- Simple Math puzzle rules ('neighbours decrease') with artefact soil 'skin' (instead of full cube)
- I played mostly on iPhone 4s at various moment of the day
- 3 persons played the game (2 adults ; 1 kid ; soft playtest ; first impressions)
Playtest Observations
- I explained the game to people : "you're an archeologist, remove the dirt to uncover an old artefact". Here's what i observed:
- Everyone understand the goal and are interested to try.
- Everyone understand the controls quickly (remove and rotate) ; they 'feels right' on a touch device.
- the game has a certain appeal at first, the promise of discovery and the 'toy-like' feeling is engaging.
- People expect to have to carefully remove the soil ("remove the soil without destroying the artefact?")
- People don't understand the math rules right away (i need to explain them)
- The game is not challenging: No clear 'lose' rule ("how can i die?"), No tactic to develop ("dig everywhere and you win").
- People expect to find an old artefact but they find a 'fragment' (part of an artefact) and are confused.
Design comments
- The fantasy (archeologist carefully removing dirt around an artefact) and the gameplay are not aligned.
- The 'toy-like' feeling of the cube-graphism is appealing and the controls are simple enough to feel natural.
- The size of the puzzle is great. It feels like a good average, it could be bigger (harder) or smaller (easier)
Next Steps
- Design new rules to align the fantasy and the gameplay.
- Create a small artefact (player should discover an artefact the first time they play)
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