Testing the Ideas - Aesthetic Guidance

SO. Over the past weeks myself and Jay have been working on the Level/Game in which we will use our methods of guidance, basically to confirming (or disproving) that they are viable ways of guiding/teaching a player without extensive tutorials etc. Over the past couple of weeks we have been testing this level to prove our theory as well as fine tuning to help it work better.

Below are my findings as well some of the videos of the play tests that we have done. I will also post some of the individual testers attempts.

My whole thing is guidance within Aesthetics. A player being able to figure out what to do by looking at their surrounds for guidance rather than an abundance of tutorials or little fairy holding the hands. And finding out if this is a viable method of doing so and proving that gamer's (and humans) can think for themselves.

The silly thing is, the majority of these elements are extremely simple. Yet companies sway to the tutorial route for guidance. So let me go through some of the elements we are using within the game to allow this.

Leading Lines

This method is used in a lot of different media from Photography to Architecture. It's most commonly used to guide the viewers eyes to look at a place of importance for instance in photography to the subject or in architecture to entrances or even something as small as where to push a door to open it.

In NOVA, we are using it do a similar thing. Them main leading lines in are.... you guessing it lines. Well. Chevrons. Throughout the level these chevrons are placed at intervals to tell the play there is a point of significance in that direct. Another leading line which is a little more subtle is the main rooms octagonal shape. When stood in this room the walls act as leading lines to the center of the room due to the sloping effect of the walls at certain angles. This guides the players eyes to the PC which is a major part for completing the game.

This element is hard to assess due to the nature of it. The majority of process of this method is done subconsciously upon viewing. Though with the vast amount of testers, the feed back has been that it they understood that the chevrons where an indication of a place of importance within the NOVA Facility.

Colour Association

Once again, this method is extremely simple and used amongst many platforms. The most known form of colour association is 'Right and Wrong', red for wrong green for right. In early tests within my MA research and practice I found that this can be a confusing method of guidance, as meanings of colours can be skewed dependent on the person observing them. Race, age, as well as many other factors can change the perception of each one. Luckily, the way of association we have used with NOVA is easy to grasp through exploration.

Within NOVA, the association are to create connection between rooms and symbols. The first place the average player will find these colours will be on the PC upon pressing on a symbol on the keypad. Once they get to exploring the facility they will come across the chevrons mentioned in the above method (leading lines). These Chevrons have a colours which is associated with the place of importance that it points towards. This use of colour to tie symbol and room together helps the player to determine where they must travel, and to which puzzle they are traveling to.

This element has been the strangest of the ones we have used within NOVA. This is because it hasn't quite lived up to expectation. While playing the most of the player do not seem to fully recognise the link for the colours. However, upon questioning their play through they mention that they are aware of some of the association but choose not to follow. Adam one of the first testers mentioned that he used them at the start of playing before he memorised the layout and location. This showed that it works as a starting point of guidance and awareness of the environment.

Landmarks

Landmarks are a significant part of guidance around us in the real world so it's no surprise that they are in games also. Landmarks in the real and virtual world give a memorable placement in the viewers mind that resides to help navigation in their surroundings.

In NOVA, there are a couple of things used as landmarks. For instance, scribbles around the base on the walls with seemingly no usefulness (I'll get to that soon) give these memorable locations. Upon coming across one the player can figure out their whereabouts and continue on a path with more ease. Chevrons also come into play as landmarks within the base also.

From our tests, we found that this was the biggest focus for the players in finding their way around the base. However, it was my feeling that we need a little more mainly when the darkness came. Similar scribbles as in the light have now been placed in the facility to allow better navigation when the alarms go off. Crates have also been added to the environment to achieve the same effect.

Guided Exploration and Subtleties

These methods are weird ones. Exploration is the main factor here as it leads to the subtleties within the aesthetics. Exploration is a bigger factor in the eventual understanding of the players surroundings. Within games this tends to be used in huge free-roaming games across gigantically expansive worlds; and it's up to the player to explore and get their bearings.

For NOVA we have implemented a process of guided exploration. What we mean by this is that upon inspecting the environment the player will find clues to the workings of the facility and where they could go next. This allows the player to think they are exploring the based and going to where they want to by themselves. In actuality, we have designed the level in a way that the aesthetics hints to where to go first. This is mainly to teach them. For instance in the central room of the facility there is a couple of things for the player to take notice of. The PC, the map and the lights. These give the player an idea of things of importance in the base as well as teaching them mechanics. Upon using the PC they see a keypad and type in whatever they want to. "Access Denied". This instigates they need to find something. They explore. See the map. Inspect it. On the map they will see a couple more clues. The location of the only 2 rooms open to them straight away, the Main Code (the most important) Code, and the location of another code. They now have the code to unlock the facility and turn on the lights. They now have 3 places in which we have 'guided' them to explore through their own 'exploration'. And so on. This carries on through out the base giving the player a sense of achievement for their actions and finding something 'by themselves'.

Once tests were completed, the majority of the players said they felt rewarded when they found codes and rooms from this exploration. They also said this gave them more incentive to 'explore' and find more. This method helped with the level a lot making it fun for the players (those that it didn't torture too much) because of that sense of achievement by finding something 'by yourself'.

Symbols

Here we have another simple method of guidance. As mentioned above (Colour association) we have used a range of symbols around the base to tie sections of the game together. We have two sets of symbols; The puzzle symbols and the botanical symbols. Each are separate from each other. The puzzle symbols are symbols used for association with rooms around the base and the code that unlock them. The botanical symbols are use as hints to placements of the 'Vapor Pods' in the Botanical Puzzle room.

THE TESTS

Below are a few of the videos we did of the tests we carried out. The show the process of our develop and tweaking of the mechanic to make it work better.

Take a look:

Adil:

Jack:

Part 1:

Part 2:

Gary:

Adam:

Farron:

Part 1:

Part 2: