Ares2036 - logbook

The first round of user testing has finished and we got very motivating feedback. First, let's have a look at what the prototype is about:

Exploring the space between information vacuum and overload

Dr. Raven Ikeda, the main character, and commander Elias Stone III are on board Phoenix 2, on its way to the Aresbase on Mars. But en route to Ares, where the crew of the Phoenix 1 await its arrival, Phoenix 2 encounters technical problems, causing communications to go dark and preventing Ikeda and Stone from receiving information from Earth. Without comms and guidance from TCSA mission control Ikeda is determined to find answers. 

Ares 2036 is a visual novel exploring the circumstances, factors and even personal biases that come into play in the process of forming opinions. 

Mission:  Give players a chance to experience a situation in which communication is unclear and various factors and motives influence the quality of available information.

User testing: 

Feedback of testers indicated that our choice of music and ambient soundtrack created a film-like appeal and a heightened sense of immersion despite the still image backgrounds and typical visual novel interaction. This was supported by the use of dialogue-driven storytelling, as well as the design of the characters and their personalities. Subsequent iterations resulted in intuitive design decisions, such as the integration interaction choices designed to measure personal bias or tendencies. Once decided, this provided a framework within which the narrative took shape.

Concrete comments from the first user tests:

• “The music worked very well with the theme and the graphics are amazing and very clear. The storyline is brilliant!”
• “Rocket and storm sounds are too loud and clipping.” We are aware and worked on compressing sounds, and especially the rocket sound can still be improved further. 

 Interviewing one of the testers revealed: “The characters need more exposition; the beginning is too short. I think you want to somehow feel the main character early on, so the decisions become stronger and you have to help her (or control her actions, etc.) to get the launch done right.”

→ We are working on an early scene in which players interact as Ikeda making it clear that players take on her role. For the submission deadline, these improvements did not make it in time as they need further development. 

We asked play testers what insight they got from playing and got these answers:

“That I want to know more before drawing my own conclusions”

“There are multiple ways to react to information or lack thereof”

“That my personality can be analysed by an algorithm when I play games”

What did they like best?

I liked the theme and premise of the story (trying to solve a problem after losing communication)

Overall atmosphere, the separation of scepticism, gullability and rationalism, the dialogue (funny and witty at times)

The mood/setting. It's immersive.

I liked the reflective moment of discovering that I was being played while I thought I was playing

The way a relatively simple combination of image+sound+text creates quite a strong atmosphere.

The music worked very well with the theme and the graphics are amazing, very clear and the storyline is brilliant!

What could have been better?

Adding what kind of emotion the player has when picking one of the multiple choice answers, some times I choose an answer but did not get the dialogue I expected. Besides that I would like to have more choice with whom I interact and talk, instead of having a decision being made for me (returning to earth).

 Different facial expressions would be nice (although it didn't even bother me to get immersed and as I'm saying it, I'm not even certain if you didn't use different facial expressions)

 The BACK button allowed me to explore different response results. so i used it a few times towards the end. but I’m not sure if that affects the scoring system. Also, since it felt like a game, there's a tendency to want to "win" or "solve". But that only means the player would want to be thorough -- this could potentially override any emotional biases.

 Being able to return to previous choice moments without replaying the in-between portions of the story, which were the same. anyway, all of the three times I played it (our comment: that is actually included by scrolling with the mouse or by using the back option right under the dialogue box)

 It was sometimes unclear what was going on, so, more introduction and description perhaps.