To test the puzzles and the flow of the game, I made the game in real life and set it in my room. I made all the necessary objects and got my sister to play it as she loves escape rooms, making her the perfect candidate. Before I let her play, I conducted a quick run through to make sure everything was set up appropriately. Although this wasn't done thoroughly, I did feel as though the puzzles were too basic and many relied on codes. I let the playtest continue to get another persons perspective first though before changing anything. Several issues arose when trying to make this demo such as not having proper materials such as locks, a wooden translating wheel and displaying imagery but I made this work by making paper replacements and going through everything beforehand so the player understood.
I used paper to replace the physical items due to physical limitations. These worked well as a indicator of what to do to allow the player to get the gist of the game. She said she liked the 2 part translation wheel and how you found the pieces separately, leading you to wonder what the first part is for. To make my game fully immersive I believe that the times items need to have reason for being in the room which was exposed during the test. It would be unusual for a teenager to have a rotary combination lock on their wardrobe so in the diary I will include a passage about how the girls parents don’t value privacy so she had to get locks. The translation wheel can be explained through finding it in Ben’s room as well.
The photo album here is displayed as a flimsy paper book but in the game will be a proper hardback album. The main purpose of this is to show the player the name of Jen’s first pet. I included 2 pet photos to make it harder but dated them. To fill it out more, I added extra photos as an insight into Jen’s life so that player can get to know her better but I will need to add more photos into it to show a more in-depth perspective of what she and her family are like. When my sister played it, she kept trying to refer the dates between each other to see if there was any link so I could coordinate the photos to match up with things from her diary for a more immersive experience. Additionally, this only serves a single purpose so to make puzzles more intricate, I could include something else int he album that hints or assists with another puzzle.
The diary started off as a great starting point to the game with the easiest puzzle being that the code is her birthday, displayed on the calendar on the wall. It served as an introduction to the character and what her life is like. It includes information such as her relationships, who she is, who Ben is and what happened to him, ending with the fear of her upcoming demise, leaving suspicion and a cliff hanger for the player, intriguing them into the game. As previously mentioned, during the play test I noticed a lot of dates so it would be good if I could intertwine them between the different items. Furthermore, I could hint at more things within the diary entry as due to it being the first thing you read, you made read stuff and not take note of it until later on when you realise its relevance. I need to try and not include too much irrelevant information as this will bore the player from the get go, leading them to not read the diary and miss vital information.
Here is what I used for the ancient pot, the torn up name and the chisel. Unlike the test, it will be more apparent to use the chisel against the pot due to the limitations and visual hints I can incorporate. The jigsawed name worked well in real life as it was easy to understand but difficult to execute but I need to figure out how to translate to the video game to mimic this.
One of the password hints were found in the locked drawer. It worked well with the flow of the game but it is also to obvious and boring with it being too direct. Like I was saying early, everything also needs to have a reason for being in the room for it to be an immersive and ‘realistic’ experience. To amend this I need to think of another way in which you can find the laptop password. The player noted that the laptop drawing was not needed as well due to all other passwords being completed, it was obvious anyway.
I made the phone out of pieces of paper as this was the most practical and simple form I could display the puzzle. The password being encrypted in a post it note was easy to figure out but the player struggled to realise it was the password for the phone due to it hinting at being a pin rather than a password. If I were to make this easier, I could make the phone ask for a password and show a keyboard but I like the challenge of having to convert the letters into numbers. In the photos app, I need to add many more photos to make it look realistic and also made the dates relate to previous mentions, as mentioned earlier. To add more lore, I could include several more notes. It works that the encrypted password is in the notes app as some people do this to avoid forgetting passwords but the player commented that I shouldn't have the solution on the same device but instead have it somewhere else. I could easily place the birthday photo in the photo album to combat this. Having the password be his birthday created a good puzzle as the player had to subtract his age from the date the photo was taken which wasn't her first instinct. The calls page wasn’t needed but in the game it could just be something to view to further the lore and make the game more immersive. I may also add other apps when creating the game to extend this.
I made a quick version of this poster for the test and it worked well as the player didn't understand what it was for at first. It made her think and confused her until the puzzle box was found. In the game the box will be interactive where you put down on certain squares to open it, realising a key but this wasn't feasible to make for the test so I made it so that you just had to fill in the correct squares. The player commented on how it doesn't make sense for that to be in her room though and how a poster is the solution. To amend this, I’ve decided to have an actual chessboard present in the game with the pieces prepared in certain way. It will demonstrate a made up chess scenario named something like the bishops gambit. In the diary, I will discuss how Jen loves chess and has been practicing her favourite move. This will like to the reasoning of the reason why the puzzle box correlates to the chess board as the solution is her favourite move. A chess poster may still be used to help decorate her room.