Unit 2 - Play test of Food Credit v.1

Group 3

Members: William Coleman and Shouyi (Zoe) Yan

Food Credit

Synopsis: Two players are pitted against each other to see who can reach the goal first. Each player has a set of tools at their disposal to give themselves an advantage each their opponent. This game targets college students to use their wits and skills, who would be the first to reach the goal?  

Report of Playtest: 

Conflict: 

• Long rule sheets

The thing that shocked every playtester was our three-page rule sheet. Despite the rules and procedures rather being coherent and unique, the fact it spanned across three-pages seem to frustrate the playtesters. Of course, we knew that it might have been boring to rule blocks of text, so our group tried to make the rule sheet appealing as possible using bullet points and pictures. However, there were too many rules that a lot of the time during the playtesting the players forgot to do certain actions and what certain combinations of cards can benefit them. For example, the player draws a card after each of their turns. A lot of times the opponent had to remind the player to draw a card or they both forgotten to. Another example is the fact that using three spoil cards, regardless or not if they were used in a row, causes the opponent's piece to go back to start which would have benefited the player and prolong the game. But since the players during the first playtest forgotten about this rule, the game lasted roughly 10 minutes. Both playtests had players referring back to the rule sheet most of the time, cutting actual play time which would usually hinder gameplay and leads to player frustration. 

1. Feedback: Our playtesters suggested we cut down on certain rules the best we can. If possible eliminate rules or procedures that do not affect the game heavily.
2. Solution: I do believe the best course of action is the see what we can do to fit the procedures and rules on one or two sheets externally (font/spacing/perhaps sort them on a table). If we cannot shorten the rules down to one and a half, we'll take out some rules. 

Conflict: 

• Confusion about card types

Playtesters also were confused by our cards. They were not sure how to use them and constantly referred back to the rule sheet. Especially for the spoiled cards (SP) which had an important special effect if a player uses three spoiled cards. However, due to our many rules and options of the game, players did not remember this effect. The wording (F/V/D/G) of the cards was somewhat confusing as well despite most of them not meaning much. F/V/D/G categorize the foods in a sort of accessory fashion, the thing players should have paid the most attention to is the positive or negative numbers each card held which determined the number of spaces the card's effect held over. 

1. Feedback: Playtesters suggest we clarify on the cards and bold the text in our rule sheet that held importance, especially for the spoil cards which had a big impact in gameplay.
2. Solution: The bold text suggestion is one of importance and we will definitely do that to improve our rule sheet. I do feel like we can explain how the cards work better perhaps through more pictures or even a model/illustration in our rule sheet.  

Conflict:

• Shuffling is difficult

Our cards were hard to shuffle so during the playtesting, the players drew a lot of bad sets. For example, during our first playtest one player drew four spoiled cards despite spoiled cards having a smaller ratio compared to the rest of the cards (20 healthy cards, 20 unhealthy cards, and 10 spoiled cards). Then in our second playtesting, one player kept drawing V cards or vegetable cards that had only a small negative effect on the opponent. 

1. Feedback: Not much feedback was given about this since creating official cards (cards similar to playing card decks) would cost too much money and time. One playtester suggests we take out some spoiled cards to enforce scarcity and replace them with more choice cards (cards that let the player choose which number of spaces to move). 
2. Solution: I feel like that we can't do much about the cards being bad to shuffle. However, we can replace some of the spoiled cards to make it more rare and effective.