Assessing and Testing Your Game For this activity, you will review another person’s game, solicit assessments of your own prototype, and self-assess your prototype.

First, go through your own prototype and evaluate it by answering the four questions below in a written reflection that you will submit. You may spend a little time “polishing” obvious errors you discover during this process, but you will engage in final balancing in the next activity, after you have received your classmate’s assessment of your game.

Once you have self-assessed your prototype, partner up with someone and test their game, while they test yours. Write an evaluation of your friend’s game that covers the following topics in detail:

Evaluation of rules: Did the game’s rules make sense? Were they consistent? Were they fun? Were they easy to understand or clearly communicated by the designer?
Interfaces: Did the controls work? Did the UI communicate concepts clearly? Include at least one sentence about accessibility issues—was the game playable if you were colorblind, was it accessible to people who can’t read, how might people from different cultures react to the game, etc.?
Gameplay: Did you enjoy the gameplay? Did it communicate the theme of the game appropriately?
What bugs did you find in the game? Make sure you describe exactly how you created the error, so the developer can reproduce it. Also, include how “critical” the error was—a game-ending crash that occurred during a common activity would be considered critical, whereas a graphical glitch that occurred in unusual circumstances would be considered minor. (Remember, all games have SOME bugs, so keep it to one or two examples!)