Space Bar game (minimal viable product) is designed by a group of students in the Centre for Digital Media in 2018. This article talks about the playtest of one of the game interface features.
Feature Brief
The 3D computer game Space Bar is about an astronaut character trying to survive on a lava planet with unstable gravity. The astronaut needs to use grappling guns and grab obstacles (e.g., lava rocks) to pull himself back to the planet. Health is one of the major features of this game. The astronaut loses his health if he floats too far away from the grounds, and regains health by grappling collectable objects, such as wine bottles and barrels.
The feature I am investigating, in terms of the game interface, is the Health Bar. I have developed playtest questions that are aimed at testing the graphical aspect of the health bar. In other words, the focus of this playtest is to get feedback on the health bar’s display, clarity, and style, rather than mathematically defining how much health the astronaut loses or gains each time he moves.
I am currently developing three different versions of the health bar. The purpose of this playtest is to test what design elements of the health bar the players feel most comfortable with during gameplay. Furthermore, this playtest will identify players’ needs and expectations of this feature, and their feedback will benefit the final design of the health bar.
The astronaut character will have a full health bar at the beginning of the game, which empties itself when the astronaut loses his health. The health bar lets players know approximately how much damage they are taking while in the thick of gameplay. The goal of having a health bar is to give feedback to players so that they can make in-game decisions.
The first version of the health bar (Figure 1) is a more traditional approach (referred to as the “red health bar” below). It is at the top left-hand corner of the game interface with a red heart next to the bar indicating the bar’s purpose. The bar consists of two main UI components, the maximum health point bar (light pink) that is used as the background, and the current health bar (dark red) which is displayed on top of the background. The health of the player is conveyed to the player by modifying the scale of the current health so it reflects the ratio of current health to maximum health.
The second approach (Figure 2) to show the health of the astronaut as a health gauge (referred to as the “health gauge” below). It is a semicircle with an arrow in the middle. It is located at the top right corner of the game interface. The gauge is divided into three colors from right to left (green, yellow and red) indicating if the astronaut is in good, moderate, or poor health. There is a red heart center of the semicircle to make this health gauge more recognizable.
The third approach (Figure 3) to display the astronaut’s health status is to embed the health bar in his space suit (referred to as the “embedded health bar” below). There is a bar made from little green and red cubes on his back that reveals how much health he has.
Playtest: Testing Questions, Process, and Playtester Profiles
As the health bar has not programmed in unity, the playtest of this feature’s interface is displayed via keynote slides. If the testers have played this game on another team members’ computer, they will start this playtest right away; however, if they have not tried this game before, they will play through a demo round to introduce them to the game before starting a true playtest of the health bar feature in our game. The game is set from third person perspective, meaning that the in-game camera will stay a fixed distance away from the astronaut and allowing the player to see what the astronaut is doing in the game.
Then, I show testers the three types of game interfaces, followed by an interview and questionnaire.
Interview Questions
How many hours do you spend playing computer games?
Do you recognize the on-screen bar? What do you think it is? If no, why do you think it is not a health bar?
What do you think of each health bar/gauge? Did they affect your gameplay? If yes, how did it affect your gameplay? Why do you find it intuitive/distracting?
Do you understand which color(s) represent high health and which represent low health?
How do you feel about the location of the health bar? Where do you expect to have the health bar appear on the interface?
Which type of the health bar do you feel more comfortable with when you play this game?
Do you have any other comments?
After communicating with the testers verbally, they are invited to fill out a short questionnaire consisting of three multiple choices and one open-ended question at the end of the playtest.
Questionnaire
1. What do you find comfortable about each health bar? (multiple choice)
Red health bar:
a. It’s recognizable.
b. Colors are clear.
c. The style matches the game.
Health gauge
a. It’s recognizable.
b. Colors are clear.
c. The style matches the game.
Embedded health bar
a. It’s recognizable.
b. Colors are clear.
c. The style matches the game.
2. Where do you expect to have the health bar on the interface? (multiple choice)
a. top left b. top middle c. top right d. bottom left
e. bottom middle f. bottom right g. the space suit h. the helmet
other: _________
3. Which type of the health bar do you feel most comfortable with when you play this space grappling game?
a. The red health bar.
b. The health gauge.
c. The embedded health bar.
4. Do you have other comments in terms of the health bar? ________________________
Demographics
25 players have participated in the test so far. All of them are from MDM. There are 17 females and 8 males aged from 25 to 35 years old. Among them, 4 testers claim to be hardcore gamers and spend at least 15 hours on games each week, and the rest of the participants play games for 1 to 5 hours per week.
Results, Analyses & Implications on Improvement
The analyses are based on the results of both the questionnaires and interviews.
The bar chart above (Table 1) reveals that the red health bar was the most recognizable among almost all the testers while the health gauge was the least recognizable.
A majority of testers found that the red color of the first health bar was confusing. According to our interviews, they were unsure whether red meant the remaining health or a warming of low health. They also believed that the red bar was disturbing, as it blended in with color of the game environment (e.g., lava and rocks). As the health gauge and embedded health bar had several colors (green, yellow, red, light green and pink) to show the health condition, the testers found them easy to perceive.
In terms of styles, most people thought that the interface playtest would have been better if it was shown in Unity rather than on a 2D platform (keynote slides). Regardless of this factor, most testers found that the health gauge did not fit the space environment in this game. Instead, the gauge seemed like it would be better suited to a racing game.
Table 2 demonstrates that half of the testers felt more comfortable with the gameplay when the health bar was at the top of the screen, especially on the top left side of the screen – as is most often seen in first person shooters.
However, a quarter of the testers believe that the health bar would be less distracting if it was on the bottom of the screen. The bar was noted to have blocked testers’ vision as there were several objects (e.g., rocks, barrels, and wine bottles) on the upper side of the screen. Similar feedback was collected during the interviews. Instead of keeping a fixed camera angle in the game, the testers usually rotated the camera to visually explore their environment. They preferred to have a clearer view and keep the health bar at the bottom right or left corner of the screen.
For testers who preferred the embedded health bar, they wanted to see it on the back of the astronaut’s suit or his helmet. They claimed that it did not take up extra space on the game interface, and allowed them to keep track of their health with little additional effort.
Generally speaking, the majority of testers favor the traditional way of displaying the astronaut’s health condition, i.e., the health bar that empties itself when the character loses health (Table 3). A quarter of the testers would like to try the embedded health bar as they felt it was a creative and immersive way to indicate the astronaut’s health status. Some testers felt more comfortable with the health gauge - mainly due to the clear colors.
Most of the comments below (Table 4) added more additional information to interviews or questionnaire.
Other Comments
Based on the testers’ feedback, the traditional health bar will very likely be applied in this Space Bar game. More considerations will be put on its color, layout, and overall style to fit the game’s context. However, the way we display health will also greatly be affected by other game mechanics (e.g., obstacles, collectables, gravity), dynamics (e.g. object collection, surviving), and our ability to technically implement them. More conversations regarding the user interface (e.g., an optimized health bar, timer, setting buttons) will take place n our team. Also, a clear definition is needed to quantify “health” – which of the astronaut’s actions will impact health and how much will they consume or regain health. Meanwhile, the feedback of the latter two health bars makes me wonder how the designers can cater to their users’ preferences by allowing the users to make minor adjustments to the bar themselves. For instance, some testers did not get used to the health gauge or embedded health bar, and perhaps this demographic would benefit from being able to adjust their health bar. While other users may become accustomed to our health bar as they experience it throughout our game.
© Wenyi Gong 2018
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