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This post was originally intended for a Patreon audience.

Access Playtesting 2

I started my new job (the one I mentioned in my last life update) last Thursday and I got a contracting gig to make online courses. I've been so busy, I hardly have time to post any updates!

The second playtesting session actually happened on May 20th, which is 67 days since the first playtesting session. I feel like I didn't need to take that long before having another playtesting session. Granted, I did get incredibly sick and ended up in the ER during that period of time, and I was also spending a lot of time job hunting and doing interviews or coding assignments since my money reserves were low.

In the second playtest we saw the game have a much smoother introduction thanks to the new tutorials. Additionally, the tester felt less overwhelmed and was better equipped to try and figure out the puzzle with the introduction of automatically-highlighted clues. However, our tester was just as stumped as the tester in the first playtesting session when it came to actually solving the puzzle.

When Bridgett and I reconvened after the test, we felt like we now had a good idea of how to change the level so that there was a much more solid path for the player to follow. We feel like we actually have a good idea of what makes a "good level" in Access now (and we even made a document for "how to make a good level"), which is really exciting. So, now we're planning for the third playtesting session and I hope we can have it done in 3-4 weeks.

Here's what my workload looks like since the second playtest. I've still got quite a way to go before the more-optimistic deadline of 3 weeks. I think it will work out though, since things are starting to settle down.

Anyway, we'll see how it goes in the next few days.