Today’s blog will be about will be about the steps post Pre-Alpha for Black In America

“I play-tested the game with some friends, family, and acquaintances. the following is the results.”

METHODS: For the first play-test only 5 subjects for were used. They included two members from my family, two of my fellow class students, and my professor. They were asked to participate in my games first play-test and if they accepted they were allowed to participate. For this test there was no exclusion criteria, I wanted the opinions of anyone willing to participate to get general feedback. The condition included only one play through which tested the story line. The choices of the subjects were very limited just to see if the mechanics worked. 3 of the 5 participants were between 20 and 32 and the other 2 were younger than 60. Of the 5 subjects 2 considered themselves Black/African American, one considered themselves mixed, and the last 2 were Hispanic and Caucasian respectively. Of the 5 subjects 2 were male and 3 were female.

Apparatus: I used paper, pen, whiteout, and a stapler to collect data and adjust the materials as needed for the follow up play test. The game is supposed to be digital so the play testers were presented with a paper play through version of the game. Each page had choices that were circled like buttons and labeled. Once a player selected a choice the games response would be on the appropriately labeled page and the player would be able to view what would happen next within the game. I was there to observe and take notes of the players’ reactions and suggestions.

PROCEDURE: The conditions included choices that would lead to a prosperous future and choices that would lead to a fruitless future. In both conditions the player was presented with Racial Microaggressions in the form of speech bubbles with quotes form figures of authority and they were given choices as responses. There is initially an option for backstory on the first menu page. Since I did not create the backstory page I verbally relayed the backstory to the players when they selected that option. The data was collected in the form of notes I recorded on a separate sheet of paper for me to review later when making more edits to the game.

RESULTS: The most substantial change I was made aware of that also will help with future data collection is the type of story line used. Making the story line linear delayed branching style I can record the stats of player’s choices. For the sake of recording useful data I can change the responses to RMA to coincide with the 5 domains associated with microaggression. The data I collected so far was only to help with the formatting of the game and the mode in which I could collect data in the future. Therefor eat this moment I am unable to provide descriptive or inferential data pertaining to the internal elements of the game dealing with microaggression.

Again thanks for reading!

Tune in next week for the progression!