which part of the game loop they were tied.
- Categorised the notes by the different levels of understanding of features (Not understood, Hard to grasp, Understood with practice, Clear).
- Wrote a report with details on the most important features and which one was not well understood at the beginning, and still after a long play time.
- Presented the report in a call with the devs from the studio..
Alpha gameplay analysis
Reviewed the core and combat loop of the game and benchmarked similar titles to share the strengths and weaknesses of the alpha version.
Title: BLADE PRINCE ACADEMY
Genre: Tactical RPG / Real-Time with Pause / Singleplayer
Studio: Angel Corp
Reviews: 70+ on Steam
Game Description: Blade Prince Academy is a tactical RPGs, where you lead your squad in real-time with pause combat. Train them, nurture their relationships, discover their stories, and crush your enemies!
Problem: The difficulty was to find relevant comparison and feedback to share with a small team making their first game. In order to give them real levers to improve their product within their means.
Solution:
- Focused on a few key points that are essentials to the genre.
- Highlighted real players feedback from benchmarked games to show the player base expectations.
- Highlighted the game feel result of specific playthrough moments.
My approach:
- Played the game and note my first impression of a playthrough.
- Mapped the succession of game screens, with comments for each part of the core loop.
- Benchmarked similar games to map the players’ expectations on the genre – as well as the critical and commercial success of these games – to set the level of quality that would be expected.
- Compared the current state of the game with benchmark insights.
- Discussed the interest of various features and their effect on the game feel.
- Wrote a report with those analyses.
- Present the report in a call with the devs from the studio.